Mating with Roke was an accident; at least that's what Sally keeps telling herself. She's on the hunt for her demon father, whose identity holds the key to releasing the spell. The search won't be easy with Roke shadowing Sally's every move. As they mate with a ferocity that leaves them both aching for more, Sally isn't sure if her world is more dangerous without Roke—or with him...
Comment: This is the most recent installment of the Guardians of Eternity series by Alexandra Ivy to be released. There's another one to be out this year.
This is Roke and Sally's story. This couple first had air time on the previous book where a spell made them mates but when this book begins Sally has gone away to look for clues about the identity of her father, someone her witch mother never told her. But Sally's powers are changing and knowing who and what her father is might help her.
Roke is a chief clan, important to his people. He never wanted to be saddled with a witch but the spell is making him feel things he fast discovers might not be the only cause of his developing feelings for Sally. But after he finally gets to her, there's no escaping they need to find out more about Sally and their mating, which Roke no longer thinks about as a burden...
These books are easily read as stand-alones. But there are so many references and elements connected, that I think any reader only gains from reading them in order.
Of course, I can't say the writing is the most fascinating one. There's nothing wrong with it, the story flows, develops, moves along, but it's not addictive, there aren't enough amazing things to support the book beyond the usual paranormal romance. This doesn't mean it's wrong or bad, only that after a lot of books, despite some better and worse stories, in the end they all sort of feel like the same.
One thing positive to say about the author's writing is, she surely knows how to come up with new things, new characters, species, ideas, elements to the stories, connections. I can't tell whether it's from researching myths and mythical beings/lore or her imagination developing after an idea, but this worlds is populated by several types of beings, each ones with different characteristics, and everything together makes for an interesting mixing of things that give life to the books.
This story features a witch and a vampire so many tings from the myths of these beings show up in this story. It's interesting how Sally and Roke have to deal with specifications of what they are to work around their forced mating, but the truth is, being this a romance, many of those things also help to solidify a relationship, make them deal with each other, and this part I think was well achieved by the author.
The romance feels more balanced because there was that sort of introduction to them in the previous book, but Sally here seemed much more naive than before. I'm not sure this is fair to the personality she presented before, but anyway, they have a good HEA while trusting each other and what they need to do.
Some things are meant to matter to the plot but honestly I just thought them boring, like the mystery behind Sally's father started off as a good idea but ended up in boredom and more reasons to keep going with the series, as new characters are introduced. In the end the solution to the plot's main issue wasn't done in the way I thought best.
The bad guy also had air time here and I always find these parts annoying and useless, so I skipped almost all of them.
All in all, a good enough romance, basic plot structure's well developed but the overall feeling isn't one of amazement, it's more like we get what we expected, what we imagined would happen and the magic of everything just blends, doesn't surprise. Still, a series with a long life must count for something...
Grade: 6/10
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