The Shape of Desire

Shifting Circle #1

by Sharon Shinn

For fifteen years Maria Devane has been desperately, passionately in love with Dante Romano. But despite loving him with all of her heart and soul, Maria knows that Dante can never give all of himself back-at least not all the time.

Every month, Dante shifts shape, becoming a wild animal. During those times, he wanders far and wide, leaving Maria alone. He can't choose when he shifts, the transition is often abrupt and, as he gets older, the time he spends in human form is gradually decreasing. But Maria, who loves him without hesitation, wouldn't trade their unusual relationship for anything.

Since the beginning, she has kept his secret, knowing that their love is worth the danger. But when a string of brutal attacks occur in local parks during the times when Dante is in animal form, Maria is forced to consider whether the lies she's been telling about her life have turned into lies she's telling herself...

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Fiction, Paranormal Romance, Shapeshifters

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

I’ve been writing stories and poems since I was eight years old. My first poem was about Halloween: "What is tonight? What is tonight?/Try to guess and you’ll guess right." Perhaps this inauspicious beginning explains why it took me till I was in my thirties to sell a novel. It occurred to me early on that it might take some time and a lot of tries before I was able to publish any of my creative writing, so I pursued a degree in journalism at Northwestern University so I’d be able to support myself while I figured out how to write fiction.

I’ve spent most of my journalism career at three trade and association magazines—The Professional Photographer (which, as you might guess, went to studio and industrial photographers), DECOR (which went to frame shop and art gallery owners), and BizEd (which is directed at deans and professors at business schools). My longest stint, seventeen years, was at DECOR. Many people don’t know this, but I’m a CPF (Certified Picture Framer), having passed a very long, technical test to prove I understood the tenets of conservation framing. Now I write about management education and interview some really cool, really smart people from all over the world.

I mostly write my fiction in the evenings and on weekends. It requires a pretty obsessive-compulsive personality to be as prolific as I’ve been in the past ten years and hold down a full-time job. But I do manage to tear myself away from the computer now and then to do something fun. I read as often as I can, across all genres, though I’m most often holding a book that’s fantasy or romance, with the occasional western thrown in. I’m a fan of Cardinals baseball and try to be at the ballpark on opening day. If I had the time, I’d see a movie every day of my life. I love certain TV shows so much that knowing a new episode is going to air that night will make me happy all day. (I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan, but in the past I’ve given my heart to shows all over the map in terms of quality: "Knight Rider," "Remington Steele," "Blake’s 7," "Moonlighting," "The Young Riders," "Cheers," "Hill Street Blues," "X-Files," "Lost," "Battlestar Galactica"...you can probably fill in the gaps. And let’s not forget my very first loves, "The Partridge Family," "Here Come the Brides" and "Alias Smith & Jones.")

I don’t have kids, I don’t want pets, and all my plants die, so I’m really only forced to provide ongoing care for my menagerie of stuffed animals. All my friends are animal lovers, though, and someone once theorized that I keep friends as pets. I’m still trying to decide if that’s true.

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maria is madly in love with Dante. It doesn't matter that he is a shapeshifter, spending longer and longer periods away from her in animal form. Maria's motto is "you can't choose who you love," and she loves Dante, regardless of the increasingly brief moments of time they can spend together as humans. But when mysterious animal attacks start claiming lives close to home, does her love for Dante put her own life at risk?

Oh my holy hand grenades barf.

I love Sharon Shinn. Her Samaria books are some of my favorites, and I thought Troubled Water was fantastic. She always has a heavy element of romance in her books, but her world building is so intricate and her characters so well realized that it has never been a problem. So I went ahead and bought this book without really looking at the story because I love her writing. Unfortunately, this book, set in modern St. Louis, has neither the world building or the characters to make it interesting. I like well written romance. I have been known to swoon over imaginary characters before, so it's not that I have a grudge against romance (I did create a paranormal romance shelf for this book, because I don't want anyone else thinking it is a fantasy; it's not.) It's just...well, here, let me show you.

They don't understand that what I have is so precious, so intense, such an essential part of my life, that I would not give it up for any inducement if I tried, or if someone forced me to, I truly believe I would die.

Does this sound like a 34 year old woman to you? It sounds like particularly pathetic 14 year old to me. I am serious, she actually collapses to the floor in grief when he leaves once, laying curled up in a ball for hours. When all the doodoo finally hits the fan, what does Maria do? She watches on television while having a panic attack. Ooooh, that was helpful. She convinces Dante to stick around for another day once because she can't bear to be parted from him, even though he needs to go find his brother to keep him from killing another human. Seriously. Sharon Shinn's novels always evoke an emotional reaction from me. Never before has it been an overwhelming desire to bitch-slap the protagonist, however.

The "you can't choose who you love" theme is woven through the novel in several different ways, but the other main thread is through the abusive relationship of one of Maria's coworkers. Everyone knows that Kathleen is abused by her husband Ritchie, the makeup can't cover the bruises well enough, but she refuses to let anyone help her, insisting she loves him and he loves her. Maria wants to help Kathleen escape her marriage so she doesn't end up dying. However, Maria is trapped in her relationship just as much. She doesn't have any life outside of waiting for Dante to show up, just as Kathleen spends her life trying to keep Ritchie from getting mad. Both of these relationships are destroying lives, and even though Maria insists you don't have any choice over who you love, you do have a choice over who you are in a relationship with.

The book holds up this completely weak pathetic clinging female who is willing to lie to everyone she knows, including her family, live her life waiting for a phone call, and trade away 15 years to stay in a relationship with someone who is only there a few days a month. And she gets a happy ending. Of course she does, because it's a romance and everyone deserves a happy ending; but how many women are reading romance looking for an escape from their own life, trapped in loveless relationships, and think, "Gee, isn't this romantic?" I mean, its obvious that Kathleen is the one married to an animal - he hits her right? But the overly heavy symbolism of Ritchie and Dante fighting like two wild animals while Kathleen and Maria stand by helplessly - who is really in the relationship with a beast? - makes me wonder why I should be any happier for Maria staying in her relationship than I am that Kathleen got out of hers.

Also, a few other things that bugged me. Dante has siblings, and they all have wildly different levels of humanness and control over their shifting abilities, for no other reason than plot convenience it seems. It's doubly annoying when they develop different levels of control for the same reason. The unexplained necklace showing up when it did - what was that for? Just to wring out a few more drops of Maria tears? And how in the world did Maria end up such a dependent little pansy when all of the women in her family are awesome and assured?

Finally - and this may be the part that irritates me the most - this is book one in a series, which means Shinn is going to be writing more of these books, instead of writing in some of her other worlds that I love. That's the biggest disappointment of them all.

[Susan Scribner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had read several negative reviews of this book and was hoping that the early readers had overlooked something, but I'm afraid I have to agree with the nay-sayers. This is a disappointing sub-par effort for the author of the wonderful Samaria and Mystic & Rider series. The heroine pines away for her shape-shifting lover, but Shinn never makes a case for why Dante is worth sacrificing almost everything else in Maria's life. She works, she comes home and waits for Dante, he returns every few weeks and they have mind-blowing sex, he leaves, and the cycle starts over. Repeat ad nauseum. The novel starts with the relationship in its 15th year so we don't even get a chance to see how it developed until a too-little, too-late flashback late in the book. The pace is slow and repetitive, and nothing really happens until at least halfway through the novel. The reader doesn't have much invested in the relationship between Maria and Dante so the frequent sex is pointless. The only thing that saved the book for me was the St. Louis setting (my hometown).

I was not completely won over by Shinn's previous novel, Troubled Waters, but I'd much prefer she return to that series instead of continuing this one. It feels like a half-hearted attempt to jump on the Twilight bandwagon, when Shinn should have stuck to the fantasy worlds she creates so well.

[Evangelie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was sadly,disappointing. Did Sharon Shinn really write this??? The author of The Tweleve Houses created this boring and unimaginative story? I am a big fan of her writing but this book fell flat. I was constantly waiting for something to happen. After reading this book all I learned was that
1. Maria LOVES Dante
2. Dante and his family are shape shifters
the end.
Also, this might have been just me, but until it was mentioned Marie was in her 30's, I had thought she was a teen, maybe a college student...
overall, very disappointing. I hope any other books Sharon Shinn plans to write are like the ones she used to write.

[Yune · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lackluster read. I admit I was disappointed as soon as I heard that the latest work from Shinn had a contemporary setting with paranormal elements, but I picked it up anyway. Reading it confirmed my first thought, that while her style is fine in beautifully quiet fantasy stories with crescendoing emotions, it doesn't lend itself to this particular genre.

I felt distant from Maria from the first few pages, where she demands a kiss from a newly returned lover and makes it clear how obsessively in love she is with him. Romantic in another era, perhaps, but in a modern setting it struck me as an unhealthy relationship. Her shapeshifter boyfriend shows up for only a few days each month, and she structures her entire life around those few days. And he's a moody sort whose appeal I couldn't make out at all.

Shinn spends so much time constructing the mundane details of Maria's life -- she has a job, she has family, she has co-workers who provide their own drama -- that the rest of the book continued being unexceptionable even when it described the elements of shapeshifting. There was simply no delightful flair of the fantastical; it was just another problem that Maria dealt with. And enough of the details were deliberately left vague that I never felt a sense of menace from it either, even when suspense is supposed to gather. Possibly this was because I never really felt for any of the characters.

Even if you're a Shinn fan, I'd suggest passing.

[new_user · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow, yes, but Sharon Shinn's Shape of Desire does charm by combing emotion and more, by offering insights into life, human nature, and stuff.

Desire's title totally misleads, romance readers will agree. Shinn's never very explicit, but she writes relationships with substance, maturity, and tension aplenty. She always writes with an eye to flawed human nature and social realities, e.g. approaching an essentially adulterous relationship from a compassionate, humanist perspective rather than as human weakness or caprice, but she really indulges that here, dropping insights through protagonist Maria's musings on the world. (Hence my comparison to Sookie Stackhouse.)

"I realized a long time ago, with a certain amazement, that no matter how important something is in your life, no matter how huge it is, how much space it takes up in your heart and in your thoughts, unless you mention it to other people, they have no idea it exists."

Maria's insights, whether about secrets or the weather, differentiate Desire from the multitudes of werewolf, vampire, and category-other fiction. It's real. Shinn's novel explores without exploitation grief, yearning, abuse, and loss, rather than the world-saving adventures of A Kick-butt Heroine, so she reads like women's or literary fiction to a small degree, but she does build her mythos, and fantasy plays a role. She doesn't quite write magical realism, where magic's a metaphor or device, or light paranormal romance because we hear a lot about Dante's experiences and life as a shape-shifter, despite his reluctance to discuss it.

In fact, his reticence's a major sticking point for Maria and her boyfriend Dante. She wants to share all of his life, and he would rather pretend he doesn't turn shaggy and disappear most days of the month. She tolerates those limits for years, and that may turn off readers. Maria's passive in her miserable love life, and she definitely doesn't save anyone or even carry the water in adventures. That's a huge departure from a lot of urban fantasy protagonists. Even damsels in distress stumble into danger and fall on swords.

So I didn't admire Maria, and it was bizarre that most of the narrative, since she lives at the water cooler or in her living room, was her worrying and pining and other synonyms. Dante himself was depressing because he was irritable or aloof 90% of the time -how could you love someone shutting you out of half his life, unless he had the excuse of national security or something?- and then there's this quote, which is true but depressing because guys really don't give a frak about all your blather? I don't want to believe that. Too real.

Also, there's domestic abuse. (In fact, that relationship's so obviously a foil to Maria's, I wondered if even Shinn believed in Maria and Dante together. Even Maria reflects at one point about their similarities.)

So while Shinn serves a happily-ever-after, sort of, to enjoy Desire you have to have patience, an interest in life stuff, and an unholy love for realism because there's a heaping helping here. She's ideal for writing young adult -or any- literature though because she writes well-adjusted un-Bella characters who will not stroll off with random biker dudes, constantly shame themselves, or put down other feeeemales, even if Maria's weak or her relationship's problematic. She delivers some social justice with her lemonade too. There are some POC characters. Maria herself is Latina ("racially diverse" may not apply, but I'll keep it). We could use more of that.

Anyway, usually I prefer realism, prose and insight over a perfect HEA or likability, as long as we're not glorifying any bad behavior or attitudes, but this was kind of a downer. LOL. The moral of the story was Just endure, mofo. LOL. Torn between three and four stars. Will give four for style and some deep stuff.

[Feminista · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Before this novel, I had read one of Sharon Shinn's angel books, and I liked it a lot. So I was going through my to read list, and I saw that I had this book marked ages ago. Eager, I got started on the book, with high expectations.

I was disappointed.

We find out that the characters Maria and Dante have been together for 15 years. Sweet, right? Wrong. Maria barely knows her lover/boyfriend. She has been with him since she was 20 years old, and she hardly knows him. She finds out things in this novel, where the finding is a struggle, if not completely accidental.

Let's start with Dante. He could have been a sweet hero. He really would have been, if it weren't for the fact that he completely ignores/denies Maria, every time Maria asks him anything. This girl/woman gave up her life for him. She puts it like this, 90% of the decisions she makes, she makes with Dante in mind. Because Dante is a shape-shifter, he is only human a week in a month. The world does not know about the existence of shape shifters, so it's a secret she has to keep.

Later on we find out that the reason Dante didn't tell her all his secrets, and still hadn't told her half of it, by the time the book ended, was because he didn't want her to feel trapped with him . Can you imagine! 15 years, she is more trapped than a bird with broken wings in a cage. But does he comprehend that? Nope.

He does things like get a vasectomy 10 years into their relationship, without even telling her, like her opinion does not matter. Yes, I know, in the end, it is his choice, it is his body, like abortion is the woman's choice, but she deserves to be told it before that happened. Then he lies to her about where he is, one night, when he calls her from the telephone booth. He gets moody and bored during the precious moments he is with her. And we see Maria get this treatment all the way from past to now. It is not that he is mean to her, per se, it's just that he doesn't care about her feelings enough to account for them in his decisions. He does not talk about the other shifters there, it is like a whole new world for Maria, 15 years of keeping a secret for this one man. Telling the whole world lies to keep his secret, and for what?

Then there was one. Maria. She is supposed to be insanely in love with Dante. And she is, I get that, it's sweet too. But seriously woman, you are just finding out things about him that you did not know before, and you are okay with it? You have given up a normal life with a normal family, kids, family socialising, and for what, a secretive man, whom you know as much of, as you did 15 years ago? Then there is also that, when we read a bit about their past, 15 years ago, I felt that the only reason Dante saw, saw her, was because she can keep a dire secret. Otherwise she wouldn't have been a blip on his radar.

The next part is a bit of a spoiler, but the synopsis mentions it. The fact that she suspects Dante is a murder, and is okay with it. I was NOT okay with that. I get the whole undying devotion thing. But you are seriously crossing a line, when your boyfriend could be a murderer. What if next time, it was a five-year old that died. Hell, even adults dying is nothing to scoff about.

Anywho, this book won't stop me from reading Sharon Shinn's novels. But maybe next time, I'll stick to her angel books.

[Brie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Originally posted at Romance Around the Corner

If you’re a fan of Paranormal Romance you probably recognize Ms. Shinn’s name. She’s the author of the Samaria books, a popular series that’s quite well-known even among readers like me, who aren’t die-hard fans of the genre. Last year I finally managed to read her novella, Nocturne, that was part of the Angel of Darkness Anthology, and I loved it. So when I heard about this new series I decided it was time to read one of her full-length novels.

Maria Devane and Dante Romano have been secret lovers for over fifteen years. I say secret lovers because Dante is a shifter who spends more time as animal than human, and his random “shifting” patterns make it impossible for them to be out as a couple. So they have developed this routine in which every time Dante is human he goes to Maria’s house, eats her food, fucks her, and leaves her again. This is the part where I explain that Dante isn’t you regular shifter, no alpha werewolf protecting his mate whom he loves in a sweet but creepy possessive way. Nope, first, Dante can shift into any animal, cat, bear, cow… He can’t control the animal although the environment helps, so if he happens to be near a farm, chances are he’ll turn into a farm animal. Second, he can’t control the change. He feels is coming, but he can’t avoid it, same goes from going from animal to human. The older he gets, though, the more frequent and longer the shifts become. So their relationship, which began in college, has turned into this thing resembling the most dysfunctional long distance secret relationship ever.

When Dante isn’t around, Maria’s life is actually normal. She has a steady job, friends and she is fairly content. But she misses Dante desperately although she’s more than willing to settle for whatever he can give her, which, in turn, is less and less as the time goes by. He tells her all the time that she’s free to leave him, he has a blasé attitude towards shifters’ lifespans (he keeps mentioning how he will die young, that he won’t even make it to fifty), he refuses to let her see him in animal for, so after fifteen years she hasn’t seen him change, and he not only does he not want babies, but he got a vasectomy years ago and only told her afterwards. But she loves him and that’s what matters, right? Well, the moment of truth comes after a series of mysterious murders happen and it seems as if the victims where mauled to death by a wild animal, so it doesn’t take long before Maria begins to suspect that Dante may be behind and this will really test their love. Or maybe not, she really, really loves him, so what if he’s a murderer?

“Right. I might feel less like a freak.”
I lean over to kiss him hard on the mouth. “You might be a freak,” I say fiercely, “but you’re my freak. And I will love you forever. Even if you’re only human an hour a month. Even if you’re only human an hour a year.”
Even if you’re a killer.

It sounds like I loved this book, right? Please! The only reason why I kept reading it was because I wanted to see if he would eat her at the end and die of indigestion, making this a crappy book with an awesome ending. What’s disappointing is that Ms. Shinn has a beautiful voice and her take on shifters is so original that despite of how awful this book was I’m willing to give the next one a try (it has different characters, thank God for small favors!). But the main characters ruined it for me.

I’ll start with Dante. He’s a self-absorbed jerk. Is not that he’s tormented by the monster he is, he’s actually quite happy with being a shifter, or at least acceptant of his life. He’s happy with using Maria because he tells her that she can leave him, but he won’t do it himself. So he knows he’s not the best boyfriend, but he doesn’t set her free either. I hate it when heroes leave the heroine to protect them from themselves because they love her so much that they want them to be happy even if it means not having her, that’s a bunch of crap, but it would have been actually good to see it here.

“Every time I come back. Every time I show up at your door. I stand there for a minute—usually covered in grime and stinking to heaven—and I think, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t go in. Maybe it would be better for Maria if I just walked away.’”

My eyes fly open and I stare in horror at the ceiling, just barely visible in the imperfect dark.

“Dante! What? No, no, no! Don’t say that! Why would you—Don’t think that! I love you. It would break my heart if you left me.”
“Sure, but maybe it would be better for you. Once you got over it. You’d move on, you’d find a nice guy—a normal guy—you’d live a normal life—”

“I don’t want a normal life. I want a life with you.”

“You’ll tell me, won’t you? If you change your mind? I won’t blame you, I won’t be surprised. I just want you to be happy, Maria. I really do.”
“Dante.” I make my voice as firm, as certain, as I can. I want him to believe me.

“You’re the one who makes me happy. You’re the one who puts meaning in my days. You’re the one I can’t live without. If I ever change my mind on that, I’ll let you know, I promise. But it’s not going to happen. I promise that, too.”

Maria, on the other hand, was likeable. TSTL (Too Stupid to Live) when it comes to Dante and her idea of love, but she was hardworking, nice and a little awkward. I felt sorry for her, she was isolated from everyone, her world was Dante and that was it. It wasn’t romantic, it was borderline abusive.

There are many, many reasons why I didn’t like the book. I’m just mentioning a few. But to be fair there was one thing I really liked, the fantastic element was very well-done. Her idea of shifters is refreshing and original. The book reads like a romance with some suspense elements because the paranormal part feels so organic that I could even describe it as realistic. The pace is slow but not boring and the ending was surprising. However the fact that I liked this doesn’t mean it make it enjoyable, so I won’t even recommend it to someone looking for an original PNR. In the end, it all comes down to the fact that I don’t like unhealthy relationships sold as romantic love, and that’s exactly what this book does. Read something else.

[Kevin Xu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reason I read the book is because I saw the girl on the cover and her family at a Barnes and Nobles buying the book.

This book overall was not that good, a normal story about a woman's love for a boy who is a shapeshifter, who she has been with since college for 15 years. The boyfirend is basically a werewolf that is killing women in the area.

I liked this a lot more because it is set in the Missouri, mostly in St. Louis County where I grew up, and went to the University of Missouri at Columbia, which I went for my freshman year.

But I hated the fact that the girl on the cover looks to be in high school, but the main character in the book is actually 34 years ould. I wonder what the art director for the book over at ACE books was thinking when whom ever came up with the cover art.

[Sheila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contains a few general spoilers. Major plot spoilers are hidden.

I can't believe I'm giving a Sharon Shinn novel two stars. She's one of my "always read" authors. But I didn't really like this book. First off, it's an urban fantasy--or rather, a paranormal romance. This genre is often a "miss" for me. Second, I didn't really like the main character. She was completely--and admittedly--codependent. Even though she's been with her lover for 15 years, she still can't stand to be without him--she mopes, she frets, she changes her eating and sleeping habits when he's away. This kind of dependency makes me grind my teeth (not to mention, seems unrealistic after so many years of being together). Come on woman--get a life that isn't entwined with your man! Especially when he's gone so much! Her lover seemed generic to me. I couldn't really tell you any of his character traits or his personality other than DARK and MYSTERIOUS. Yawn, right? But what really made my eyes roll was the ending: the main character is reduced to tears of joy because she finally got a marriage proposal and a baby. Who cares that she had serious prevailing doubts about her lover--where he went, what he did, how he felt. She got what every woman wants, right? Put a ring on it and all is forgiven. Sigh.

There were things here I liked. It was refreshing to see an already-established relationship, instead of being dragged through all the smouldering glances of one just beginning. I liked the shape-changing elements of the novel, and would have liked more of that (and less hysteria). I really loved the mystery of the visiting dog... or possibly shape changer. But that was never explained.

It's interesting that Shinn's first novel, The Shape-Changer's Wife, explored similar themes: shape changing and a woman enthralled to a man. However, in my mind, that small, fairy-tale-like novel is so much more effective.

I guess the lesson here is I like fantasy novels with added romance--not romance novels with added fantasy. I just don't enjoy the tropes of the genre. I also prefer fantastical settings when I read fantasy. I doubt I'll read any other novels in this series.

[Skye · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shinn used to be an auto-buy for me. After this I will be much more hesitant to spend money on her books. Every single character was boring, bland, and colorless. I couldn't even tell you what the main character looked like, let alone describe her personality. She works an extremely boring job, has very boring co-workers of which there are endless passages about and I really, really don't understand why. Why do we care that she went to a Halloween party dressed as a cow? A Halloween party at which nothing happened? I don't think I've ever before read a book with so many, boring, trivial details that still manage to reveal nothing about the characters. The main story about Maria's boyfriend being a shape changer is almost secondary to the mind-numbingly boring details about Maria's mind-numbingly boring life. And there's a disturbing Twilight-esque quality to this book. Maria only seems to "come alive" when Dante is around. And in between his visits, she's leading her boring life and pining for him. One of the most aggravating parts of this book for me was the few pages spent on Maria "trying to love a man other than Dante". She dates another man for a whopping two weeks. ONE man. It doesn't work out. Her conclusion-she's incapable of loving anyone else, ever. It's very unclear what makes this Dante so infatuation-worthy. He has dark hair and eyes. He went to college. And there ends the character development of Dante. Not much happens in this book, in all honesty, other than Maria going to work. Maria worrying about Dante. Maria missing Dante. I'm horribly disappointed when a writer I used to love starts writing drivel like this. Urban fantasy is where the money is at right now, and another writer has drank the kool aid. The very bad, very boring, cliche-ridden kool aid.

[Jenny]

I am giving this book zero stars. Sharon Shinn has written several of my favorite books (Troubled Waters, Truthtellers Tale, and Mystic and Rider), but this was terrible. Was there even a plot? I felt like it was all just foul language and sex. Also, we are supposed to think it is okay for a woman to be with a man who can only be with her part of the time and share part of her life as long as the sex is good. I just thought it was so awful!

[Carmel (Rabid Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

I was reminded a great deal of Maggie Stiefvater's The Wolves of Mercy Falls' series while reading this book; albeit a more adult version. The nature of Shinn's shifters is different in that they can change into multiple animals but the story has the same ticking time bomb feeling to it in that the characters are able to remain human for less and less time as they age. The plot of this novel follows a murder investigation type model and the love story has a real Romeo & Juliette tragedy type feel to it. The Shape of Desire is definitely not a happy-go-lucky read but Sharon Shinn does an excellent job of telling such a sad tale.

I enjoyed the sort of double-life Maria lives. She's one type of person around her co-workers and family but another type around her shifter boyfriend, Dante. It was hard experiencing the roller coaster ride that is her life. I felt genuinely sorry for her. She's balancing these two very different realities and trying her hardest so that they don't find out about each other. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to live that way. No one ever really knowing the "real" you. Shinn does a great job of describing her various moods and the process that Maria goes through every time Dante is forced to leave. Devane also compares her relationship to that of one of her coworkers who's being abused by her husband. The overall effect was a very human Maria trapped in the middle of a paranormal world.

The murder investigation didn't really become the center of the story until past the halfway mark. It did manage to add a bit of action to an otherwise lovey story line but the list of suspects was short which made the culprit rather predictable. I'm okay with that because I honestly loved the romance more than the action in The Shape of Desire. It's just such a moving, tragic tale that it's able to stand alone without the additional plot.

Both of the characters grow significantly between the start and finish of this novel. Maria comes out of her shell and learns that it's okay to let people in. What a relief this must have been for her, to finally be able to talk about her 15 year long secret relationship with someone other than her boyfriend. Dante learns to accept himself as he is and as a result, he starts working with his animal side instead of against it. He used to always have an "I can't" attitude but recent events have helped him turn it into an "I can" one. It took nearly two decades but I think Maria and Dante's relationship is finally in a good place.

This is my first Sharon Shinn book and I must say, I was impressed. She kept the paranormal aspects simple and her writing voice is beautiful. The Shape of Desire is a moving story about making it work and not giving up on the one you love.

[Louise Marley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous novel, dark and erotic and unerring in its character portrayals. Shinn has chosen the shape-shifter device to tell a story of passionate love under difficult circumstances, and something I love about the way she's handled it reminds me of THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE--no rationalization or apology, just accepting it for what it is. And it works!

I've read almost all of Sharon Shinn's lengthy bibliography, and I think this is her strongest work yet. It's always satisfying to see an artist get better and better with time, so this book is a special pleasure. Highly recommended.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an odd kind of book. It's very slow paced. TOO slow paced, probably. And although I never exactly disliked it, I didn't really LIKE it until nearly the very end.

A lot of the book made me somewhat uncomfortable. Maria lives her live in a limited kind of way because of her boyfriend, Dante, and lies to everyone because of him. And there's much of his life that he doesn't let her into. I wouldn't describe it as an abusive relationship, but it's an unequal one. And for all Maria talks about how much she loves him, I had a hard time believing the relationship would survive 15 years with those kind of limitations on it. That said, by the end, I did believe they were finally in position to survive the long haul.

The worldbuilding is interesting. We get it from the point-of-view of someone who is half an outsider and it appears that even those IN it don't know a lot.

I think the side characters were a real strength. I'm not sure we'll get them in the next book, which makes me sadder than the possible lack of the main characters from this one! And a lot of the book takes place in an office atmosphere, which I thought was awesome, since that's not something I've seen in a lot of books, ESPECIALLY urban fantasy.

So, overall, I don't know. If you decide to check it out, I think it's worth sticking with it to the end. But if you don't want to read it, I think it's one you can pass on without missing much. I think I'll read the sequel(s), but probably not right away.

Edit: Oh! And there were some loose ends, which bugged me because, as much as this is the start of a series, this book itself felt otherwise complete.

Edit2: Forget to mention! Sports fans! I liked how sports were dealt with here. It's all really minor, things along the lines of "we went to a baseball game" or "we watched a football game," but, since I usually really dislike how sports are handled in fiction, it stood out to me.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me preface this terrible review with this: I love Sharon Shinn. Hands down she is one of my all-time favorite authors. For years she has wowed me with her Samaria Angel books, and every time I read the 12 Houses Series, I fall in love all over again. I’ve read everything she’s ever written, except her Shiftling Novels. As a rule, I kinda hate Urban Fantasy, so I put it off for a long time.

The Shape of Desire was terrible. I couldn't even bring myself to finish it. I gave it to the 100th page, as I always do, and just put it down. It doesn't even seem to be written by the same author. In all of Shinn’s other books, you are deeply drawn into an earth shattering love story filled with personal connection and profound meaning. This story has no connection. Enter Maria, a whiny, pitiful character who waits for weeks for a guy to show up a few days out of the month to make love to her. We have no insights into Dante at all! I mean, who is this guy? He’s been coming in and out of her life for 15 years and she knows barely anything about him. He seems to care for her, but he was a selfish pig, and found myself wondering if he was just using her. I also found their association to be desperately lacking. How did they meet? Why is Maria so devoted to him? No character building! This story felt superficial and needy. I couldn't stand Maria’s lunch/work friends either. They were annoying, shallow, and not to mention distasteful.

On the thought that I might give Shape of Desire another chance, I started reading other reviews… Needless to say, I have no inclination to finish this. I’m going to put it out of my mind, pretend that some other shameless author stole Sharon Shinn’s name, and put it on this sad excuse of a novel. Sorry Sharon, you’re still my favorite, but this was weird and disappointing.

[Ita · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started listening to this book but the plotting was glacial, so I switched to reading/skimming (thank you LA County library!). Turns out there isn't much plot.

My biggest problems with the book were the main characters and their relationship. The narrator loves a man who is distant and uncommunicative (won't share details of his shape-shifting life). He struck me as a selfish ass and she came across as needy and obsessive. Their relationship was dysfunctional and did not hew to my concept of a loving relationship. They apparently had great sex, but there was no trust, no sharing. She worries about his life the 3 weeks he's gone and spends too much time walking on eggshells the one week when he is around. And at the end, you discover that their lives *could* have been different. I found that particularly annoying.

And the ending felt contrived so that they could "live happily ever after."

I've loved some of Shinn's books (mostly the Angel ones), but others just did NOT work for me. This is one of them, sadly.

And from some of the other reviews I see this is the first in a series. That makes me very sad, because I suspect they will all be like this, sigh.

[Dark Faerie Tales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review Courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: A deeply emotional story about the power of love and secrets.

Opening Sentence: It’s around two in the morning when I hear a rustle and bump in the kitchen, and I sit up in bed.

The Review:

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up The Shape of Desire. I have never read a Sharon Shinn book before but I have heard good things about her writing. I couldn’t help but feel the first few chapters had the feel of early Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series and Charlaine Harris mysteries. Sharon Shinn makes shape-shifters all her own while adding a layer of mystery to the myth. They are dirty and stinky after they change shape, still have cuts and bruises and they have no control over when they change or what shape they take. That is how it affects Dante but it is different for his brother and sister.

Maria starts off the novel as kind of a loner. She fits in with her family and co-workers just enough to be friendly. If they begin asking her questions about her personal life she quickly comes up with an appropriate lie to fill in the gap. Maria prides herself at how well she believes she can tell lies. She is so good that Maria’s co-workers know she is trustworthy with their personal business.

Maria cannot help that she loves Dante. She has loved him unconditionally for fifteen years. She doesn’t even question the fact that he is a shape-shifter, even though she actually hasn’t seen him change. She doesn’t question a lot of things when it comes to Dante. She has met his brother and sister who also claim to be shape-shifters which adds to her belief of Dante. Maria spends most of her days working as an accountant and just waiting for the days Dante shows up at her door. Dante is the love of Maria’s life and she wouldn’t change that for anything even though secretly she wants a husband that she wakes up to and a child to raise. She knows how Dante feels about having a family and if she brings up the subject they will just argue.

Maria and Dante spend most of their time together making love or arguing. When Dante first shows up at Maria’s they are like a happily married couple on their honeymoon who just can’t get enough of each other. Dante makes it no secret to Maria that he will not live a long life and she doesn’t like when he brings that up. He knows that he can’t be the man that Maria needs and he tries to give her an out. Maria and Dante definitely do not have the most conventional relationship. You can feel the happiness and love she feels towards Dante and her sadness as he leaves.

The first animal mauling deaths only register with Maria because it looked like an infant was taken from the scene. Maria calls Dante’s sister Christina, who just happens to have a baby. She was worried she had been attacked. Several more deaths happen before Maria begins to question the circumstances.

The Shape of Desire is a character driven plot. The story is only told through Maria’s view, often going through her day. There really isn’t too much action to the plot. In fact, she doesn’t even start questioning Dante until at least more than halfway through the book. The mystery of Dante and shape-shifting and the tension of how it all would play out kept me reading. The way she compares her life and secrets with that of an abused woman (her co-worker Katherine) weigh heavy on the tone of the story.

Maria grows as a character as the story moves along. She starts as kind of a loner then moves on to make friends with some of her co-workers. She learns that her lies haven’t always been enough, that her actions belied appearances. She makes a firm decision about her future and with a better understanding of Dante.

Overall, I was deeply enthralled by the story of Maria and Dante. The Shape of Desire was a different and refreshing take on the shape-shifter myth and I can’t wait to see what is next. However, I did feel there were questions left unanswered and I hope Still Life with Shapeshifter answers at least one of those questions.

Notable Scene:

“Great, then I won’t worry anymore,” he says. “What else have you been doing? How’s work?”

When we’re together, when he’s actually in my presence, Dante doesn’t ask me many questions. He doesn’t seem that interested in my job, and only listens out of politeness to my tales about family activities or shopping expeditions. But when he’s gone, when I’m out of sight, out of reach, he’s filled with curiosity. What did you have for breakfast? What did your mom say? Did you get that travel account? I’m not fooled; I know he doesn’t really care about those details. He’s just trying to fill in all the colors for the image of me he carries in his head. He wants to make me real. I feel so far away I could be imaginary; he wants to give me weight and substance and flavor. He wants to devour me.

I know, because that’s exactly how I feel about him.

The Shifting Circle Series:

1. The Shape of Desire

2. Still Life with Shapeshifter

FTC Advisory: Penguin/Roc provided me with a copy of The Shape of Desire. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

[Ranting Dragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.rantingdragon.com/review-o...


Sharon Shinn is best known for two series: Samaria and Twelve Houses. She also has a number of other books, mostly stand-alone, for both adults and teens, as well as novelettes and short stories in several anthologies. The Shape of Desire is the first book in what has been announced as at least a trilogy, entitled The Shifting Circle.

Maria Devane has had a secret for fifteen years: her boyfriend, Dante, is a shapeshifter who spends at least part of every month roaming the world on four legs instead of two. She’s never minded, until a string of brutal attacks plagues local parks. Has Dante finally lost his mind to his curse, or is it something else?

A very different love story
Most romances tend to be rather poetic next to real life. There’s a lot of floweriness to it, and a sense that, now that they’ve met, the lovers in question could never live life without each other in the future. Perhaps you think I’m overstating, but I hope you get my point. This is not the case with Shape of Desire. Maria is a very strong, very independent woman. She’s had to be; Dante is simply not a reliable person because of his uncontrolled shapeshifting. Maria figures out what she wants to do and does it. She could very well get on with her life without Dante in it, and both characters are aware of it. In so many ways, her life would be easier if she did. But she always chooses not to, because she doesn’t want to. This is one of the more realistic portrayals of a mature, healthy romantic relationships that I’ve had the pleasure of reading.

Contemporary literary fantasy
Usually when you see ‘shapeshifters’ and ‘contemporary setting’ you automatically come up with ‘urban fantasy.’ This isn’t the case for Shape of Desire, even with the mystery who-done-it plot running through the romance. Shinn’s emphasis here is not on action, thrills, or suspense; it’s on the characters’ relationships and how they deal with the situations they find themselves in. As a result, this is a subtler read than anything I’ve seen in the urban fantasy genre. I enjoyed the slower pace and the more relaxed tension. However, if you’ve picked up this book expecting something akin to Patricia Briggs, you might not find this to be your cup of tea. Maria does not pick up a gun and go hunting a killer; her main concern is if Dante is a killer. She doesn’t get into any fights; she isn’t even a witness to any. She’s an accountant, not a detective. The mystery plot is eclipsed by the tension Maria and Dante have in deciding what the next few years of their relationship are going to look like.

Why you should read this book?
I enjoyed this book for several reasons. First, Shinn is a beautiful writer. Her strength is in understated scenes and beautiful descriptions. As a result, this entire book is somewhat understated. I enjoyed the romantic line and felt satisfied by the conclusion reached by both Maria and Dante. Again, however, don’t pick this book up if what you’re really looking for is urban fantasy.

[Li · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have such conflicted feelings about this story.

Firstly, I had no idea how Sharon Shinn would write an urban fantasy - I've loved pretty much all her books to date, but a UF book? Ms Shinn's version of UF ended up being a a story that started off slowly, with a quiet build-up of suspense that left me at the point where I had to know what happens next. Oh, and beautifully written as always. In a way, her writing style reminded me of Robin McKinley's Sunshine - very much set in the "real" world with no kick-ass heroine in sight.

So big tick for the writing - but the story itself? This is where it became difficult, because the romance felt very one-sided, and verging on the emotionally abusive. Maria came across as being very dependent, almost a desperate doormat type of person. There is a fine line between loving someone and living your life just for ONE person, and I don't think this relationship ended up on the right side of the line. And Dante didn't redeem himself in the end, IMO. Intentionally or not, there was an uncomfortable parallel between Maria/Dante's relationship and a side plotline about a secondary character who is in a (physically) abusive relationship).

So I have trouble with a book that glamorises an abusive relationship, and where all the problems resolve themselves rather too neatly in the end, and despite the wonderfully evocative writing, I'm going to have to say this book just didn't work for me.

[Martha Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. It's technically categorized as urban fantasy, because it's set in modern day, and the main character is a woman who is in love with a shapeshifter. But it's not an action-packed story about killing demons, etc, though it is a mystery. The shapeshifter can't control what animal he turns into or when he transforms. It's on a cycle that has been getting increasingly short, so his periods of being human are getting shorter. Maria (the main character) has close relationships with the other women in her family and with friends at work, but has become an excellent liar to conceal her longterm love affair with the shapeshifter. Her relationship is contrasted with others, including a co-worker who has a violently abusive spouse. It's a very dark, sexy book, and a very realistic story about what it would actually be like to love a person who spends most of his time as something else. It's about love, obsession, lust, power and control, and being willing to do anything to keep the person you love/want. I think it's a series and I can't wait for the next one.

[Hafiza · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sharon Shinn is one of my favorite authors, so all ER book as auto buy's for me.

However I hated this book.
Of course it was well written, but the story was lame.
Maria is already in love with Dante, we do not see their relationship build up, so it was hard to care for either of them.
She is so pathetically in love, that I had a hard time liking her as a character.

I hope her next book is better.

[E_bookpushers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally posted at: http://thebookpushers.com/2012/03/29/...

Publisher: Ace Books
Publish Date: April 3d
How I got this book: ARC from the publisher

For fifteen years Maria Devane has been desperately, passionately in love with Dante Romano. But despite loving him with all of her heart and soul, Maria knows that Dante can never give all of himself back-at least not all the time.
Every month, Dante shifts shape, becoming a wild animal. During those times, he wanders far and wide, leaving Maria alone. He can’t choose when he shifts, the transition is often abrupt and, as he gets older, the time he spends in human form is gradually decreasing. But Maria, who loves him without hesitation, wouldn’t trade their unusual relationship for anything.
Since the beginning, she has kept his secret, knowing that their love is worth the danger. But when a string of brutal attacks occur in local parks during the times when Dante is in animal form, Maria is forced to consider whether the lies she’s been telling about her life have turned into lies she’s telling herself…
This blurb came from Goodreads.

I have read and own at least one copy of everything Ms Shinn has published with Ace Books so when I heard she was coming out with a new novel I was extremely interested. Then when I found out that it was the first of a new series called Shifting Circle I was even more excited. When we were offered a copy to review I could barely interrupt my happy dance to ask for it. I started reading The Shape of Desire during my lunch break and had to be reminded to go back to work. After I got home from work my plans to cook dinner quickly turned into eating leftovers.

Ms Shinn’s way of painting a picture with words was fully evident in her latest work. At first I wasn’t sure what I thought of the picture I was getting because unlike her previous novels this one seems more firmly set in “the real world” despite its elements of fantasy. I don’t think I was expecting that. Yes, real-world themes do tend to wind their way through fantasy but the very elements that make it fantasy also create a sort of a cushion for the reader. That cushion was nonexistent for me. The heroine had an actual life with a job, friends, family and her lover for 15 years that she has to keep secret from everyone. Unlike “traditional shapeshifters” who are human most of the month Dante is in his altered state most of the month so he has lost the ability to really function in normal society. Not to mention that one of the reasons he loves Maria is that he knows she will never give away his secret. But then a string of mysterious deaths by what appears to be wild animal attacks occurs in the general area when Dante is off wandering.

Dante himself is very secretive. Yes he loves Maria and has bit by bit told her some about his shifting but he has never appeared to her in a shifted form. He doesn’t like to talk about where he goes, what he does, or even what shape he is in. He also refuses to completely depend on Maria but shows up starving, dirty, slightly feral, and usually with healing wounds. His secrecy, especially when a death hits rather close to Maria, makes it hard for her to continue to have faith that she isn’t lying to herself about Dante and his innocence.

The unfolding of their past relationship through flashbacks interposed with their present day life together sold me on their love and trust. I also got the hint that while shapeshifters were rare, more exist than people think. Like Maria I have my suspicions about a certain 4-legged visitor she had. I enjoyed how Dante and Maria worked through their issues in a rather believable way. This book really made me think more then most do as I was reading it. It wasn’t the type of thinking that interrupted my enjoyment or my reading but it was a deeper resonating book that I think will stay with me for quite a while. Like I said earlier this wasn’t exactly what I was expecting from Ms Shinn but the journey she took me on was a good one. As an aside even though I think the woman on the cover appears younger then Maria felt to me, I really love how the cover speaks to the story.

I give The Shape of Desire a B.

[Aphelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Lies are easy. It's the living behind them that's hard." (114)

"Love, I think. Both a noun and a directive. Find it, offer it, and make it the guiding principle of life." (273)

"Everything else is just trumpets and timpani, the circus, the parade, the distractions that escort you through the day." (284)

Sharon Shinn is one of my all-time favourite authors. But I'd read some very mixed reviews for this trilogy, her first foray into my favourite genre: Urban Fantasy. Thankfully, I asked a good friend on Bookstagram who is also a major fan if this trilogy was worth my time, and her enthusiasm made me pick it up.

Although the three stories are loosely linked, I highly recommend reading all three books together. Each builds on aspects of the other. The second book was my favourite, followed closely by the third - this was the one I least connected with. But it's essential reading to understand the stories that follow.

Have you ever wondered how the humans who love shape-shifters live? How they carry on their lives while their loved one is other, subject to an entirely different nature? A nature that they, being human, can never fully understand? If so, this is the story for you!

Maria Devane is utterly normal. She's an accountant in Eureka, Missouri, with one good office friend, the brash and off-puttingly vulgar yet good hearted Ellen, and the usual sort of workplace drama. When away from the office though, her life is an empty space, spent waiting for her lover. She has fashioned her entire existence - from her house to her career - around the erratic orbit of her college sweetheart, dark and broody Dante Romano.

She only feels whole when she's in his arms. It's a desperate, unhealthy kind of love that Maria herself compares to addiction.

Dante is a shape-shifter, and his time in human form each month is growing shorter. Despite being together for over 15 years, Maria has never seen him change, and knows (far, far too) little about his nature - she takes his absences and rough reappearances on faith alone.

But her own aging and longing for a family, and her increasing sense of a life lived unfulfilled, conspire with a recent series of local deaths by animal maulings to make her doubt her carefully edited reality, which comes crashing down around her like a house of cards.

As Maria spirals into a crisis of faith, a coworker's abusive husband, with whom Dante had a confrontation, turns up dead. Maria's anxiety worsens. Dante is a cipher - it is impossible to sympathize with him, and Maria is an unreliable narrator due to her self-delusions. We stay with her perspective, and the story is primarily a blend of murder mystery and psychological thriller.

The story does ask some important questions: Can we ever really know another, even if we are intimately acquainted? What do we choose to believe, and why, and what happens when that faith is tested? Can secrets stay hidden? And how far will we go for love?

This is a dark and twisty tale of obsession. Fascinating, but very different from the lighthearted romances that Shinn usually incorporates into her epic fantasies.

My major quibble:
Dante's sister Christina suddenly has a baby, Lizzie, that Maria falls in love with immediately. Christina is the shape-shifting murderer; her crimes and change are exposed live on television, so there is no doubt of her guilt. The Happily Ever After is that Maria and Dante adopt Lizzie after Christina's death and become a family.

HOWEVER. One of the first victims was a new mother, butthe infant was missing (69), with only a diaper bag left behind. And yet Maria, in all her endless suspicion and speculation, doesn't make the connection between the missing baby and Christina's baby. Maria lies continually, why not Christina? The missing baby is never mentioned again in the series, and Lizzie does turn out to be a shape-shifter, but if that doubt about her origin isn't deliberate, I don't know why it was put there. And if it is deliberate, what is Shinn trying to say?

[Rosario · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Shape of Desire is the first book in the Shifting Circle series, Shinn's foray into Urban Fantasy. The fantasy element here comes from shapeshifters living amongst us. The hero, Dante, is one of them. It's not a gentle, controlled thing for these shapeshifters. The shift comes every month, but they're not able to control when and where, or to stop it, and they don't know when they'll shift back to a human body.

This is particularly difficult for Dante's long-term partner, Maria. Maria is not a shifter, but she found out about Dante's nature long ago and has learnt to cope with the man she loves disappearing at a moment's notice. She tries to help in what she can and realises there's no point being upset about something neither she nor Dante can change, but it's hard. It's not just the unpredictability and the worry that, as time passes, Dante is spending more and more time in his animal form (does this mean he'll end up shifting for good?). There's also the fear that while he's in his animal form, he's not human and in control. Anything could happen to him... an accident, someone capturing him or killing him... and Maria may never know what happened.

And then a series of attacks take place not too far from Maria and Dante's place, all of them at times when she knows Dante has shifted. And Maria starts to worry that when Dante's in animal form and not in control, it may not be just him that's in danger.

This one felt quite different from other Shinn books. It had a bittersweet, melancholy vibe, and this was one that went pretty well with the topic and characters.

I had mixed feelings about this book. My main problem was that I found it really hard to root for Maria and Dante's relationship. There seemed to be an imbalance of power there, since it was very clear that there was nothing Dante could do that Maria wouldn't forgive. In fact, she would completely ignore it and protect him from the consequences, even if it was him being a murderer. Maria basically adores Dante, and will not make any demands from him. Yes, there are things that are not in his power to do (like change the way the biological facts of shape-shifting work), so there is no point in demanding, but there were things he could have done to make things easier on Maria (and a lot of information he had and just did not share).

And the problem is that this uncompromising love and adoration were very clear on her side, but not so much on Dante's. I think Shinn was probably trying to tell us he felt just as strongly about Maria as she did for him, but that didn't really come through, and the relationship felt extremely one-sided. All I got from his actions was that she was convenient for him, but not really much more. That's partly because we were only in her point of view, but only partly. I have read plenty of books where another character's feelings were perfectly clear, even when the narrator is completely oblivious to them. As a result of this imbalance, I'm afraid I found Maria a bit pathetic.

Outside of the main relationship, though, if I accepted that this was a portrayal of a sad, one-sided relationship, there were quite a few things that worked for me. The plot is interesting, and Shinn does some quite interesting world-building. There's the obvious one of the shapeshifters, but there's also a lot of work in making Maria's world real. Like, a lot of mundane detail about office life... Maria is an accountant and we find out whom Maria had lunch with, hear her conversations with her friend Ellen, and so on. Sounds tedious, maybe, but I actually liked that. With Shinn, I always sink into her stories, and this was not the exception.

So, not great, but I still enjoyed it, mostly.

MY GRADE: A B-.

[Olga Godim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a love story: quiet, poignant, and heart-wrenching in its intensity. No tropes of fantasy wormed their way into this book, and the only nod to the genre is the nature of the protagonist, Dante. He is a shape-shifter, but unlike werewolves of a galore of other, more conventional shape-shifting novels, Dante can’t choose when he shifts, for how long, or into which animal. It’s not his story anyway. It’s a story of his girlfriend Maria, the woman who loves Dante.
It’s been fifteen years since their relationship started, but its pattern has remained consistent. Each time Dante shifts, he disappears to roam the wilderness, while Maria mourns and worries. Each time he comes back as human, her soul and body rejoice. As the years progress, his human interludes become shorter and shorter. Now they are reduced to a few days a month, but Maria lives for these days: the days of incandescent delight.
The emptiness between his reappearances she fills by working. She works as an accountant (a surprisingly ordinary profession for such a remarkable heroine), and her office friendships and gossips occupy as much of her time as they do of this unique novel. One might think it would be boring, but it’s not, far from it. Prosaic on the surface but piercingly rich in its heart, Maria’s inner life adds colors and depth to her mundane interactions with coworkers.
When her routine is interrupted by terrible killings in the area, perpetrated by an unknown wild animal, Maria’s life is plunged in turmoil. Could Dante be responsible? The horrific suspicions poison her days, and despair taints her nights, but her main concern is for him alone. She loves him so much she would shield him from any danger, lie and cheat for him, ensure his safety with her life, if she has to. Her inner battle between love and doubts is extremely painful, but she doesn’t hesitate for one second. Right or wrong, Dante is her first priority.
And he loves her too. His love for her is just as deep and abiding as Maria’s love for him, although his love is plagued with insecurity. He doesn’t think he deserves her. He is sure she can do better, much better, than to love a beast. And his doubts make him irritable or sometimes even downright cruel towards his beloved. I think that many a man might recognize himself in Shinn’s portrait of Dante.
The novel has several love scenes, and the writer doesn’t shy from erotica, but she never slides to the level of smut. The sexual encounters between Maria and Dante are as beautiful and life-affirming as their love. They seem to thrum with music. They take the reader into the sky, to soar on the wings of desire. They belong to the higher plane than most hot couplings in most romance novels I’ve ever read. And I read a lot of them. But never before did the words of passion and sensuality take my breath away. Never before did I want to cry when I read them.
The novel takes place during the fall, and Shinn’s descriptions of the flaming colors of the trees are nothing short of brilliant. When her clouds wept with rain, I could almost see the raindrops. I could almost hear the howling wind of a November storm, even while I read the book on a warm and sunny July afternoon.
After Shinn’s other fantasy novels, set in imaginary worlds and rife with magic or angels, I thought I would be disappointed by this novel, set in the here and now. But I wasn’t. I loved it just as much as I loved her previous books. She remains my favorite fantasy writer.

[Kt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally posted on my blog: A Book Obsession..


You can't choose who you love, and this holds true for Maria. She's been madly in love with Dante for the past fifteen years to the point where her whole world revolves around him. Trouble is that he is a shape changer and each month he changes into a different wild animal. He has no control when the shifts overtake him, and as time goes on he is spending less and less time in human form. Even so, Maria couldn't imagine her life any other way, and the sacrifices seem like nothing in comparison to her love. But when people start being mauled to death in nearby areas, whenever Dante is gone she begins to question whether or not he could be the culprit. She'll have to make some tough decisions as she realizes some hard truths about whether or not love really has no bounds.

One of the biggest things that made The Shape of Desire fresh and original was that the narrator was a plain and ordinary human. In so many paranormal novels, the narrator typically has some sort of paranormal ability or other such skills. Or even if they started out as normal, that quickly changes as they are sucked into the paranormal's world. So, in The Shape of Desire, it was really good to see the other side of things and how Maria coped with being left behind so much. While I think she allowed herself to be a little too much of doormat at times, she handled her lot in life remarkably well. I cannot imagine being in her position, having to be so careful to keep the secret, but also suffering so much in missing Dante when he is gone.

The mythology behind The Shape of Desire was simple in that there wasn't a plethora of supernatural creatures, yet it was still completely interesting. That the whole shifting process was out of their control made it seem more of a curse rather than a superpower. I loved that they actually changed into a real animal rather than some sort of were-creature. In fact after they change back, there is a period of time where they almost struggle to remember their humanity as the wild seems to cling to them.

At first I was unsure of the pacing in The Shape of Desire, as I felt like I was waiting a very long time for something to happen. It felt like a cycle set on rinse and repeat. Dante would arrive making Maria incredibly happy, they would have a few days together and then he would take off again, leaving her crushed. To be honest, this became a little frustrating to me, until I took a step back and looked at what it was trying to show me. I realized that Maria's life is a perpetual state of waiting and the progression of the book made me really able to get into her head. I felt the highs and lows right along with her, and it made for a very enjoyable read, especially when you combine in all the other elements of the book. So, if you enjoy a book with great characters, mythology, and the more normal side of the paranormal then The Shape of Desire is one book you won't want to miss!

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was terrible :( i am such a HUGE fan of all of Shinn 's other books that I've read so far - and I've read every single one of her elements and mystic & Rider series, all her YA books, plus several of the Samaria books. But this was just disgusting.

From the get-go the protagonist is a completely helpless, clingy, pathetic creature who seems to have few morals (for example, she's ok with everything coming out of her mouth being a lie, among other things, like sleeping with other people when she's "in love" with her long term boyfriend). Her life completely revolves around her shape-shifter boyfriend, who has no redeeming qualities (until the literally second last page, where he suddenly has a complete personality switch), and she basically lives for the occasional hot sex they have when he deigns to visit her.

The way the protagonist talks about her boyfriend is so blinded by infatuation that i was honestly expecting a twist of some sort where she REALISES what a jerk he's been and how pathetic she is to keep making excuses for him...but instead the "love conquers all"/"soul mates" storyline wins out.

Actually, make that LUST conquers all, since there seriously is no love, only infatuation and animal sex. After all, the first thing you need for it to be believable when a couple fall in love is understanding, but somehow after FIFTEEN YEARS he's still pretty much a total mystery to her. (For those of you who aren't Shinn fans - don't be put off by this book. She does actually know how to show true love. Read the Truth Teller's Tale or Fortune and Fate or actually any of her other books from the other series seem to be ok.)

The second thing you need for love is commitment/thoughtfulness/putting the other person first. But the guy just keeps getting angry at her and makes her feel insecure all the time. I can't believe I'm saying this, but even Twilight was better - at least there the boyfriend realised he was hurting her and in her best interests made a real effort to remove himself from her life and get her to move on. In The Shape of Desire the boyfriend SAYS he cares and SAYS she should leave him...but basically just keeps coming back to her and has no guts to break off the toxic relationship cleanly. Ugh
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[Jacqie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is probably not objectively one of Sharon Shinn's stronger books, but it was what I needed it to be when I read it: a gentle book about human love that is essentially optimistic.

One of Shinn's strengths is world building, but she didn't bother to do that here. Instead, the book takes place in St. Louis, where she lives. The protagonist is an accountant at a small firm. A lot of the book is filled with the mundaneness of her life, the pizza place where she goes to lunch with co-workers, shopping in the city with her cousin, watching TV. In the frame of mind I was in, this was just fine. Another time, I might have become impatient or bored. As it was, the book was sort of chicken soup for my brain.

Maria's boyfriend is Dante, and I don't think it's giving anything away to say that he's a shapeshifter. But Shinn is taking a different look at the idea of shape-shifting. Dante can't control his shifts, and he's pretty much unable to lead a normal life because of it. Maria is his touchstone and his support. For Maria's part, her life revolves entirely around Dante. When he must go, she grieves for days. Then she slowly gets back to an even keel and goes into raptures when he re-appears. She repeats this cycle every month, and has done so for about 17 years. It must be exhausting. And it has rather disturbing overtones about what a relationship with an abusive or bipolar person must be like, although Dante is never abusive to her. Maria's utter codependence made it a bit harder to like her. I suppose that the author was trying to get across total devotion.

There are a few plot threads going on. A woman in Maria's office is in an abusive relationship, and the interactions of the characters feel quite realistic. What do you do if someone doesn't want to be helped? What do you do if they love someone who hurts them? The theme of the book seems to be "the heart wants what it wants" for good or ill. There are also a few killings in a nearby park that upset Maria's equilibrium. These plot points move the book forward, but it's really all about exploring relationships. And how easy it is to lie to people, even those who know you. Is an all-consuming love really what you want?

[E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Shape of Desire” by Sharon Shinn is a lyrical love story about a shapeshifter named Dante Romano and the woman, Maria Devane, who is inextricably tied to him. Maria continues to work at her job as an accountant but she lives for the ever diminishing times out of the month that her lover can live with her as a human. She has accepted all of his tales about changing into various animals over the years for increasingly longer periods of time and has never questioned him or his strictures and has arranged her entire life to accommodate his unusual circumstances. Complications with her coworkers and frightening murders in her town start to alter her relationship with Dante and force her to examine her goals and ultimate desires. Her unswerving devotion to Dante is tested as she finally interacts with his family and discovers that there are even more secrets that she has been unaware of. Escalating tension forces Maria to take action that may ultimately betray the lover that she is striving to protect and changes the dynamics of her relationship with her coworkers. The question is whether she can regain the equanimity that she has treasured for so many years or is this the price she will pay for having a shapeshifter in her life?

This story was a bit of a departure from Ms. Shinn’s intricate series as her characters seemed a bit underdeveloped and the secondary characters were relegated to very brief appearances. The premise is interesting but I found Maria to be too clingy and irritating, filled with angst but trying to hold it in to keep her relationship on an even keel. The interaction between the main characters seemed unhealthy and the pacing of the book was slow until the last third or so. There are beautiful passages with imaginative imagery but the story itself feels two-dimensional and the ending seemed to be disingenuous with little resolution of some of the dangling threads.



© Night Owl Reviews

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

05/2012 I've read quite a lot of Sharon Shinn, and this book is different. It is purposefully ambiguous for most of the book. The reader doesn't know until nearly the end whether Maria's boyfriend Dante is actually a shapeshifter, or if it is all a clever, extended lie. The book isn't fantasy in the way that everything else I've read of Sharon Shinn is fantasy. For most of the book we aren't sure if it is fantasy, because we don't know if Dante is a shapeshifter or not. But that is really a peripheral issue. The book is about Maria's relationship with Dante, and her decision to trust him no matter what. It also explores the idea of love, and what it means to love someone, showing Maria's coworkers, one of whom is abused by her husband, and another who is in love with a third coworker (both are married). It is a good, if unsettling book, as Maria seeks to define herself and her life, as well as what it means to love. I don't approve of her idea of love (transcending morals and self-preservation), but that doesn't keep me from appreciating her character and the complexity of the story that she tells.

05/2016 re-read

11/2020 re-read