Feminista

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.Before this novel, I had read one of Sharon Shinn's angel books, and I liked it a lot. So I was going through my to read list, and I saw that I had this book marked ages ago. Eager, I got started on the book, with high expectations.I was disappointed. We find out that the characters Maria and Dante have been together for 15 years. Sweet, right? Wrong. Maria barely knows her lover/boyfriend. She has been with him since she was 20 years old, and she hardly knows him. She finds out things in this novel, where the finding is a struggle, if not completely accidental.Let's start with Dante. He could have been a sweet hero. He really would have been, if it weren't for the fact that he completely ignores/denies Maria, every time Maria asks him anything. This girl/woman gave up her life for him. She puts it like this, 90% of the decisions she makes, she makes with Dante in mind. Because Dante is a shape-shifter, he is only human a week in a month. The world does not know about the existence of shape shifters, so it's a secret she has to keep.Later on we find out that the reason Dante didn't tell her all his secrets, and still hadn't told her half of it, by the time the book ended, was because he didn't want her to feel trapped with him . Can you imagine! 15 years, she is more trapped than a bird with broken wings in a cage. But does he comprehend that? Nope.He does things like get a vasectomy 10 years into their relationship, without even telling her, like her opinion does not matter. Yes, I know, in the end, it is his choice, it is his body, like abortion is the woman's choice, but she deserves to be told it before that happened. Then he lies to her about where he is, one night, when he calls her from the telephone booth. He gets moody and bored during the precious moments he is with her. And we see Maria get this treatment all the way from past to now. It is not that he is mean to her, per se, it's just that he doesn't care about her feelings enough to account for them in his decisions. He does not talk about the other shifters there, it is like a whole new world for Maria, 15 years of keeping a secret for this one man. Telling the whole world lies to keep his secret, and for what?Then there was one. Maria. She is supposed to be insanely in love with Dante. And she is, I get that, it's sweet too. But seriously woman, you are just finding out things about him that you did not know before, and you are okay with it? You have given up a normal life with a normal family, kids, family socialising, and for what, a secretive man, whom you know as much of, as you did 15 years ago? Then there is also that, when we read a bit about their past, 15 years ago, I felt that the only reason Dante saw, saw her, was because she can keep a dire secret. Otherwise she wouldn't have been a blip on his radar.The next part is a bit of a spoiler, but the synopsis mentions it. The fact that she suspects Dante is a murder, and is okay with it. I was NOT okay with that. I get the whole undying devotion thing. But you are seriously crossing a line, when your boyfriend could be a murderer. What if next time, it was a five-year old that died. Hell, even adults dying is nothing to scoff about. Anywho, this book won't stop me from reading Sharon Shinn's novels. But maybe next time, I'll stick to her angel books.