Shadow Touch by Marjorie M. Liu

Back cover copy cuz I'm too lazy to do a synopsis:

Elena Baxter can work miracles with her ahnds. She can coax bones to knit, flesh to heal. She can mend the mind. She has been doing such work for almost all of her twenty-eight years. That is why she will be taken.

The media called it a rampage of terror, the recent murders. But fighting crime is why Artur Loginov joined Dirk & Steele. The international detective agency specializes in the impossible, and their creed is simple: Help those in need, no matter how difficult, no matter what, keep the secret safe. For the aency helps its employees, too; people like Artur—the gifted, the tormented. Dirk & Steele gave the Russian émigré purpose, protection, community...and refuge from his past, for who can trust a man who can start a fire with his mind, or shape-shift, or read others' thoughts as easy as drawing breath? For his similar talent, Artur will be taken.

Into the darkness Elena and Artur will be drawn, into the clutches of evil. Cornered, isolated, caged, they will fight for their very souls. But salvation awaits. It exists in a form least expected: a dream of a face, a brush of a mind, the hint of a kiss, and finally, at long last...a shadow touch.

I must say, I really enjoyed this book. There are definitely some evil characters in this book that I really hoped would die a slow, painful death. I like a book that can get my emotions involved. And this one has. Artur and Elena are great together. She's a strong woman, although she hadn't realized how much until now. It's like she's Artur's other half, the one woman who can handle his past and banish the shadows in his mind. Quite literally, in fact.

I also loved the descriptions of how each ability worked. You really get a sense of what's going on and how each character perceives what they do. Not that Shadow Touch doesn't raise questions, because it most certainly does. There's a whole new crazy world out there and I for one can't wait to read more about it.

The action here is intense, even the scenes in the lab will have you on the edge of your seat. There are some very unpredictable characters and more than a few psychopaths. Hmm..I'm not quite sure what would be considered spoilers and what wouldn't. Suffice to say Artur and Elena have been captured by the Consortium, a group that was hinted at in the end of Tiger Eye. The leader of the Consortium is one crazy, yet powerful person. She thrives on pain and has captured others like Elena and Artur and they are experimented upon, as well as tortured. Yeah, it's intense and makes you wonder how they'll ever get free. And then save the world. Cuz you know the world is in danger. That's a given.

Again, it reminds me of X-Men and other comics of that nature (I didn't read as much X-Men when I discovered Wildstorm titles, though I still love the characters). Definitely in a good way, though. Which is probably why I plunked down the $7.99 on her X-Men novel, Dark Mirror, too.

Marjorie M. Liu has one hell of an imagination and I hope her editors let it soar. I can't wait to see what she will come up with next. The end of Shadow Touch has a satisfying ending for Artur and Elena (this is a romance after all, that's no spoiler), but she shows us more of the world she's built and more of the major players who are pulling the strings. Something big is on the horizon.

So...if you liked Tiger Eye, you'll want to immediately grab this one. January 31st, people. Buy it! And if you didn't like Tiger Eye, I'd still recommend giving her another try with this one. It's one really good book.

And doesn't Gambit look cute up there?