eBook Shadow Warrior (Night Guardians) epub

Rating 1.5 __Some graphic sexual content
WARNING: continued story. 5th in the Night Guardians series

DISAPPOINTING. Appealing storyline, great supporting cast, good cultural blend, and an intriguing pairing of supernatural abilities in the hero and heroine. HOWEVER, the writing is fragmented, the phrasing overly dramatic, contains a few mildly offensive racist and sexist statements, the lead characters are one-dimensional, there are some major inconsistencies, not much plot and what is there is unfinished, and the story drags in places, which is too bad because the mystical storyline is engaging.

THE STORY revolves around recently widowed, single-mom, Lexie Ayze, and her late husband’s older brother, anthropology professor, medicine man and Brotherhood member, Michael Ayze. Struggling under her late husbands debts, Lexie takes her young son, Jack, and travels to Navajoland seeking help from her in-laws. Unknowingly she stumbles into an ageless war between greedy, evil beings called the Skinwalkers, and The Brotherhood, a secret society working to restore balance and protect the Navajo people. As the story unfolds, Michael is working to find an ancient parchment, which will shift the balance of power to the side that finds it first. Asking Lexie to help him in the search, Michael soon discovers that her psychic gift is the key to locating the document before it is too late.

OVERALL, interesting cross-cultural story, with a shallow romance and an uneven, confusing plot that doesn’t end. Skip it! There are much better books out there. (bpl)

NIGHT GUARDIANS series includes Shadow Force, Shadow Watch, Shadow Hunter, Shadow Surrender, Shadow Warrior, and Shadow Whispers.

You may also enjoy the complex characters and storytelling of N. Bruhns, A. Stuart, and E. Palfrey. For good mystery/ detective writers you might try J. D. Robb, D. Stabenow, S. Grafton, Gayle Wilson, or Julie Miller.

When she loses her husband, Alexis Ayze has to find a way to take care of her 4-year-old son, Jack. Her best option is her husband's family in Arizona. On her way to her in-laws' home on the reservation, Lexie loses her way in a storm. The car ends up in a ravine and they are trapped by a flash flood.

Michael Ayze becomes concerned because his brother's widow and his nephew are in unfamiliar territory and this storm isn't quite normal. Something is off about it. He spots Lexie's car in a flooded ravine and comes to the rescue. He has to remind himself that he is just her savior and nothing else. Of course that may not work for long. There is an attraction that just won't go away. And it didn't help when his mother suggested they keep with the old tradition and Michael should marry Lexie.

Michael is part of a group of medicine men, known as the Brotherhood, who are fighting a battle for their people. The Skinwalkers are Navajo men who have taken up Navajo witchcraft to become the power of the reservation. The evil skinwalkers trying to take over and the Brotherhood trying to stop it are all searching for a map that will give them the advantage.

There is the matter of Lexie's talent for communicating with ghosts. Michael has to come to terms with this bit of information. Ghosts are evil so Lexie's ability to see them is not a good thing in his belief system. But it appears that Lexie is to be the Message Bearer for the Brotherhood whether they like it or not.

Now all Michael has to do is keep Lexie alive.

Shapeshifters, ghosts, medicine man and arranged marriages--Shadow Warrior has it all. Lexie and Michael spend a lot of time trying to not be attracted to each other while his mother spends a lot of time trying to arrange their marriage. It's really no contest. I liked the heroes and their interactions with each other but I felt that the villains could have been a little more developed. I really didn't feel a strong bad guy vibe from the bad guys. Overall, I enjoyed Shadow Warrior and look forward to reading the other books in the Brotherhood Series

Willow
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed