Patti O'Shea

Everybody remember the dark, brooding, and jerkish Creed from IN TWILIGHT’S SHADOW, the second book in the Light Warriors series? You may or may not remember that he mentioned being estranged from his family (for classified reasons)—well, meet his estranged little sister Shona. She’s been raised as normal as normal gets, become a glass artist (although currently she's hit a creative blockage) and doesn’t have a clue why sexy Logan Andrews suddenly wants to protect her.

Enemy? What enemy? Classified. But why? Classified. Who ARE you? Classified. That’s kind of how their talks go. Though nothing is ever easy—if it was, why bother reading?—and Logan goes from tight-lipped to ‘how fast can I get information out’, because it becomes clear that Shona is FAR from normal and can help him.

Shona is, in a word, strong. It’s not that she’s the toughest chick I’ve ever read about or that she could kick anyone who comes at her; it's more that she reacts proactively to what happens to her. She doesn’t sit down and shut up and hope it all goes well.

Logan isn’t so bad, at least not next to Creed (still haven’t read Deke’s book yet). He can be gruff, bossy, and overly cautious, but at the heart of things, he just wants to do a good job and keep it as uncomplicated as possible.

Overall, this book didn’t excite me as much as IN TWILIGHT’S SHADOW, but EDGE OF DAWN was still very interesting. The end of the book, when consequences are to be had for rash decisions and actions, is possibly the best part. Shona Vs. Creed—sounds kind of like a Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat fight, huh?… (mehr)

This was a 5 star read for me. It had lots of things that makes me happy in a book. Lots of gut wrenching pathos for example. Sometimes I just get into that stuff. I don't always enjoy a heroine who is unsure of herself but she was well written. She was the type that felt unlovable because of the way her family had treated her growing up and her insecurities just added to the angsty pathos. The hero wins the award for the most messed up super tortured hero I've read in years. But he still managed to fall in love with the heroine and be super protective of her. I enjoyed the way the magic was set up and the different dimensions the people came from etc.

There were obviously books that came before this in a series but I wasn't lost. There were enough references that I caught the gist of what was going on easily enough. No info dumping to catch me up which I appreciated since I'm not dumb. This story stood well on its own. It focused pretty closely on the hero and heroine and their relationship. These were two messed up people who found each other and were stronger together.

The mystery of why the heroine was being attacked was the outside conflict and there was plenty of trying to solve the riddle and plenty of action scenes where the hero was fighting to defend the heroine. She grew during the course of the book, both in confidence that she was worth loving and in how to use her weak magic powers to best effect. The hero desperately needed the heroine's love. You got the feeling that his sanity wouldn't have lasted much longer had he not met her.

Loved it.

… (mehr)