Shifting Love

Rating:
Summary: 3.5 stars
Review: Blessed or cursed since childhood with a shape shifting gift, Maggie (Magdalena) has been something of an outcast her entire life. When she dared love, it ended in a painful moment that shifted the course of her entire life. Found by another with her gifts, Maggie begins to understand how her talents can help others, and begins to use them to heal the broken hearts of lonely men who need that special touch to realize their own potential. When she is given her newest assignment, it is supposed to be just another such case, albeit slightly more important on a global level. Even though she has loved every assignment, Julian McDonald is special. Healing his broken heart means totally giving him hers, although the greater plan calls for them to part.

One of the best things to say is that this is a different book, not something that has been done ten thousand times before now. The premise is original and the characters engaging. Though edgy, there is a sweetness as well, and is definitely worth recommending.

Amanda Killgore

Rating:
Summary: Way different but still a good read
Review: I am HUGE fan of everything and anything of C.Oday Flannery. Everyone of her books is a keeper and her usual style as you may know is time travel.. This sure as heck is no time travel romance.. it is at times a shake your head and reread that last line to make sure you got that right kinda book.. I was hesitant and wary of the ideas of a shape shifter being believable.. but it was.. it was very well written and insightful.. Maggie the Shape shifter can transform herself from human to animal form with a thought.. where you think its totally unrealistic... Oday makes it real... her visual descriptions are excellent and makes it real in your head.. I love a book that allows my imagination to take shape what is written on the pages and this book does that.. Its weird but oddly believable.. its way out there in the realms of rational thinking but then who said we have to be rational all of the time.. I enjoyed this book.. i found the characters believable and well defined...The love story was beautiful and sensual.. it was hot and steamy and everything else good about a romance novel shape shifer or not.. As with all of Odays other books this too is a keeper on my shelf... For those loyal to the wirter .. you will enjoy it.. but then .. to each his own...

Rating:
Summary: great paranormal romance
Review: In Philadelphia, shapeshifter Maggie O'Shea would prefer to avoid lunch with her former lover and mentor Marcus Bocelli, but she knows her commitment to his Foundation forces her to leaves the comfort of her Soul Provisions shop to meet with him. She thinks back to how the charismatic Marcus trained her in using her ability to mend broken hearts through the purity of love.

Marcus informs Maggie that the Foundation needs her to heal management consultant Julian McDonald still mourning the deaths of his wife and their young child in a Colorado plane crash nine years ago. Though she demands to know why him, Marcus fails to respond. Still she goes on the mission only to find he heals her loneliness as much as she teaches him that he still has the capacity to love others. As they fall in love, Maggie and Julian must make decisions; he feels the guilt of the survivor moving on and she doubts anyone can truly love a person like her.

Paranormal romance readers have plenty to cheer about as Tor opens up a new line with the great Constance O'Day-Flannery returning to the fold after taking a breather. SHIFTING LOVE is a terrific tale due to the characters making the otherworldly elements and themselves seems authentic. Maggie and Julian are fabulous protagonists with both having qualms that could easily derail their relationship before it can fully forge on top of the foundation of love. Marcus is an intriguing enigmatic leader who fans will want more appearances by him. Welcome back Ms. O'Day-Flannery and welcome to the sub-genre Tor for if this collaboration is any indication, fans are the winners.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Great read.
Review: Magdalene "Maggie" O'Shea is a shape shifter. She can become any animal at will. For over fourteen years Maggie has been part of a foundation, a society, devoted to bringing the world back into balance. Maggie is given an "assignment", a man's name, every two years. The man is one who has shut himself off from love. Maggie is the one who comes before the real one can show up. Maggie is the one who heals the man so he can love again. Then she gently pushes him toward another. This assignment will be her last. Maggie is ready to retire.

Entrepreneur Julian McDonald is rich, cynical, and bored. Since the death of his wife and son he rejects relationships. He has a new lady on his arm every other month. He meets Maggie at a charity auction. She is unlike anyone he has met before. He intends to keep her, no matter how hard she resists or how often she claims that she is not the one for him.

**** The secret society is the most enticing part of this novel. But personally, I adore super natural and/or fantasy with my romance and was disappointed in how little the shape shifting was used. Overall, the novel came across as a light reading type of romance with just a bit of shape shifting thrown in. As the beginning of a new type of genre for the publisher, Tor, it is excellent. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth your time!!!
Review: One I am a great fan of constance o'day flannery, her time travel series are simply put, out of this world. i really would like to know what made her think that she could write about a super secret agency of shape shifter out to help the world one high powered person at a time, is beyond me. This novel dragged on and on and on..... The string of though is endless, the reaccuring ex-lover/mentor/trainer in and out of her life is a bit trashy! I would not buy this novel if I were you.

Rating:
Summary: More than just a romance
Review: The first romance books I ever read were time travels by Constance O'Day Flannery. Her early books took me on adventures full of love and romance, opening up a whole wonderful genre to me.

Just when I was starting to think that romance (at least the genre) had gotten boring and stale, and had nothing left to offer me, Ms. O'Day Flannery comes along and opens a new world to me again.

SHIFTING LOVE is not just about finding a lover and a happily ever after. This book truly explores the nature of love and life, and how opening your soul and truly living is our only purpose here.

There are other reviews that can give you a synopsis of how this story unfolds, but they can't tell how renewed you will feel after you read it. SHIFTING LOVE is a book that is filled with joy, insight and most importantly, hope.

Over the yeas I have recommended alot of books to friends. I have even lent out a few. This is one of the rare times where I will actually go and buy a bunch of these books, hand them to the people I love, anbd make them read.

Rating:
Summary: good but not to my taste
Review: This book has three strong themes: shape-shifting, a Da-Vinci-Code-secret society out to save humanity, and a journey to self-discovery theme.

This was a good book. Basically, there's a "Foundation" of shapeshifters throughout time who try to quietly save humanity, and they do so in different ways. One way is to "save" bitter, cold people, who may one day be playing important roles, by making them fall in love with someone from the Foundation who teaches them the right path/how to love again.

That's where the heroine Magdelena comes in. Her assignment this time is to "save" Julian, a powerful man who is unknowingly being groomed for an important role. She has to make him fall in love for her, and learn to love again. Of course, they fall in love, and there's another handsome shapeshifter in the picture.

Okay, it was a good book, but it wasn't for me. First of all, I like to read paranormal for the sheer magic and edginess (think Sherrilyn Kenyon or Laurell K. Hamilton). This book was really sentimental. The kind of book that's about a person's journey to self-discovery. Like the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun", which I wouldn't touch with a long stick. There was a lot of introspection, and very little action or excitement. Secondly, I'm not into the Christian overtones (secret society out to serve in the misunderstood name of biblical Magdalene). Third, I didn't like the idea of teaching men to love other women by sleeping with them then leaving them. The overlay of religious tones, public service and sexual education reminded me of the Kushiel trilogy by Jaqueline Carey, except that it didn't work for me in this modern setting book. I didn't like the idea of the heroine sleeping with these men over the last fourteen years, because someone told her to do so in the name of love/service.

So if you like journey-to-self-discovery themes like "Under the Tuscan Sun" or Nora Roberts books, or you liked books like the "Da Vinci Code" (which I haven't read, but apparently there are similar themes) or you don't mind the love-'em-and-leave-'em approach, then this one may be for you.

On the other hand, if this is a sample of what Tor's new paranormal romance line is going to be like, it's definitely better written than Harlequin's Bombshell series, which also features paranormal elements and some action.