Title: Guardian's Grace
Author: Jacqueline Rhoades
Series: Guardians of the Race #1
Published: May 12th 2012
Page Count: 342
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Shelf: Gift
Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Grace Masters always wanted a family she could call her own. Of course, in her imagination it didn’t include a pair of rambunctious and affectionate twins who can turn into killers within the blink of an eye or an aging vampire who has trouble controlling his thirst. She never expected to find a friend and mentor in a three hundred year old witch who looks like Sophia Loren. And she certainly never dreamed – okay, she dreamed but never thought it would come true – of a tall, handsome hero who would sweep her off her feet. Yet here she is, in an old Victorian home, living and loving under the cover of night.
Who knew that the source of her lifelong torment was really her gift as a Daughter of Man or that this gift could be controlled and used for something good? Who knew there was another race called the Paenitentia who live side by side with humans? Who knew that demons were real?
Grace certainly didn’t until one fateful night when her world falls apart and comes together again in a place where she finally feels she belongs. Sometimes a person just knows when something is right and destined to be. Sometimes convincing someone else of that fact is a little more difficult. Canaan ad Simeon is that someone else.
Canaan is Liege Lord to a House of Guardians whose job is to protect the Race from a demon threat many no longer believe in. Already breaking away from the outdated traditions that are depleting their numbers and threatened by a hierarchy resistant to change, the last thing Canaan needs is to fall for this innocently sexy Daughter of Man.
But fall he does, with a mixture of comedy, drama and sexy fun that will touch your heart.
Grace Masters always wanted a family she could call her own. Of course, in her imagination it didn’t include a pair of rambunctious and affectionate twins who can turn into killers within the blink of an eye or an aging vampire who has trouble controlling his thirst. She never expected to find a friend and mentor in a three hundred year old witch who looks like Sophia Loren. And she certainly never dreamed – okay, she dreamed but never thought it would come true – of a tall, handsome hero who would sweep her off her feet. Yet here she is, in an old Victorian home, living and loving under the cover of night.
Who knew that the source of her lifelong torment was really her gift as a Daughter of Man or that this gift could be controlled and used for something good? Who knew there was another race called the Paenitentia who live side by side with humans? Who knew that demons were real?
Grace certainly didn’t until one fateful night when her world falls apart and comes together again in a place where she finally feels she belongs. Sometimes a person just knows when something is right and destined to be. Sometimes convincing someone else of that fact is a little more difficult. Canaan ad Simeon is that someone else.
Canaan is Liege Lord to a House of Guardians whose job is to protect the Race from a demon threat many no longer believe in. Already breaking away from the outdated traditions that are depleting their numbers and threatened by a hierarchy resistant to change, the last thing Canaan needs is to fall for this innocently sexy Daughter of Man.
But fall he does, with a mixture of comedy, drama and sexy fun that will touch your heart.
My Review:
Rhoades is a very visual author. Using a multiplicity of techniques she develops a world that you cannot help but see in your mind’s eye. Her writing style and tone change minutely based on the scene and it’s participants. She subtly evokes emotions in her readers through this. The dark and light of the storyline are entrenched in the reader’s psyche without Rhoades every having to state it flat out. Rhoades describes her scenes in explicit detail, drawing her readers further and further into the story.
I love how Rhoades doesn’t mince her words. She says what she means in the way real people say it. This flows directly into her dialogue. People talk like real people. Slang and swearing make their way into her novels in the manner that it does in everyday conversation. It makes everyone seem so much more real when they aren’t speaking like a textbook or sickly sweet. Rhoades writes her novels for adults without ever talking down to them or simplifying things. At the same time, the novel is naturally written. You feel like you’re still in the real world experiencing something amazing.
I found myself attached to the main characters right from the beginning of this novel. Although the cast itself is quite large, each character is individually developed. Rhoades does a brilliant job of developing everyone to suit their role. She doesn’t throw extraneous details at her readers.
Title: Guardian's Hope
Author: Jacqueline Rhoades
Series: Guardians of the Race #2
Published: April 7th 2013 by Createspace
Page Count: 368
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Shelf: Gift
Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis from Goodreads:
This is Hope’s world until she finds a box her mother hid years ago and the remnant of a letter her runaway sister wrote begging for help. These finds are the impetus she needs to embark on a journey out into the world and the city where she hopes to find her sister and learn more about her mother’s legacy. Once there, she learns her father was wrong about most of the evils of the outside world. Unfortunately, he was right about one; living, breathing demons are real.
Nico ad Nimeni, with his dark charm and magazine cover good looks, is a recent addition to Canaan ad Simeon’s House of Guardians. As a Guardian of the Race, it’s his job to protect his people, the Paenitentia, along with humankind from the demons who cross over from the Otherworld, but Nico knows there are demons other than those that stalk the night preying on the fear and flesh of humankind. Nico’s personal demons are the ones that plague a man’s soul and insist he stand apart.
When circumstances bring Hope to the House, she finds a place where everything she was taught about good and evil is turned upside down. In this world of witches and demons, vampires and Paenitentia, she learns that things are not always what they seem and that a shy, self-conscious country girl can be beautiful and find love in the arms of a suave sophisticate.
Join Hope and Nico as they search for her missing sister and discover in each other the healing power of love.
Adult-content rating: This book contains content considered unsuitable for young readers 17 and under, and which may be offensive to some readers of all ages.
My Review:
This story is quite emotionally charged. The two main characters are learning to accept who they truly are and can be as compared to what they have learned/believed all their lives. I love the play between fate, happenstance, and the everyday in the course of relationships coming together. Amidst the supernatural turmoil of the story love and hope still shine through.
It’s brilliant to see how this group of unrelated individuals come together into a family unit. Everyone complements each other in an emotional, mental, and even physical way. Even though this is far from your traditional family unit, you can definitely see the familial relationships here. My only question with regards to any of the questions is this: What in the world is up with the cat (because cats are people too).
This novel is simultaneously fun, exciting, suspenseful, sinful, sensual, and romantic. It was a brilliant escape from reality that I’d suggest to anyone and everyone.
Add to your Goodreads or Shelfari shelves.
Title: Guardian's Joy
Author: Jacqueline Rhoades
Series: Guardians of the Race #3
Published: July 11th 2012 by Createspace
Page Count: 350
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Shelf: Gift
Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Adult-content rating: This book contains content considered unsuitable for young readers 17 and under, and which may be offensive to some readers of all ages.
My Review:
Rhoades melds vividly intricate descriptions with allusions to create a solid setting for her story. By creating this world she roots her readers firmly in this novel that they won’t be able to put down. She feeds all of your needs throughout. It’s fun, exciting, enjoyable, awe inspiring, suspenseful, and above all, romantic.
Although each story in this series can has a main character/couple, the rest of the ‘family’ remains front and centre in the story. I really love how all of the lead characters may be of 1 of 2 races, thus bringing them together with a commonality, but it is who they are that keeps them together. Although on the surface each of the stories in this series are similar – a Guardian of the Race and a Daughter of Man become a couple – each story is as unique as the couples themselves. Each person is vividly real and extremely unique. The female lead in this instalment is a very standout individual who contrasts with the male lead. They are true proof that opposites attract in the most explosive of ways.
Rhoades doesn’t simply tell this story, she creates an escape from the everyday for her audience. This story is complete in and of itself but definitely follows from the previous novel in the series and leaves you wanting more. My suggestion? Read it!
Thank you, Jonel! Your reviews of the books in my Guardians of the Race series have me walking on air. Bless you! - Jackie Rhoades
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