A review by inked_orca
Shadow by Janie Crouch

5.0

Heath is an important key to a secret project that turned out to be shady. Brainwashing and sleeper agents were the norm for Project Crypt. For Heath, it’s the gibberish they put inside his head that makes him hunt the man responsible for it.

When the answers to what’s inside his brain are lost, Heath takes on a mission to go undercover not expecting to meet a linguistics doctoral student who could silence the gibberish in his head for a while.

Jacquelyn, Lyn, wanted to do something different from what her family envisioned for her. Lying to her brothers and dad about her major put her in a direct line of fire. Not knowing the man she met is actually working undercover, who also knows one of her brothers.

When danger follows them, they need to figure out what’s happening and how to stop it before it’s too late.



Romance suspense with secret projects just hits different. This book has a best friend’s sister romance, a strong female who doesn’t let her disability stop her and an alpha male who’s looking for answers about his past. I couldn’t put it down once I opened it. It’s book six in the Linear Tactical series and I feel it couldn’t be read as a standalone because the plot is related to Ghost, book five of this series, as it talks about Project Crypt too and why Heath is after answers.



I loved seeing the other characters from the previous book. Reading about them in this book gave us more glimpses into how they are doing after their book is over. It’s like checking up on friends after a while. Each book I’ve read from this series seemed to have a teaser for the next one. You see scenes that make you curious to read the story behind it and what happened.



Having to read about a character whose heart is weak, but as you read on, you see that inner strength makes this inspirational. that’s why this book felt unique and original to me. Lyn’s heart couldn’t take the stress, but here she was handling it like a boss when all her family wanted to do was wrap her in cotton wool.



I hated nothing about this book. It hooked in its lines and left me wanting more of what Janie Crouch offers. Her way of writing simply makes you crave more. The characters felt real and their weakness made them even more likeable. I’m sure I’ll reread this book again. Once doesn’t feel enough.

Planning to read this series as soon as I can.