Dancing with Shadows

by J.G. Pajot

A mixture of mystery, fantasy and soft erotica, Dancing With Shadows takes you into the mystical world of Raven's Winter. A refuge for a Covenant based on ancient Celtic beliefs, it is a place where passions are strong, love is in full bloom, and the magic is deadly real.

204 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Born an Army brat at Fort Hood, Texas, Jim grew up and has spent most of his life in the Virginia peninsula area. With an Associates degree in Architectural Technology, he has been employed in the field of machine manufacturing since 1976, as an inspector and then machine tool designer, then back to inspector. Gardening, growing exotic plants (especially orchids), sailing, and golf fill much of his free time. A true "tree hugger", conservation and respect for the natural world are very important to him and often are themes reflected in his works.
Jim has been writing since the early eighties and has completed several novels since then, most of which are available on Amazon kindle. There are three others that were written in the early eighties which he has yet to convert from typewritten format.
He is currently working on the first book in his "Pyrates" series, a new direction for his writing, combining the use of a fantasy world much like our own, and aspects of the age of pirates combined with the French-British conflicts and the American revolution of the late 1700's. He hopes to complete this novel and release it by late spring of 2015.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's clear the author loves Celtic mysticism, songs and history. But the story and main characters - Emily, Joseph and Sammy - are lost beneath the purple prose, old-time language and heavy dialects. "Awkward" best describes this book. Everything is awkward, from the convoluted sentence structure to Sammy's near unintelligible Jamaican accent to the old-fashioned descriptions of sexual acts. When Emily and Joseph finally meet, what does she do first? She excuses herself to pee behind a tree. Awk. Ward. Did we need to know that? No, but these characters are very preoccupied with bladders and neighboring body parts throughout the story. The characters are developed superficially. There could have been a lot to work with - inner turmoil from religious beliefs and differences - but it fell short. I read the book all the way through because I liked the characters in general, but they offered very little emotional connection.

This book really would have benefitted from a strong, expert editing hand. The amount of repetition bogged this down (second only to the onerous sentence structure). Word echoes abound. The jewelry Emily put on every day was overkill (literally; really, I do get your cleverness, already, of the ending 'twist'). I don't need to be hit over the head repeatedly. How many ways can be found to describe the moon and stars and nightsounds? You'll find them all here, ad nauseum.

I wanted to like this but found myself squirming. The writing style, prose and characterizations were too old-fashioned. It was like your elderly uncle telling you the details of his honeymoon in an 'olde English' or Celtic or Jamaican or American accent and going on and on and on, reliving it for himself rather than for your benefit. Thankfully, you don't have to come up with an excuse to leave. You can just close the book and walk away.