This is the first of this author's books I have tried. I did enjoy it.

I thought at first I was not going to like the hero, Arion. He seemed very dominating and misogynistic. Something I can't stand in real life and not so much in fiction. He soon began to change though and became a very nice man as he tried to be a good husband. The heroine, Jenna, was a little wimpy but had an interior type of courage and did her best to stand up to him within the limits of her personality. She wasn't strident and out to change Leor society. (As another human woman evidently was. Lana must have been the main character in another book and from reading this one, I know that I don't want to read her story. She was a ludicrous stereotype and I cringed every time she was present.)

So the two main characters were very well written and fairly true to themselves. I had a problem with some of the Leor politics in that SPOILERS there was a character who had to die because he had accidently killed another Leor man in a drunken brawl. So here we have a society at war with outposts being wiped out and who have a low birth rate that they are trying to address and they kill a guy over an accident. It would have made more sense that instead of two fatherless families, the man should have been made to provide for both families. I guess the point is that the Leor have a very hidebound rigid society and over the course of the book are being made to see that they must change and adapt.

So all in all I guess it was pretty good. Well written and I liked the climax at the end as I am fond of the sacrifice all for love type of romances. Pretty good sci fi romance. ( )

Ms. Spangler is a new author for me, and when I read a new author I usually get a book with a common storyline, so when I found out about her Shielder's series, it reminded me of Jayne Ann Krentz's Shield's Lady. But Shadow Fires is so much MORE! It was exciting and romantic and funny, I though there were just so moments whrn he was trying to relate to his wife that were sweet and funny. I have already gone out and bought the rest of the series, and I am so excited. I love it when I find a new author! You'll been done with this books in 5 hours, and that's with interruptions. ( )