4* Another good tale in the GoE series, filled with intrigue, new characters and the usual glimpses of the good old deja vu stuff.

I'd say that you do have to read the revamped GoE books in order to be able to figure out what's been happening and who's who. This one follows on pretty much immediately from Tarak's book and we get glimpses of him and Waverley, as well as Inga and Levet, Chiron and Lilah, and Cyn and his mate. There's more of a tale to this one than in the last couple of books, and for me, it has me wanting to read more books in the series right now, rather than thinking that I may read them when they come out, if I've nothing else on. This tale has revamped things, it feels like, and I wonder if we've been introduced to yet another female guardian in Chayaa? I hope she gets a tale of her own, as she's from a time when people were superstitious and she ended up with a cruel fate...

But, back to this storyline: you have betrayal and the Beast, a bad-guy type that gets bigged-up a lot but then suddenly gets taken out without enough gore in my book, pardon the pun. Yes, it worked for the tale, but I expected a Buffy-and-the-Big-Bad type of final showdown and was a bit bummed that I didn't get one. The romance in this - and this is not a criticism - took a back seat to the happenings, and that worked for me. It's a guarantee that the leads of each GoE book will end up in a HEA, but here it didn't seem all that important, as events in the tale had me wondering about the finale (which is where the tale lost a *, due to how a-little-too-easy it seemed). I think I 'saw' Rainn more than Ulric in this tale, though each had their role to play in what happened. I hope that we see more of her in future tales, as she also got dealt a cruel hand, and, she's one of the more hands-on, kickbutt female leads, and one with a destiny that she had to fulfil.

Where does the series go next? I'm not sure. There's another baddie who intrigued me in this tale, who's been imprisoned and who will be dealt with later. I'm not sure that person can be redeemed, so I can't figure out their role as the series continues, but I am intrigued to read more. This book confirms my suspicions about a couple of characters that I suspected had feelings for each other, but I'm not sure how they could ever be together, unless there's a touch of Shrek magic and things work out for the best. But, I'm also clueless about the appearance and machinations of the imp Troy, who I'm sure has appeared before. Is he lead material? Not so sure, but I suppose that when someone's this flighty and seemingly self-serving, there's always scope for the tables to be turned. Like I said, I want more of this series now, now that I've read this tale.

ARC courtesy of Lyrical Press/Kensington Books and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.

I enjoyed the latest book in the Guardians of Eternity series. This is Ulric and Rainn’s story. Ulric is a werewolf whose pack was slaughtered many years ago, so when he sees a cousin he thought long dead he's shocked. He must find out where she's been and if any more family is still alive. Rainn is a zephyr sprite, the stuff of fairy tales. Together they fight and overcome terrible obstacles to save their world. Lots of action and paranormal romance make this a great read!