RELEASE DAY REVIEW by Lorna: Guardian's Mate (Shifters Unbound #9) by Jennifer Ashley (@JennAllyson , @Mollykatie112)

The New York Times bestselling author of White Tiger returns as primal desire draws two lone shifters into each other’s arms…
 
She wasn’t ready to lead…
Chosen as the Guardian of her Montana Shiftertown, wolf Shifter Rae Lyall is facing opposition—for no woman has ever been selected for this powerful position. Still adjusting to the new authority thrust upon her, Rae travels to train with Zander Moncrieff, a Shifter healer, tasked with teaching her about her new role and its responsibilities.
He wasn’t ready to love…
 
A polar bear Shifter, Zander wears no Collar and follows no rules but his own. Rae finds him arrogant and demanding, yet compelling and intriguing. Zander has no wish to mate but the sassy Guardian is drawing him out of his shell, stirring feelings long suppressed. And when a new threat looms over Rae’s home, she and Zander must race to the rescue, forced closer to danger…and to each other.
 

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About the Book!

Guardian’s Mate
by Jennifer Ashley
Series
Shifter’s Unbourn #9
Genre
Adult
Urban Fantasy
Paranormal Romance
Publisher
Berkley
Publication Date
September 6, 2016

 

Lorna’s Review

Jennifer Ashley’s Shifter’s Unbound series is one that I intend to read in its entirety. You can count on a good romance with more than its share of adventure and/or suspense. These shifters are of all kinds of animals, but mainly wolves, bears, and big cats, although this book actually has a fox as a peripheral character. I had been reading them in order, but I am nowhere near to being caught up. When I saw this latest entry on Net Galley, I immediately requested it in exchange for a fair and honest review. I actually think this one can standalone, although there are lots of characters from previous books that show up-always a good thing in my mind.
When Rae, a wolf shifter, is chosen as Guardian of her Montana shiftertown, she is the last person the shifters wants for a Guardian. Guardian’s have always been men, and a woman Guardian is unheard of. But the Goddess has chosen her in front of all the shifters and Rae is completely dumbfounded. Guardians are tasked with attending shifter’s deaths and sending their soul to the Summerland, rather than have the evil Fae take their soul. To do this she will have to take the Guardian’s sword and put it through the hearts of the dead shifters. Rae’s adopted father, Eoin, takes her to Alaska to Zander, a polar bear, for training. Zander is not a Guardian, but he can show her how to fight with a sword, and keep her away from all the hostile shifters that don’t believe she can possibly be a Guardian. Zander has his own magic from the Goddess as he is a healer.
Zander was a interesting character. He keeps to himself and hides out in various places, as he is uncollared. Most uncollared shifters go feral and become pretty mindless, other than to kill. Not so with Zander and it may be because he is touched by the Goddess. He’s a huge man, one that spends his time in Alaska fishing on his boat. He seemingly knows shifters all over the world, all the while being a loner. He has no place in his life for a lupine shifter woman that thinks she is a Guardian. Rae was taken in as a small child by Eion when she was found wondering alone. She’s happy in her home with cat shifters and has never wanted for love while there. She’s feisty as they come and a beautiful woman. And this is going to sound weird, but another of the main characters is the Guardian Sword that Rae has to carry with her always. It seemingly has a mind of its own and makes its pleasure or displeasure known whenever it strikes it. Actually any humor in this read mostly came from the antics of this sword and I enjoyed watching it unfold its magic to get what it wanted throughout the read.
I really enjoyed getting to know the two main characters and rooted them on to find their happily ever after. Along the way, they get way more adventure and near death moments than either one of them bargained for. Because shifters are collared by humans and put into shiftertowns to live, there are bounty hunters just itching to find a feral shifter and turn them over to the authorities. Rae is collared, but Zander has so far been able to stay under the radar. That changes with this book. New villains to the shifter world are introduced and major things happen, some bad and some good. Through it all, the romance between Zander and Rae is woven in amidst all the excitement and drama caused by the bad guys. It ended up being a complete page turner for me, especially during a whole section of the book that takes place in a thick fog, while on a boat, as they are being chased. And to make it even more fun, they are in the middle of an area filled with half sunken ships. This was good stuff!
I am going to leave it at that, except to say, if you love adult shifter stories and paranormal romance, good writing, with a fast pace, they don’t get much better than this series. I think this is probably one of the best of this series that I have read so far, and I highly recommend it. Good Read!


The review copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
 

About Jennifer Ashley

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Jennifer Ashley writes historical and paranormal romance as Jennifer Ashley; paranormal romance and urban fantasy as Allyson James; and mysteries as Ashley Gardner. Jennifer’s novels have won RWA’s RITA and RT Reviewer’s Choice awards among others.
For information on all her novels visithttp://www.jennifersromances.com. Also seehttp://www.gardnermysteries.com (Ashley Gardner) and http://www.allysonjames.com(Allyson James) for her other works.

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