| Title | : | Shadow Hand |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 3963241098 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9783963241093 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 232 |
| Publication | : | Published November 21, 2018 |
The women seek a cause worthy of their skills, refusing to allow the destructive side of Ash’s ability to be used by any outside forces—military or mythical. A hazardous rescue mission hurtles them back to the desert they’d left far behind, links their past and present, and just may be what Ishtar had in mind all along.
A lesbian action adventure about sudden superpowers, lasting romance, and fighting for what matters.
77,000 words
Themes: lesbian · superheroines
Shadow Hand Reviews
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2.5 Stars. This was rough. After reading the other reviews my expectations for this book were tempered. Even knowing that, I still approached this book with hope that it would work for me. We all have different tastes and I happen to love superheroes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how much you love them as this book falls flat anyway.
This is the fourth and sorry to say worse book in The Superheroine Collection. All four books are standalone so you can read any you choose and in any order. This story is about two women, who are a couple, in the military. After one woman is cut with an artifact, she is able to move things with her mind. There was nothing wrong with the big picture storyline. The premise left things open for lots of possible action and excitement. The problem was the execution.
Flat. That is the best way to describe what this book felt like. The characters, the story, nothing had any dimension. They were just a bunch of cardboard cut-outs walking around, that I couldn’t care about. On top of that the psychic distance to the main characters were so far away. Encase you don’t know what I mean by psychic distance… have you ever read a book where you felt like you were right in the characters head, seeing and feeling what they are going through? That is the closest psychic distance you can get to a character. This book was the opposite of that. You are so far away from the people you are reading about that it feels like they were hanging out down the street from you. It just made it impossible to connect or care about any of the characters.
Four out of the last five books I have read have been blah or worse. I’m fighting a reading slump and getting behind in my reviewing. This book just made it worse. A book I should have been done with in a night, instead took days. The pace of this book would slow way down and just bore me. There was a little bit of excitement at times, but about half as much for a superhero book. I actually nodded off sitting straight up in my seat while reading this. Nope, this was not the book I was hoping for. I can’t recommend this encase there was any doubt. There is nothing offensive or bad, it’s just super flat.
An ARC was given to me by YLVA for a honest review. -
I've been waiting for this novel for months but I think it is my most disappointing read this year. I've read a few of Green's short stories, which were good, as well some wonderful erotic anthologies edited by her so it was my hope that her addition to
The Superheroine Collection would be an easy-win. The premise is fantastic but the execution took me three days to read, with increasing reluctance.
Lieutenant Ashton, known as Ash, and her lover, Sergeant Cleo Brown find themselves having to hide in a hole in the wall of a dry river bed when opposition forces come across their vehicle. A rock cuts Ash's hand and when it's finally safe to venture out she realises the rock has some kind of carving on it. Another close call with landmines and it's not long before she discovers her hand has been imbued with a kinetic power of the ancient goddess, Ishtar. Ash and Cleo have been in a relationship, albeit a secret one given their professions, for a while but Ash's display of power brings some unwanted attention.
Ash and Cleo could have had a phenomenal relationship but instead everything about them felt bland. Their dialogue was uninteresting, they had no chemistry and the telling of their story was a struggle to wade through. I found all the secondary characters to be little more than names on the page and I never really felt anything more than a bored indifference towards any of them. The story is told in such a lackluster way with no escalating tension that I found it really difficult to finish.
I'm not comfortable with giving negative reviews because I understand the work that goes in to writing a novel but I find I can't recommend this. Fortunately we're all different and there will definitely be other people who enjoy this much more than I did.
Book received from Ylva Publishing for an honest review. -
I tried but after 60 %mark I just bring myself to continue. Personally I found it lacking in depth and compelling story telling. There was no chemistry between the 2 leads and nothing made me care or feel invested in any of the characters.
The concept of the story is fine, for me it needed building suspense, good dialogue and decent characters.
Arc received from ylva for honest review. -
This is book four of 'The superheroine collection' featuring different Ylva Publishing authors under the common theme of lesbian superheroines. There has been a couple of very good books in this series such as 'Shattered' by Lee Winter and 'Chasing Stars' by Alex K. Thorne.
Lieutenant Ashton receives the power to move objects with her hand by a goddess while deployed by the US Army somewhere on the Middle East desert. When her abilities are discovered, she is sent to a special division in Germany to research her powers as a potential weapon of war. Separated from her longtime lover Sargent Cleo Brown, she looks for ways to get together again and use her powers for a greater good.
Sacchi Green is a seasoned author of short stories but this is her debut novel which, in my opinion, wasn't successful. I feel that her writing style is a bit distant and impersonal. For me, the book reads as a chronicle or a bird's-eye view of series of events. As the main characters' intimacy is described in a detached way, their scenes together feel devoid of emotion, too clinical. That really affected my connection with the characters and the story as a whole.
The plot seems a bit contrived and unrealistic even for the sci-fi world the author built. For example, Shadow Hand's lack of secrecy about her powers and real identity doesn't follow usual superhero behaviour. I also feel that the book ended rather abruptly, it would have been good to see how the relationship between both main characters evolve.
Overall, a good idea that fails on the execution. 2.5 stars.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
See all my reviews at
www.lezreviewbooks.com -
Shadow Hand is the fourth novel in the Superheroine Collection. Writer Sacchi Green uses the war in Afghanistan as a back drop to her super heroine adventure. While Lieutenant "Ash" Ashton and her partner Sergeant Cleo Brown stay behind their convoy to inspect an ancient ruin, they are forced into hiding due to approaching enemy combatants. Burrowing deep into an ravine overhanging to avoid detection Ash's right hand is accidentally cut from the fall of a small goddess idol. Ash's Super Power is born.The army would love to weaponize Ash's powers however she believes this is a gift to be used to support her causes.
As an action novel I found it somewhat lacking on the suspense side. There was a lot of strategizing going on however very little build up to a climatic resolution. A number of easy plot progressions for the author involved mind reading. Would all our problems be easily solved if we all could read minds.
I am a big fan of the super hero genre. Shadow Hand let me down unfortunately. -
I hate to say this but I was disappointed by Shadow Hand. The pace was stilted, the characters lacked any chemistry and there were no real stakes. Nothing to lose. I understand how hard it is sometimes to show emotions and motivations, but this book was hard to get through in many spots and under developed in others. While I applaud the main characters choice of causes, they had the best of intentions, I didn't feel any urgency, or sense of risk. This one didn't hit any buttons for me.
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Quite liked this fourth installment in the superhero series by YLVA. The existing couple Ash/Cleo worked pretty well for me on the whole. I liked them quite a bit. There was a time middling through where pacing slowed down a lot but generally speaking I thought the action was pretty entertaining. Some of the secondaries like Twelve I'd like to see in her own novella. She was cool :) If there were ever a follow up/sophmore book following the MC's I'd definitely check it out.
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Eh, I didn't like this one. I didn't hate it, but it was not good. I felt like the tone shifted a lot and some of the promised conflicts were not really there. Some of the more interesting revelations came about a little too late in the game, with almost no buildup.
So, with this being the fourth book of Ylva's super heroine collection, I thought this would be more along the lines of the great books before. It really wasn't. It begins with Lt. Ash and Sgt. Cleo Brown being stuck behind enemy lines and almost no way out. But Ash has something up her sleeve: she just developed the ability to move things with her mind. The pair get out, and Ash reveals that she had found a small statue of the goddess Ishtar, which seemed to have given Ash her new abilities. Cleo also has an affinity for mechanical things, but that felt really tacked on. The pair find themselves on the run from the government after Ash goes AWOL, and they end up with a ragtag group of folks who give Ash the name "Shadow Hand". They do some superhero stuff, but Ash has an insistent push to do more, and they end up back in a war zone for a pretty fun climax.
There was a ton of potential here, with Ash seemingly being pushed forward by a pretty powerful goddess in Ishtar. It was a pretty smart twist to have Cleo and Ash focus solely on the women in illegal trafficking rings, as one of Ishtar's many roles was that of a patron goddess of prostitutes. I admit it made the book a little more interesting. But the problem is that I felt the characters were so one dimensional, that I found myself not really caring about what happened to them. So even Ishtar's influence ends up being just a gimmick for me. And that was the biggest let down for me.
This was the weakest of the Super Heroine collection, but there's a lot of good stuff there. I just wish it was fleshed out better.
I received this ARC from Ylva in exchange for my honest opinion. -
‘Shadow Hand’ is a refreshing story, of strong women, superpowers and a fight for good over evil. Ash and Cleo are soldiers who find themselves changing their lives completely after an encounter with an ancient statue in the desert. When Ash realises she can use her mind to move objects she is a person of interest. Choosing to use her powers for the good of others takes a bit of planning, and with Cleo by her side she must decide how to go about it.
The story is unexpected and unlike anything else I’ve read. It is well written and uplifting – in more ways than one! I enjoyed the camaraderie aspect, as Ash and Cleo become involved in helping other women. It felt empowering. The relationship between the two women was intense and sexy – what else could one expect from Sacchi Green? The tale goes in directions I didn’t see coming – and I appreciated the imagination and depth that went into the storytelling. I really liked it.
I was given this ARC for review. -
Lieutenant Athena Ashton and Sergeant Cleo Brown are comrades-in-arms—and much more. On a desert mission with their squad, Cleo deliberately disables their jeep so the two of them can spend some time together. This turns out to be a near-fatal mistake. A dozen jihadis roar up on motorcycles and the two women take shelter in a shallow cave within a ravine, a poor hiding place at best. They’re seconds away from being caught by their pursuers, from likely rape, torture, and death, when the figurine of an ancient goddess falls from the cave roof, drawing blood from Ash’s hand and bestowing telekinetic abilities in the process. Ash has no idea how she manages it, but she brings down the walls of the wadi on one of the enemy, then hurls the jeep into the air and causes it to explode, scaring off the rest.
The initial chapter of Sacchi Green’s novel Shadow Hand hooked me right away. It’s vivid, compelling and a plausible origin story for Ash’s power. Once Ash and Cleo get back to their base camp, though, they’re faced with the core problem of the book. Given that Ash has the power to move things with her mind, including to tear physical things apart, what should she do with these capabilities? And how will her newly acquired powers affect her relationship with Cleo?
I’m not going to tell you the answers to these questions; finding out is part of the fun of reading Shadow Hand. Let me just assure you that Ash and Cleo take on missions you’re not likely to find in a Marvel comic. In the process they discover that Cleo has some unusual talents of her own, which complement Ash’s abilities. They also encounter an assortment of strong, distinctive women, each of whom is heroic in her own way.
Sacchi Green is a friend and colleague of mine. Despite a long and distinguished career as a short-story author and editor, this is her first novel-length work. I know she found the process of writing Shadow Hand difficult, but overall, I think the book is a success. Cleo and Ash are sympathetic and appealing characters, both individually and together. The premise is far more believable than being bitten by a radioactive spider or being exposed to gamma rays. I liked the way the author suggests that psychic or super-normal talents are more widely distributed than one might expect. The link between emotion and power felt right. The villains are more mundane than in the typical super-hero tale, but no less evil. The message is clear; you don’t have to look very far to find a cause to fight for.
The book has some issues with pacing. Although the plot moves along briskly in the first half of the book, it gets a bit bogged down as Ash, Cleo and their allies prepare for their second, more demanding mission. When the final, climactic battle begins, though, the story once again becomes thrilling and inspiring.
Another minor complaint I have concerns the rather awkward depictions of sex. Most of Sacchi’s work that I’ve read would be categorized as lesbian erotica or erotic romance. In Shadow Hand, she makes it clear that Ash and Cleo are lovers, but describes their erotic encounters in rather vague and purplish prose. Reading these scenes, I had the sense that there was a struggle going on, either between the author and her editor, or else between Sacchi’s own erotic instincts and her sense that the book was not supposed to be sexually explicit. In fact, I think the book would have worked well if she’d pushed it in either direction—either toward more graphic and honest depictions of lesbian sex, or toward a completely PG story.
Aside from this issue, Shadow Hand offers a healthy and satisfying hit of romance. I was completely convinced of Cleo’s and Ash’s commitment to one another, a commitment that eventually expresses itself in telepathic connections.
Shadow Hand has a great comic-style cover, but I’m not sure that it really qualifies as a superheroine story. It’s a bit too grounded in reality. That’s fine with me, though. Regardless of the genre, I seriously enjoyed the book, and would be interested in reading more about Ash’s and Cleo’s adventures. -
I received this ARC in exchange for a honest review.
DNF.
I had high hopes for this book. I've read 'The Superheroine Collection' this summer and i was super stoked for a new book. But I couldn't be more dissapointed. I couldn't find the storyline to be honest. I loved the idea of this book but the story went from one point to the other real fast and I couldn't keep up. -
Despite the dynamic opening scene that served to establish the relationship between the two main characters and Ash’s new super power, I thought this started off slowly. It picked up steam as I read more. This novel features Ash and Cleo, two American soldiers in the Middle East. While hoping to escape capture, they hide in a cave where Ash is pricked by an ancient goddess figurine. The two women are lovers, although they don’t want anyone to know, since Ash is Cleo’s superior officer. That somewhat unbalanced relationship dynamic between lovers and commanding officer to subordinate had some delicious potential. Ash discovers her super powers and is initially shaken. Although they want to keep this to themselves, things happen and this “gift” turns their lives upside down.
That leads into the next part of the story in which several events occur that show us Ash’s motivation and character while she hones her skills. With a bunch of Cleo’s old bar friends, she goes after men who traffic women. The focus on the issue of sex trafficking and the rape and enslavement of women here and abroad appealed to me because I don’t think this gets enough attention. So, I was right there with Ash and her friends as they tackle this problem. There’s lots of planning and talking and discovering what Ash’s limits might be. Basically, the women are discovering what they can do. There’s some derring-do going on as they free the captives that was easy to visualize.
This book also works as a kind of character study. Both Ash and Cleo have to deal with big changes to their lives, and Ash especially has to determine how she’ll use her new powers. There is no question in her mind that she’ll use them
The couple is already paired up. I felt the feelings each had for the other; their love is established in the opening scenes. There are some intriguing other characters, who I think they could have been developed more, but their purpose seemed to be just to illustrate qualities of the main characters and to move the story along. I think the story ended stronger than it started because the characters had to either restrain or push themselves, and the conclusion was satisfying. I was a little surprised that the author didn’t take a different direction in this book. Green kept the book focused on the superheroine aspects more than anything else. It feels like the groundwork was laid for a possible series featuring Ash and Cleo, and maybe the other characters. Maybe that’s just because I feel like more could have happened.
I received an ARC for an honest review. -
This is SO good!
Action, drama, danger, ancient idols, mysterious happenings, sex traffic rescues and lesbian soul mates… What more could you want?
WOW! This book is engaging and entertaining, amazing, alarming and action packed! It had me on the edge of my seat so many times! I had to keep reminding myself that the heroes always win and Ash and Cleo would be alright, but my oh my was I worried about them. The characters seemed so real and the main secondary characters were written so well, I really did care what happened to them. I could hardly put this book down, I read it as fast as I could, not by choice but because I was so involved, I couldn’t read fast enough to find out what happened next. I fear I was up FAR too late in the night, reading until the wee hours in the morning. If you like super heroes this book is definitely for you!!
The only way this adventure could be any better is if it were made into a movie! -
This was an interesting read, and a first for me into superhero stories.
I liked that it was creative, with a hard hitting but well together story and plot that was interesting and focused on different topics, and that a particularly difficult subject was picked as the focus for our superhero main character and her team. It centres on strong women, who are independent, successful and fighting for freedom and fairness. They do a brilliant job with their organisation.
Ash and Cleo’s story is exciting and thrilling, keeping the reader intrigued to their missions, objectives and goals.
I would definitely recommend giving this book a read if you are into supernatural power, superheroes and mystical, unexplained powers. It had a uniqueness that I would say draws a reader to it, and if you fancy trying something new and giving it a go this could be the book for you! -
There may be spoilers here ... I'm not sure so read with a tiny bit of caution just in case.
Usually I like my key characters to develop their relationship throughout the novel. In this case, it's already there. All done, all sorted and no real development of their relationship at all. That's fine if the story delivers an epic journey or an amazing race and so on. For me, this didn't quite hit the mark.
PROS:
I enjoyed the premise of 'acquiring' a special talent and the ensuing super hero life. Learning to use it, how, where and what to use it for.
CONS:
The story and plot jumped around a lot and tried to be too many things. As a result it suffered from being not enough of anything. -
Not bad. I kinda like it.
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I don’t know what I was expecting from this book, because from the resumé I read before getting the book, I was hoping for an active, action-filled supernatural-ish story. Reading the first few chapters of the book really took my expectations down a notch.
I mean, isn’t it most people’s dream to get the chance to acquire a superpower? I know it always was one of mine. And seeing this storyline fall flat was a deception.
I read through the story, hoping it would get better, that it would intrigue me enough to get in a fast-reading mode, but it never did. Instead, it slowed my reading and made me lose interest in the book more often than I care to admit.
I’m not saying the book is bad though, I’m mostly saying it missed a lot of great opportunities turning it into a wonderful intriguing storyline. I’ve read stories from Sacchi Green before, and they were well written and captivating, hopefully, the next one will be able to fix the harm that this book might have done.
I do believe every book deserves its chance, so to the most curious and avid readers, you could take on the challenge to read this book, as I am pretty sure it has its special readers who will love it. And as it pains me to say this, I wasn’t one of them.
@RainbowMReviews
*I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review*
3/5 -
I was given this ARC by the publisher in exchange for an Honest Review.
I have loved, loved the other three books in this Superheroine Collection, but, this one just didn’t do it for me, unfortunately. It took me forever to get into. Perhaps because Ash and Cleo start the book together and we don’t get a lot of background on that to start.
Ash seems to get powers of a sort while they’re in mortal danger in the desert. And then we get introduced to others who also seem to have powers. But, then the story abruptly changes lands and we’re in Boston and Ash is dealing with the human trafficking problem. But, then just as I was getting back into –that– story, everything changed again.
And that was my main complaint about the book, it seemed very scattered, both within each of the parts as well as just in the context of the entire novel.
All that said, the plots themselves were awesome and I’d have loved to see shorter stories about all the characters that were introduced.
Because I really liked those too. Every one of the characters jumped off the page and was each so unique.
I guess I just sorta wish I’d gotten it in smaller chunks of story. ‘Cause I was overwhelmed. -
This is #4 in the Superheroine series.
A minor disappointment as I couldn't really get into the storyline and struggled to finish. Sadly I can only rate it 2 stars.
I rec'd an ARC from Ylva for review. -
I just could not get into that story... I dragged it along and finally finished it but more because I received it as an ARC to review it than because I wanted to read more of it. It just never built up to anything and the characters were too flat to like them.
