Still Life with Shape-Shifter

Still Life with Shapeshifter was much better than the first book in Shinn's Shifting Circle series, The Shape of Desire, but it still pales in comparison with her Samaria or Twelve Houses books. I give Shinn props for showing the downside of being a shapeshifter - unlike many paranormal romance novels, the shapeshifters aren't all-powerful sex gods, but beings whose animal lives are fraught with danger and whose lifespans are shortened by the strain of the constant changes. The terrible downside of this life is poignantly portrayed in the relationship between primary narrator Melanie and her shapehsifter half-sister Ann. She also creates a nice romance between Melanie and journalist Brody.

But when I read a sentence like “At times it seems to me that I didn't start to live until I met him,” spoken by secondary narrator Janet about Connor, the shapeshifter she met and loved from the age of 16, I have to wonder what is going through Shinn's mind. From the author who gave us such strong, independent female characters as Senneth in the Twelve Houses series, reading something that could have come from the mouth of Twilight's Bella is a complete letdown. Fortunately, the relationship between Janet and Connor is much more interesting than the one between Maria and Dante in The Shape of Desire because it has a forward progression, and Janet has some goals in life other than being with Connor, but her utter dependence is depressing.

Setting this series in modern day reality allows Shinn to juxtapose the magic with the mundane but I still miss the magic settings of her previous novels. Shinn has built up so much respect and goodwill in my mind over the past 15 years that I will likely continue to read future novels in this series (if there are any), but I won't approach them with the same level of excited anticipation as I did when faced with the prospect of a new Samaria or Twelve Houses novel.