guardian

     Well, I reached 200... and I even realized it before I started reading ~ Bonus!  I did make a conscious choice of Keri Arthur's sixth book in her Riley Jenson, Guardian series ~ The Darkest Kiss ~ as my 200th read.  It's a series that I totally love and I've been holding onto this book for a couple of months... what better reasons, right?
     This story was everything I expected ~ and even a little more.  Both Riley and her twin Rhoan are maturing, both looking for more than just casual relationships ~ good to see.  The background characters ~ Kade, horse-shifter and fellow Guardian; Jack, Riley's boss in the Directorate; Sal, Riley's nemesis and go-to person when on a case; Liander, Rhoan's lover and soul mate ~ are still present and becoming more fleshed out and people in their own rights.  And the action ratchets up another couple of notches:  there's also some great foreshadowing for future books... definitely going to see more of Vinny I expect.

RATING:
Excellence: Excellent+ ~ 4.5 stars
Steaminess: Sensual

Back Cover:

He couldn't resist her innocence…
Nick Coleman was one of Sydney's most eligible billionaires. Love 'em and leave 'em—that was Nick's mantra. But he couldn't do that to Sarah; he had promised he would act as her guardian and protect her. Yet he wanted her, badly…. Sarah was soon to claim her inheritance.

She'd be a sitting duck to predators looking for a rich, innocent girl. Perhaps it was Nick's responsibility to personally teach her how wicked and seductive a man could be….
 

My Review:

Yeah, the back cover was misleading.  It says "her innocence" and "teaching her" when really the heroine has had multiple lovers (though they were not very good lovers) and is pretty casual about sex.  It makes the heroine sound as if she's moderately experienced, but just plain bad in the sack. 

She's 20 years old and an heiress, he's a friend of her father and is her guardian until she's 21.  He sends for her to leave London and join him on an island because her deceased father was worried a man would marry her for her money.  The heroine has had a crush on the hero since she was 14 and he treated her with coolness.  She now feels the need to needle him and torment him, so she lets him think she's the bad girl he thinks and that she's pregnant.  The hero is engaged and wanted out of the engagement of convenience before the heroine came onto the scene.  They torment each other and are attracted, but he fights it.  Eventually, he wants her as his, regardless of whether she's pregnant (which she isn't).  She is still under the impression he is engaged, and rejects him. 

Eternally by Maureen Child, Nocturne, #4, November 2006  

Back Blurb 

KIERNAN MacINTYRE
BORN 1538
DIED 1573
REBORN...MOMENTS LATER
He was a Guardian. An immortal fighter of evil. The sexy, sword-wielding stranger standing before Julie Carpenter claimed he was out to destroy a demon and that she was its next target. As he whisked her away to his fortress like mansion high in the Hollywood hills, she could only hope Kieran was not the true danger.
For centuries Kieran had heard the legend of Destined Mates...but he never believed until now. He could read Julie's thoughts, sense her deepest desires. And he knew she wanted him just as he knew joining with her would make him strong enough to defeat any demon from hell. But the cost might be losing the woman who was his true salvation.

Holy Smokes is the fourth novel in the Aisling Grey series.

Aisling is waiting at the church for Drake her dragon mate, but not her mate.  He is no longer her mate because of dirty tricks by Fiat, the wyvern of the blue dragons, but he is still her lover.  She must act at official occasions as the mate of the blue dragon, but without the intimacy. 

In this latest installment of the Dragon Sept series or The Aisling Grey Guardian Novels, we find ourselves invited to the wedding of Aisling and Drake. Of course the date is set, then reset, then moved again because it seems the bride and groom can't seem to make it to the church on time. A veritable rollercoaster of happenings, emotions, drama, sex and love, Katie MacAlister doesn't disappoint.