The Shape of Desire
Ratings4
Average rating2.3
15
Ratings4
Average rating2.3
For 15 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.
Series
3 primary booksShifting Circle is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2012 with contributions by Sharon Shinn.
Reviews with the most likes.
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.
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