SHADOWS STRIKE is book six in the Immortal Guardians
series by Dianne Duvall. I am an avid reader of Duvall's
work. This paranormal romance series contains a lot of
excellent kick-butt action. There's an overarching storyline, and each book
features a great stand-alone romance as well. SHADOWS STRIKE can be read
by itself, as Duvall does a good job in explaining the enthralling paranormal
world in which it is set. Reading this series in order will
allow a much more nuanced appreciation of the story.
Heather is a human, but she's a gifted one, born
with special abilities other humans don't possess. She can
read others' minds, a talent that's been secretly useful to
her in her job in U.S. law enforcement. Heather has been
dreaming about Ethan for the last year, the same
thing every night about meeting him in a field where he is
battling seven vampires. When she finally meets him, just
as she dreamed, she is shocked to find out he is real,
he's immortal, and she can't read his mind. Heather is a
capable woman, smart, and good in a crisis. I like the
empowered women that Duvall writes, and Heather makes a
great kick-butt heroine.
Ethan is an Immortal Guardian, protecting humans by
hunting and slaying the psychotic vampires who prey upon
humans. Ethan and Heather very quickly fall for each
other. Their burgeoning romance is complicated by the
growing war around them between the predators and
protectors of humanity. There is a lot of great action in
the story with a driving pace that keeps me turning the
pages eagerly. The other immortal guardians and their
partners, who I love so much, make up part of the story
but do not overwhelm Ethan and Heather's spot on center
stage. The story is well balanced, the tension of the
growing war continues to build, and SHADOWS STRIKE gives me
a great romance while keeping the wonderful paranormal
action flowing fast. Duvall has written another winner.
U.S. law enforcement agent Heather Lane can read minds.
But not the future. The dream of battle and blood that
recurs every night must be a fluke, some obscure terror
from her own mind. What its significance might be, she
can’t guess: an attack from seven psychotic vampires at
once, only separated from nightmare by an eighth very
different immortal. A handsome, brave man fighting at her
side, a man she misses when she wakes.
Then the dream comes true. Heather is flung into a war
between predators and protectors of humanity, the man
from her dreams beside her again. Except now that she’s
awake, she isn’t sure she can trust Ethan, or the shadow
organization he represents. The U.S. military doesn’t
trust either of them. But against an onslaught of evil
like the one that’s coming, it will take everything they
have just to survive...