Shadow Dreams

Shadow Dreams
Evangeline Anderson
Kindle Edition, 95 pages
Published September 30th 2013 by Evangeline Anderson (first published 2004)

A lonely divorced girl gets a new pet to keep her company. But is Shadow more than he seems?

Once there was a boy of the Bitterwater Clan of the Din'e, the Navajo People. He lived with his ma'sani, his grandmother, in the Four Corners in the Navajo Nation on a reservation...

So begins the story of James Redtree, a Navajo man who is transformed into a dog by his grandmother's curse.


Doomed too wander the world as a dog until he finds a woman to love and belive in him, James ends up as Shadow, a huge, mixed breed mutt that looks like a wolf crossed with a pony. From there it's a short trip to the local Animal Shelter where he's scheduled to be euthanized.

Enter Angelina Dean, Jelly to her two best friends, who convince her that getting a dog for protection and companionship is the best thing to do. She's alone in the big old house her grandmother left her since her husband of three years ran off with his personal trainer, Justin.

Having never been a "dog person," Angelina is reluctant to take on such a big animal but Shadow's sweet disposition wins her over. She takes him home and weird things start happening.

Angelina can't figure out what's going on. Who ever heard of a dog that prefers salad to gourmet dog food? Or one who changes the station from Animal Planet to ESPN when she's out of the room?

But what really disturbs her is the strange, recurring dream she keeps having. Who is the muscular Native American man who keeps appearing in her bed and why are the dreams so vivid? She is plagued by the idea that her dreams are somehow tied to her new pet, Shadow, but that isn't possible...is it?

Then, on the last night of the full moon, her dream man says something that haunts Angelina. "This is my last chance," he tells her. "I need you to believe in me." But can the practical Angelina do as he asks before it's too late?

I do love stories involving writers...

This is an oldie of Anderson's, recently re-released due to demand. I can't say the premise did much for me, or how James went about his goal to get Angelina to believe in him but the smut, as always, made up for what I felt was lacking. FYI: Angelina, on her own, is a disaster.

3 out of 5 stars.