Playboy Noah Clayborne exists in the shadows of Jordan Buchanan's life until Jordan becomes involved in a mysterious ancient Scottish feud with a secret treasure. Every woman should be so lucky as to have a knight in shining armor like Noah Clayborne rush to their side in times of peril. "Tall, athletic, outgoing, handsome --- he was a man's man and a woman's fantasy. His sandy blond hair was always slightly in need of a trim and his piercing blue eyes sparkled with mischief whenever he gave one of his devilish grins."

New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood is a master of romance writing, drawing the reader in with this enticing description of a sexy hero on page six of her latest romantic suspense novel, SHADOW DANCE. A superior romance novel is only as good as the fantasies the male character keeps alive and the passions he stokes.

Jordan Buchanan admits that Noah oozes charisma and is "one of the sexiest men I've ever met." At the lavish wedding of Jordan's brother, Dylan Buchanan, and her best friend, Kate MacKenna, Noah and Jordan are paired in the wedding party. This gives Noah a chance to tease and tempt Jordan about her lack of adventure and fun. "As a mathematician and a computer engineer, Jordan dealt with facts and abstracts, not fantasy." Pair that with sexy FBI agent Noah Clayborne, and Garwood delivers a romantic suspense novel with Noah pursuing Jordan in a steamy relationship set amidst a sometimes-confusing story of feudal warring, a jeweled crown and a missing treasure.

Many of Garwood's beloved characters from previous novels are included in SHADOW DANCE, fueling interest in this latest pairing of lovers. When Jordan learns of the mysterious tale from an odd professor/wedding crasher, she decides to visit middle-of-nowhere Serenity, Texas, to step outside her comfort zone and find out more about the thirteenth century feud involving her family name from the professor.

Two good things happen to Jordan in Serenity. She is warmly welcomed by some of the local community, and her brother's FBI partner Noah comes to her rescue when she finds a dead body in the trunk of her car --- not once, but twice. Jordan becomes the focus of the local investigation and sweetheart of the townspeople who have embraced her. In my opinion, local bad guy J.D. Dickey and local restaurant owner Jaffee's computer woes take up entirely too much space.

Noah's realization that Jordan had "stopped being his partner's kid sister and become the amazingly sexy woman he wanted to take to bed" adds some real romance to a middle-of-nowhere plot. The feudal scenes of fields of blood and body parts, legends and betrayals, and warriors killing are long and confusing. Truthfully, I skipped over some of them. Halfway through the novel, Garwood gets back to writing what she writes best --- romance and steamy bedroom scenes that are the heart of a romance writer's repertoire. Scenes like this are worth the wait. Four pages of scorching kisses, raw passion, teasing and intensity brought the most action the little town of Serenity had ever seen --- or not seen --- behind closed doors. Savage pleasures bring this novel to life.

Jordan denies to herself that she is a Noah groupie, but "If being loved by Noah, even for one night, was a fantasy, she wanted to indulge." When the heroine becomes a "wild woman in his arms" we can be pretty sure this voracious playboy will succumb to love. It's always amazing to read the novel ways in which writers transform the sexy playboys into men who now long for a lasting relationship. Love always seems to come out of nowhere for men, even when the woman is in the shadows of his life.

The mystery of the dead bodies slowly unravels and follows Jordan and Noah back to their hometown of Boston. Jordan is the victim of a shooting made to look like she got in the middle of someone out to kill her father, the judge. It is our hero Noah who puts the pieces together and solves the crimes associated with Jordan's trip to Serenity.

Noah's cocky self-assurance is part of what makes him attractive, and being called "Sugar" is an endearment that Jordan and Noah's groupies love to hear. A lover who says to a woman "You'll make me the happiest man in the world" is the romantic hero of women's fantasies and the object of their desires. Voracious lovers are Garwood's expertise, and her legion of fans can expect passion to reign over peril as she binds lovers together with aggressors who make heroines melt and passions rise. It's what women want.