Ramblings of an Avid Reader

**TRIGGER WARNING rape, explicit sex, D/s theme, mfm sex***

Uri, an Immortal Guardian, is deeply, thoroughly, completely overwhelmingly in lust with a mysterious woman. One whom he is sworn to send to Tertatos, should he ever get close enough to touch her. This could be quite the problem, so he'll have to make do with sexing up random women while Alex watches.

The Guardians are tasked with protecting Mageia, and other supernatural beings, from the Tria. The Gods have been put to sleep, their children walk Earth, and other realms, doing the things that their families set out doing. Confused yet? Yeah, so was I, and many other readers. There's a lot of history packed into this book, and in order to get a grasp on the convoluted story, you need that history. And convoluted is an understatement. There are the Guardians, Demi-God/esses, Aletheias, Geraki, Sirens, Hippeus', Kairos's...etc. And each "race" has different powers, control over different elements, so on and so forth. It's rather confusing, and Ms. Jay has included a short glossary with mini blurbs about the different races and characters. Which helps a little.

This book was almost a DNF, there is a present rape scene, and flashbacks to another rape in the very beginning of the book. That's normally a total stop for me, but as I'd already committed to reading a number of additional books in the series, I felt obligated to finish it. That being said...This book was *great* smut with some story in between. If it hadn't contained the rape scenes, I'd have enjoyed it much more. The sex was very hot, and quite D/s as well. The Alpha male character of Uri exerts that unwavering dominance very strongly in the bedroom as well as out of it. I'd hoped Alex would be less submissive, as she's a very independent and ass kicking heroine. But as soon as she falls under Uri's spell (which is called Mating Frenzy in the series), she looses all of her tenacity.

Did I enjoy the book? With mixed emotions, I did. It's got a good setup to be an awesome supernatural smut series. I can't call it romance, because there isn't any, it's all animal lust. There's a great D/s thread that runs through the book, but it's very decidedly one sided. Which was a bit of a disappointment. However, as in most books of this nature, it's the Alpha male who controls everything, so it wasn't surprising in the least. But the rapes were referenced numerous times, and that's a big trigger.

Will people enjoy the book? Hell yes! Very explicit sex scenes with abnormally hot paranormal creatures. It's not the most well written book, but if you like the awesome smut, you're willing to overlook some of the abrupt POV changes, the predictable plot and characters, and the overabundance of history.

In the interest of disclosure, the publisher provided me with a copy of the book for a fair review. Which is the reason I felt obligated to finish the book and read the rest of the series.