I Am Batman...In Love

Night Shadow is the second story in the Exposed (2016) repackaged first two stories of Nora Roberts' Night Tales Series. It features Cilla O'Rourke from book 1's sister, Deborah O'Roarke who has finished her studies and is now an assistant district attorney in the fictional city of Urbana. She meets her romantic interest, Gage Guthrie, when he saves her from being sexually assaulted in an alleyway...only she met him as alternate-ego-vigilante-superhero, Nemesis.

What follows is a Batman inspired romance novel: There's a seemingly Playboy millionaire, his butler, a backstory, a secret cave, sinister criminals, and ruthless politicians who try to overtake the city. Deborah is the new, young, gorgeous, and successful attorney taking the city and its gossip pages by storm. Conflict arises when her ideals of law, order, and justice conflict with those of the man she's falling for. How do they reconcile those differences?

On its own, Night Shadow is perfectly fine. Contrasted with the set up from Night Shift, however, I had a hard time with the change in tone and setting of the two stories: They seemed to reside in alternate universes and yet they weren't because Cilla from the real world (Denver) interacts with this Deborah from this fantasy world (Urbana). Moreover, there's a supernatural element that just had me rolling my eyes. Lastly, I got distracted by all the similarities to Batman--again, another cause for more eye rolls and thoughts of rip off...or is it homage?

Night Shadow is fine and engaging. Fans of Nora Roberts and mystery/suspense are likely to enjoy it.

A CBR8 crossposted review