Shaded Vision – Yasmine Galenorn

It's Valentine's Day and the D'Artigo women are preparing for their friend Iris's wedding. But when Delilah and her sisters get word that the Super Community Center has been bombed, things get really ugly, The evil coyote shifters-the Koyami-are back, and Newkirk, their new leader, has joined forces with a group of rogue sorcerers. Then, just when they think things can't get worse, the demon lord Shadow Wing sends in a new front man, and life really goes to hell...

The 11th book in the Otherworld series, Shaded Vision follows Delilah, the tabby cat/panther shape shifter. Delilah is actually my least favorite character in this series so the books where she happens to be the main characters are never the best, in my opinion of course. Delilah is the least mature of all of the characters so sometimes when I’m reading her POV I feel like I’m reading YA (except for all the duuurty sex scenes).

I found this book to be a little frustrating and it made me wonder if I’m itching for the series to be over or if I was just looking for more out of the 11^th installment. Delilah and Shade had an incident where they were discussing her cleaning up her cat litter and her hairballs. Sigh. Really? That didn’t go over terribly well with me and I thought it was a little silly (especially for it being the 11^th book and because Camille and Menolly had been on her ass since book 1 about it) so I waited for her to redeem herself.

There was one really cool scene when Delilah claims her first soul. I really enjoyed that and it tied the plot together in a really original way. I think the Death Maiden side bar that she has going on is one of my favorite parts. For the most part though, I just don’t enjoy Delilah as much as I do her two sisters.

There was slight advancement with the plot of Chase. I don’t know exactly what’s going on with him but I’m wondering about Sharah. She seems like she may not be as nice as everyone thinks she is and I wonder where the author is going with it. It will be interesting to see what happens with his character now that he seems to have moved into a major role in these books.

I think my biggest thing about Delilah is that she never has had anything really terrible happen to her and that’s why I am unable to relate to her like I do the rest of the characters. Menolly was savagely attacked, as well as Camille, and I think it really made them relatable and likeable. Delilah has never had anything traumatic occur, really (unless you consider continually getting your ass kicked by demons traumatic) so I find her to be just a sidekick more than a full-fledged member of the D’Artigo team.

I think fans of the Otherworld series will enjoy this book, although I highly recommend they are read in order. As a warning to anyone considering buying this series, they are full of graphic sex. If you are disturbed by gay or lesbian sex, bondage or otherwise freaky deaky acts of sexual gratification, you may want to skip these. In saying that, the majority of the really freaky stuff is in the Camille books but it’s sprinkled in throughout the series. First time I picked up one of these books, I was blushing like a school girl. True story.

I'm giving the book an overall 4-star rating because it is a good read and Yasmine Galenorn has an almost unparalleled ability to tell a story. She's beautifully descriptive and makes you feel like you're in the story with her. I just hope the next one Delilah is in shows more character growth than this one did.

Overall Rating -

   *Also, it's been a while since I did a recipe on the blog. I made the Pioneer Woman's Pasta alla Vodka and holy, moly it's wonderful. Check out her site. It is complete and total food porn. And try the recipe, it's easy and quick. You won't regret it!!