BLOOD ASSASSIN is book two in Alexandra Ivy's new series, The Sentinels. Set in a world of magic, there are two types of warriors. Those with innate magic are guardian Sentinels, who protect the high-bloods. Hunter Sentinels enforce the laws of Valhalla, where almost all high-bloods live. Humans view the high-bloods as mutants, but no longer huddle in fear when the high-bloods are near thanks to a PR blitz.

Fane is a huge hunk, 6 foot 3 and 250 pounds of pure muscle with the grit and determination to match. He's devoted years of his life to protecting a beautiful necromancer, Callie, whose story is told in book one, Born in Blood. When Callie met her soul mate Duncan, however, her bond transferred from Fane to Duncan. Now Fane feels directionless, and decides to flee Valhalla to go back to his old monastery in Tibet to train new warriors. In doing so, he can avoid Serra, the sexy woman who's been pursuing him for years. While I admired Fane's stoic devotion to his fellow Sentinels and Valhalla, I couldn't help but be annoyed by what seemed to be a senseless desire to avoid a relationship with Serra.

Serra Vetrov is a powerful psychic and telepath, who can connect to minds through objects they've owned. She has worked tirelessly with the Sentinels to find missing people and implant memories in others for the protection of high- bloods. Serra has loved Fane for two decades, but Fane has shut down her pursuit of him repeatedly. Serra is blackmailed into helping Bas, a corrupt high-blood businessman whose innocent daughter has been kidnapped. A slowly unveiled conspiracy, however, means Serra is not only in danger from Bas but from secret sects pursuing revenge and destruction. Fane steps in to assist Serra, and discovered that he cannot keep his heart uninvolved anymore.

The mystery was well done, and the pacing was excellent. As much as I loved Fane and Serra together, the story was made for me almost as much by the secondary characters. I love morally ambiguous characters, and Bas is such a fantastic enigma. Is he perhaps a good guy having to do bad things in order to survive outside Valhalla? Can he be redeemed? I also loved the developing relationship between Wolfe, the commander of the Sentinels and Lana, the Mave (the leader of the high-bloods).

Ivy knocks it out of the park for me with BLOOD ASSASSIN, a strong paranormal romance with an excellent backdrop of intrigue and supernatural war. The chemistry between Fane and Serra crackles with amazing electricity. BLOOD ASSASSIN continues the strong start that book one, Born in Blood provided, and I think this will be an outstanding series!