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Series: Guardians of Ascension #2
Publication date: April 26th, 2011
Pages: 480
Synopsis:
Enter a hidden world of winged vampire warriors -- bound by duty to protect humankind, and sworn to fight for the women they love...
THE HUNGER WITHIN
A vampire warrior in exile, Marcus Amargi resists the call to return to the ranks of the Guardians who fight the death vamp armies. Here on Mortal Earth, Marcus has another battle on his hands -- the seductive lure of Havily Morgan. The woman meant for him. Whose blood he craves. The one who comes to him in dreams -- and demands his surrender...
THE FIRE UNLEASHED
A beautiful immortal with extraordinary powers, Havily lives in the realm of Second Earth but, in her fantasies, yearns for her winged lover Marcus. Soon, their bond will be put to the ultimate test. When their bloodthirsty enemies set the night on fire with sky-blazing weapons, Marcus and Havily must unite body and soul, to unleash the full power of their passion -- and fight fire with fire...
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Review:
I purchased this book for the paranormal romance book club I am currently a member of. We decided we would read this series and ultimately have a group powwow about it afterwards with yummy food and warm conversation. I normally buy the book well in advance to make sure I get it read quickly, but for some reason I didn't get around to buying it until very close to the time of the book club meeting. I hope in my haste I didn't loose some of the book's appeal in the process.
Marcus was mentioned in the first book in the series Ascension. He was a deserter who had retired his warrior's sword and gone to live in Mortal Earth for two hundred years before he was called back to action to save and protect Alison. It was then that he first laid eyes on Havily. From the moment his eyes fell on her, he wanted her. He needed her and any male that came within spitting distance was a thorn in Marcus's side that he needed to pluck out and beat on a bit. After an encounter that left Marcus mad with the desire to make Havily his and a subsequent beat down by his Warrior brothers, he returned to Mortal Earth in hopes of forgetting the woman who called to his every instinct. Only he was not finished with Havily, he starts having strong sexual dreams about her where she comes to him, scantily clad, and attempts to seal the bond he left wide open when he left. Marcus enjoys the fantasies and the distance between the two of them, until Havily is in danger and he drops everything to run to her side. It is there where he realizes that fighting their connection is impossible. She is his, and he will have her.
Havily was a mouse of a vampire when first introduced. She had big plans for the future but no one to listen to her. That was until Alison came onto the scene and Havily became her Liason Officer. Havily soon starts enacting some of her plans for the administration of Second Earth, but it's Marcus who really enthralls her thoughts. She too has been having the fantasies in which she goes to him as if a moth to a flame. She fights it with every fiber of her being. He's a deserter. He abandoned his people. She wants nothing to do with someone so cowardly. Or so she tells herself. After she is attacked she realizes that she needs Marcus like she needs air. When he dashes to her side as if any other reaction would be unlike him, she starts to wonder if she had him figured all wrong. Maybe he wasn't a coward, maybe he was a good man. HER good man.
As with the first novel, I loved this book. There were a few things I didn't much care for such as the redundancy of some of the detail work in the writing. A lot of what is mentioned is basically going over what happened in the first book. These books are not books you should read out of order. They go hand-in-hand together, so the author repeating everything just got a little tedious. Some of Roane's favorite phrases used throughout the book were "Whatever" and "Oh, shit". They seemed to be the punctuation to a long thought process for her characters. They have an internal monologue and seal the thought with one of those two phrases. Not exactly horrible, but again, tedious.
Despite the redundancy from time to time, I thoroughly enjoyed the second installment in the Guardians of Ascension series. I loved that she went back and referenced a lot of the characters from the previous book. We get to watch Alison and Kerrick's romance a bit longer and that is always one of my favorite parts of an ongoing series. I also like that she tends to start leading up to the next book in the series by spurring the romance between two other characters in the middle of the main character's romance. It gives you a book and a half detailed story line for two characters.
Burning Skies is the whirlwind sequel to an already astounding series. The Guardians of Ascension series reads like an alternative dimension to J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood and is steadily becoming another must read series just like Ward's.
Marcus was mentioned in the first book in the series Ascension. He was a deserter who had retired his warrior's sword and gone to live in Mortal Earth for two hundred years before he was called back to action to save and protect Alison. It was then that he first laid eyes on Havily. From the moment his eyes fell on her, he wanted her. He needed her and any male that came within spitting distance was a thorn in Marcus's side that he needed to pluck out and beat on a bit. After an encounter that left Marcus mad with the desire to make Havily his and a subsequent beat down by his Warrior brothers, he returned to Mortal Earth in hopes of forgetting the woman who called to his every instinct. Only he was not finished with Havily, he starts having strong sexual dreams about her where she comes to him, scantily clad, and attempts to seal the bond he left wide open when he left. Marcus enjoys the fantasies and the distance between the two of them, until Havily is in danger and he drops everything to run to her side. It is there where he realizes that fighting their connection is impossible. She is his, and he will have her.
Havily was a mouse of a vampire when first introduced. She had big plans for the future but no one to listen to her. That was until Alison came onto the scene and Havily became her Liason Officer. Havily soon starts enacting some of her plans for the administration of Second Earth, but it's Marcus who really enthralls her thoughts. She too has been having the fantasies in which she goes to him as if a moth to a flame. She fights it with every fiber of her being. He's a deserter. He abandoned his people. She wants nothing to do with someone so cowardly. Or so she tells herself. After she is attacked she realizes that she needs Marcus like she needs air. When he dashes to her side as if any other reaction would be unlike him, she starts to wonder if she had him figured all wrong. Maybe he wasn't a coward, maybe he was a good man. HER good man.
As with the first novel, I loved this book. There were a few things I didn't much care for such as the redundancy of some of the detail work in the writing. A lot of what is mentioned is basically going over what happened in the first book. These books are not books you should read out of order. They go hand-in-hand together, so the author repeating everything just got a little tedious. Some of Roane's favorite phrases used throughout the book were "Whatever" and "Oh, shit". They seemed to be the punctuation to a long thought process for her characters. They have an internal monologue and seal the thought with one of those two phrases. Not exactly horrible, but again, tedious.
Despite the redundancy from time to time, I thoroughly enjoyed the second installment in the Guardians of Ascension series. I loved that she went back and referenced a lot of the characters from the previous book. We get to watch Alison and Kerrick's romance a bit longer and that is always one of my favorite parts of an ongoing series. I also like that she tends to start leading up to the next book in the series by spurring the romance between two other characters in the middle of the main character's romance. It gives you a book and a half detailed story line for two characters.
Burning Skies is the whirlwind sequel to an already astounding series. The Guardians of Ascension series reads like an alternative dimension to J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood and is steadily becoming another must read series just like Ward's.
