Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

*Beware of Spoilers*

In an effort to fight her growing insomnia, Sarah Bingham, decides to do some pre-sunrise gardening.  But she overhears a confrontation where two men have staked another man to the ground.  She can’t standby and do nothing.  She intervenes and saves Roland’s life.  But she never knew what she was getting into; a species war between the Immortal Guardians and vampires.  And, now her life is in danger as well and it’s up to Roland to keep her safe.  But can they fight the growing attraction between them while eliminating the enemy?

When I first started reading this book, I thought I’d really like it.  The conversations and story flowed well, and I liked the author’s writing style in general.  But after the first chapter I started struggling a bit.  First of all vampires and the similar immortals (also with fangs and blood drinking) isn’t something new to the genre.  It’s definitely been done before.  Then, I found Duvall was trying to make Roland and Sarah too much alike when we all know opposites attract (cue the Paula Abdul song).  I found two complete strangers both being into organic eating and having the same favorite color to be way too unrealistic and a bit preachy at times.  I also found Sarah to be too perfect; she eats healthy, works out six days a week, has read the Bible cover to cover, and easily accepts that Roland is an immortal.  And, then when we find out more about her DNA at the end of the book, it just seems a bit too convenient for my tastes.

The book eventually does get better, but it takes time to get there.  Once the focus shifts to discovering more about Bastien and why he holds a vendetta against Roland, the book gets more interesting.  Unfortunately that happens too late for it to get a better star rating from me.  But I’m hopeful that the series will get better from here now that the groundwork has been laid for the series as a whole.