Shamara

Shielder #3

by Catherine Spangler

Science Fiction Romance from RITA nominated author!

In a universe of darkness and depravity, the Shielders battle to stay one step ahead of the powerful, vengeful Controllers, who are determined to destroy the entire Shielder race. The race’s survival depends on the quest of one man—Jarek san Ranul. He has found evidence of a wormhole he believes might offer the Shielders an escape to another galaxy. But he faces daunting challenges to make such a mission possible. When he meets Eirene Kane at a Pleasure Dome and she saves his life, he realizes she might be the key to facilitating his daring plan.

On the run from her cruel uncle and a Leor warlord who wants her as his bride, Eirene must hide her true identity. She’s an Enhancer, with rare powers that could get her sold to the highest bidder if she’s caught. Her flight puts her on a collision course with Jarek, who suspects her secret, and knows he needs her powers to make his plan work. Although Eirene refuses to admit she’s an Enhancer, Jarek believes otherwise and is desperate enough to kidnap her. During their enforced time together, a special bond forms between them, leaving Eirene torn between her attraction to this charismatic Shielder commander and the need to ensure her survival. Despite the danger should her true identity ever be exposed, she finds herself falling in love with Jarek ,and wanting the one thing he claims will free them forever—Shamara.

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What readers are saying about this science fiction romance:

“A futuristic romance that will make the reader laugh, cry and sigh, Shamara has all the earmarkings of a keeper.” — Leslie Tramposch, PNR Reviews

Great sci-fi romance! With Shielder, Shadower, and now Shamara, Catherine Spangler has earned a high place among the elite of the science fiction romance sub-genre.” —Harriet Klausner

“If you’ve never read a futuristic romance, start with Shamara. It is solidly constructed, well written, and dynamically paced.” —Jacqueline Lichtenberg

“Shamara by Catherine Spangler is an outstanding read. With the perfect blend of psychic gifts, space travel and old fashioned romance, Spangler creates a novel readers will find impossible to put down. . . . The carefully balanced characterizations and action make Shamara a winner of the WordWeaving Award of Excellence.” —The Midwest Book Review
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Books by Catherine Spangler:

The Shielder Series (Science Fiction Romance)
— Shielder, Book 1
— Shadower, Book 2
— Shamara, Book 3
— Shadow Crossing, Book 4 (Release Date: Fall 2014)
— Shadow Fires, Book 5 (Release Date: Winter 2014)

The Sentinel Series (Urban Fantasy Romance)
— Touched by Darkness, Book 1
— Touched by Fire, Book 2
— Touched by Light, Book 3
— The Sentinel Series Book Bundle (Books 1, 2, 3)

Demon’s Delight Anthology, “Street Corners and Halos” (Paranormal, Vampire)

Genres: Romance, Science Fiction, Futuristic Romance, Futuristic, Science Fiction Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance

364 pages, ebook

First published September 1, 2001

About the author

Catherine Spangler is a bestselling and award winning author of the Shielder series (futuristic romance)and the Sentinel Series (romantic urban fantasy). She is a two-time Golden Heart finalist and a RITA finalist and has received numerous other awards and honorable mentions.

She is an active member of Romance Writers of America and her local chapter, Dallas Area Romance Authors. A frequent speaker at writers' groups and conferences, she has taught workshops on the creative process, writing techniques, writing paranormal romance, and goal setting.

She lives in north Texas with her husband and a menagerie of critters. She loves reading, taking naps on the sofa with a good football game for background noise, eating chocolate, and playing poker.

Catherine's fun fact: I celebrated the sale of my first book, Shielder, by drinking champagne from a plastic cowboy boot mug. My critique partners brought four of them to my house, along with the champagne. Drinking champagne from those cowboy boot mugs every time one of us sold a book became a tradition, which we still honor.

Reviews

[★Moonrise · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a futuristic world, Eirene lives in a male-dominated society that offers little hope or opportunity to its female inhabitants. Having lost her parents, she finds herself in the care of her abusive uncle, Vaden Kane, who makes her life miserable. She dreams of a life beyond her home planet, but it isn't until she discovers her uncle's plan is to marry her off to a Leor that she decides to escape. And it won't be easy.

Eirene finds herself on the run from her uncle and the Leors, but also fighting to conceal the truth about who she is: an Enhancer. If anyone discovers her true abilities, it will be a fate worse than death. At the Pleasure Dome, she meets a kind and handsome man, Jarek. He is attacked and injured, and she can't help but step in to heal him -- a huge risk, considering her actions could reveal the truth about her abilities. Jarek is convinced Eirene could be the key to saving his people, but she remains guarded. Her attraction toward Jarek grows stronger, and soon she realizes her powers are changing.

"And, like a ship being sucked into a black hole, she found herself hopelessly lost in a vortex of emotion and passion."

On a Shielder colony, she is introduced to the men, woman, and children being hunted by the Controllers. Helping Jarek would mean putting her own life at risk, but the innocent strangers deserve a chance. Jarek shares stories about a sanctuary called Shamara, a place of safety and refuge. Could this be a chance for her to gain her own freedom, as well? It sounds too good to be true... or does it? First, she will need to learn to trust herself, and to control her abilities, if she is to find the freedom and security she so desperately desires.

Such a captivating addition to the series! With a storyline that builds on the first two books, Shamara brings depth and purpose to an already enchanting plot. Filled with romance and adventure, this is my favorite in the series, so far! I thoroughly enjoyed the detailed plot, clever dialogue, and fascinating characters.

Eirene is inexperienced, but not a pushover, and her intelligence enables her to adapt quickly to life beyond her home planet. Jarek is a worthy counterpart who helps her to work through issues of trust and confidence. The secondary characters provide enticing sub-plots -- most notably Lani and the fearsome Leor, Gunnar, who were a total mismatch. They poked and prodded one another when it was clear they had a mutual attraction. Gunnar sees Lani in her blue feathered attire, and sneers, "What is this? It looks like a blue echobird that got caught in a rocket launcher." Ha!

A fun, exciting, and well written adventure that any fan of sci-fi romance will enjoy!

Note: This book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

[Monique Atgood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun enjoyable sci-fi romance.

SYNOPSIS:
Heroine escapes from an unwanted marriage. Her virginity is a commodity, and makes her a target, so she escapes to the `sporting house' to get rid of it. Her first experience turns out to be with Hero Jarek san Ranul, the leader of a group of `Shielders' who are being hunted to extinction by the galaxy rulers. Turns out the heroine, is born `Enhancer' who could help him save his people by locating a hidden wormhole.

Hero takes heroine against her will for a galaxy wide ride to locate the wormhole. She reluctantly comes to care for hero and even save his life a time or two before falling hopelessly in love with him. Her family and ex-fiancee come looking for her so add that into the mix of people trying to kill the hero and exterminate his people.

What I liked: The characters were so colorful and full of responsibility and loyalty and friendship. They understood their race stands at the brink of destruction and that every action they take has consequences far more reaching than their mere lives.

What I didn't like so much: Ok. The cover. It's. Eewh. They look NOTHING like the characters described in the book. And frankly, I don't like having to put a paper over the cover of a book I'm reading. Ugh. I wish they'd put the scene from a space battle. That would be cool. Or any of the battle scenes. Anything, but the buxom older lady and Mr. Mc-Muscled Hot-Stuff.

It is a great sci-fi read. If you are fans of sci-fi I'd say go for it and enjoy this book today.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

**MINOR SPOILERS**
This book is the third book in Shielder series. I read it as a standalone, but I suspect it would have been better to read the series in order. The author has won awards for her writing.
The author has done a good job at creating this world. Sheilders are people born with a natural ability to shield their thoughts from a race called the Controllers who are trying to rule the galaxy. The Controllers decide to slaughter the Shielders in order to secure their rule. There is another group called the Shens who are very in tune with the energy of the universe and are able to do telekinesis and other skills. I liked thinking about some of the philosophy they live by. Finally, there are the Enhancers who have a healing ability and other talents (see a bit more below).
Jarek has become a leader of the Shielders after the recent death of his father and the situation is grim. They are vastly outnumbered. He develops a desperate plan to use a wormhole to escape this galaxy to another. He wants to find Shamara or sanctuary. His plan involves finding the rare people with another skill called Enhancers. At first, it is not exactly clear how they would help get through the wormhole as they are first described as healers as well as having the ability to sense and manipulate emotions, but it is explained later.
When Jarek finds Eirene, he realizes that she is an Enhancer. Eirene has spent her whole life on a planet where males dominate, and she has kept the full range of her abilities a secret. Because of that, she has little training on how to use her abilities. When she finds out she will be sold into a marriage because of her highly valued virginity, she decides to leave the planet. I was impressed with her bravery in doing so; she had lived a very restricted lifestyle with few rights. She stows away on a ship and hatches a plan that might have worked if it had not been for Jarek. Much of the book is about her growth; she faces a lot and is challenged and at the end of the book has reached more of her potential.
When she leaves her home planet, part of her plan involves losing her virginity so that her value as a bride would diminish. She goes to the Pleasure Dome and hires herself out as a pleasure giver for one night. Jarek is the one who hires her and I thought that the author should have done a better job at describing that the people who work there did so more by choice and that the perception of them was not negative. Even so, Jarek is described as having only a few partners prior to going and that this is his first time at a pleasure dome. He normally likes it to be a choice between two people not something that is paid for. Even so, I was not crazy about the fact that he used one.
When he is shot and Eirene heals him, he realizes her abilities. Jarek makes her a prisoner and it took me time to get past that though I understood why he did so. I was glad that he did try to persuade her to do it willingly. I admired that she was able to stand up to him and confront him with his motives given her upbringing. I felt the story was a little lopsided in his favor. He has a superhuman ability to track her through her energy trail. When they meet after his recovery from being shot, she has the flu and is weak and at a disadvantage.
There is a side story between Lani, another worker at the Pleasure Domes, and Gunnar, the person that Eirene was originally supposed to marry. Lani is held as a hostage while Gunnar looks for Eirene. I liked Lani’s feisty nature. Gunnar likes it too and they gradually feel an attraction for each other. I wish the author had written more about their relationship.
The point of view switches between Eirene, Jarek, and Lani.
I thought it was unrealistic that the leader of the Shielders, Jarek, would travel by himself. The villains in the story are a bit stereotypical.
When I first started this book, I was planning to give it for 4 stars but it improved as it went along so I wavered between 4 and 5.

[Alyssa Mayley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up an old edition copy and didn't realize this was apart of a series (it's the third book) and perhaps that is why I just never felt like I connected with the characters. I couldn't finish the book, but I would be interested in reading book one in the series to see if I connect more with it.

[Lover of Romance · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to say that Catherine Spangler has done it again for me, this has to be my favorite book in the series so far! Its the third in the Shielder Series. Its definitely one of those where you wish the story could keep going on and on. At the end it left me wanting more, because it was such a well written and genuine story.

You have Jarek San Ranul, whose father has recently died, who was leader of the Shielders. Now Jarek knows he has to find a way to save his people or they will become extinct. The Controllers are going throughout the sector and trying to eliminate every man, woman or child on the colonies. Somehow they are finding the hidden colonies, and Jarek has a plan. His plan is that he knows that there is a hidden passageway to another sector, unknown to anyone else. His plan is to go and find equipment to map the certain area, and he has to find a Enhancer, which is the only way to get through this passageway. Then he finds Eirene out of pure luck of chance. Eirene Kane is a enhancer, and has hidden it from everyone, apart from a older woman that raised her and the only one that really loved her. Her uncle, plans on selling her to a trader for a lot of money, for sexual favors. Eilene knows she has to find a way to escape because that's the last thing she wants for her life. Then some woman traders that we see in the previous book 'Shadower' come to give this colony a shipment. So Eilene sneaks on their ship. She ends up on Elysia, and she plans on working at the 'Pleasure Dome' where she will lose her virginity, so that the plans her uncle has for will fall through. Her first customer is Jarek, who is new at coming to places like this. Eirene is curious about Jarek, for he treats her gently and is shocked to discover that she is a virgin, in a pleasure dome, however before he can ask her about it he is attacked and injured. Knowing the Jarek could die before she could get him proper medical attention, she attempts to heal him enough to stop the bleeding and start the healing process on his wound. At first she is reluctant, because she is afraid of her powers and abilities, since she thinks she has killed the only person that ever loved her. But before she can heal him completely his friends arrive to take him back to their ship where Chase can heal him since he is a medic, a great one at that (His story is Shielder) Jarek wakes up weak but alive, and Chase is shocked to discover that he didn't need to do much since Jarek was already healed by some unknown force. It leaves a mystery, but Jarek starts to remember that it was Eirene. Jarek knows he has to find her, because he has found a enhancer. But that isn't the only reason he want to find her, he knows she needs help and goes about showing her that they need one another. Eirene at first is taken prisoner by Jarek, since she knows she can't tell anyone who she really is. But Jarek keeps insisting that she is a Enhancer and she is too afraid to tell him the truth. Jarek goes about convincing Eirene the importance of his mission, and that hundreds of lives are at stake and that she is the key. They go on a journey of danger, mystery, romance, and love.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable and captivating read. I loved reading Jarek's story, and is my favorite so far. I found both characters Jarek and Eirene to be deep and emotional ones. Jarek of course, has a duty to his people and has seen what the controllers have done to them. He knows they will be extinct soon if something doesn't change. Eirene, is a very deep and emotional woman. She has suffered much, she has gifts and powers that she doesn't know how to control. She believes that she has killed her friend and the only one that was a mother to her. But as she gets to know Jarek, and finds some truths about herself and her ancestry she comes to trust him in the end and in herself. The bond between Jarek and Eirene is a powerful one, and a very emotional one at that. I found myself with tears in my eyes more than once, because the story was portrayed so well as was their emotions. I didn't have any problems or anything that I didn't like. Although I found myself wondering why Eirene couldn't trust Jarek more, but when she does it was worth the wait. It really is at the top of my favorites. At I wont give any spoilers out, but I will say that the ending definitely made me want to a little jig around the room LOL What can I say, I go crazy when I fall in love with a book!!!! This one is no exception! So if you like deep emotional characters, a exciting and thrilling adventure, where danger is there at every turn, and a romance that runs deep and hot (wink) then this one is for you!!! I guarantee you will love it as much as I have

[TINNGG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly better than the last one.

Ok, would it be possible for a h in this series not to be a nincompoop? This one was doing good until... she decided to run after seeing another enhancer being hauled off to a slave auction. First she stuns the H, then she blunders right into the dastardly uncle's clutches. Further, she only thinks of that poor enhancer in terms of "oh no! If they find out they'll sell me too!" Never, "hey Jarek, I saw one being hauled off to that place there." Coward to think only of her own skin (note that first heroine, at great personal risk, bought a couple of children)

Then...after knowing how bad the men in her colony are, thinks the worst of the H for killing her father. Did it occur to her that he wasn't any different from the others? Apparently not.

Highlight though was the secondary romance with Lani and the Leor. That was...pretty entertaining.

[Hilcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third book in the Shielder sci-fi romance series. This is a re-read for me, although this is definitely NOT my favorite book in this great series. However, this book is key to the overall series because this where Jarek fights to find a way out for the Shielder race.

Unlike the female characters in the other books (there are 5 in total), the heroine in this story is more than a bit TSTL and although she comes through a few times, she comes off as fearful of her own shadow and more than a bit self-centered. I'm afraid I never liked her. Jarek san Ranul was also a bit of a disappointment as the leader of the Shielders, but he was a bit better. Focusing more on the romance with a weak female protagonist, this was definitely the weakest book in an otherwise excellent (classic) sci-fi romance series.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm, this one was just okay. I loved Shadow Fires, which is book 5 of this series, so I decided to read more from this author. But not gonna lie, I skimmed over half of this book. The plot dragged and the chemistry between the two main characters just wasn't there for me. I gave this story 3 stars mostly because I loved the interactions--although brief--between Lani and Gunnar. I wished that those two were the ones that got a full-length book because they were much more interesting!!

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm really enjoying this series which made this book kind of a bummer. It just didn't have the same intensity as the previous two books. I found the plot a little boring and I wasn't that interested in the main characters. Since I enjoyed the first and second book I'm going to continue on with the series. Hopefully this one was just a weird slip.

[Nisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of the entire series, this has to be the worst. I didn't exactly hate it, but it was so ... blah that I had to remind myself that all the other characters where clearly more fascinating. Jarek's story, I guess I had really high hopes. There was very little chemistry and seriously no real love.

[Misa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting additions to the book-world, with new species, and older species explained in further detail. Love story seemed less complicated than the first two books of the series, but still interesting.

[Helen Vilaranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't realize this book was part of a series until after I started reading it! So now I will have to read the other books! I could understand most of it without reading the other two. I love the characters of Jarek and Eirene but my favorite is Lani! She is one "cool" lady!

[Cameron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay. They're going to the other dimensional promised land, but first there must be romance (it being a romance novel and all). Not really much else going on here.

[Red Head · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very imaginative. Good read.

[Alisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Airwreckah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnf'd pretty early due to excessive characters, poor dialogue and overwrought plotting with too mich exposition.

[diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a all right book but not much plot.

This book didn't have too much of a story. Mostly just sex and running around. I liked hearing about characters from the other books .

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE best one yet in the series! Loved this one. Lani had me laughing so hard. Definitely could picture that whole relationship.

[ChampagneL8T · Rating 4 out of 5]

#3