Sariana Dayne was born and raised in Rendezvous, in the east, but had been
living in the west, in Serendipity for the past year. She still hadn't
become accustomed to the differences between the two lands, and looked
forward to the day she could prove herself to her clan and return home with
her head held high.
Sariana was a business manager who has been working for the Avylyn clan of
the west, trying to fix up their money problems. People of the west were
artists, with little care for the managing of their finances, which is why
they so desperately needed Sariana's help.
But Sariana's help wasn't going to be enough. The prized prisma cutter has
been stolen, and if anyone finds out, the reputation of the Avylyn clan will
be in shambles. If that happens, Sariana will have failed again, and would
never be able to go home. The only thing left to do is to employ someone
who can help find the cutter. That someone is a Shield.
Gryph Chassyn is a Shield. His class of people don't often come into the
towns--they prefer to stay on the frontier chasing bandits, but at some
point every Shield needs to find a mate. As only certain women can be
Shieldmates, the candidates are few and far between, but as luck--for Gryph
anyway--would have it, Sariana is the perfect mate for him.
Gryph agrees to help Sariana with her problem, but Sariana starts to
question her decision to hire him when Gryph makes it clear he wants her.
Unable to fight the passion that she feels for this Shield, she mates with
him, not completely understanding what that means.
The two go off together in search of the prisma cutter, a search which
becomes a life and death struggle as they get closer to the truth of the
theft. He and Sariana have to depend on the depth of their bonding to give
them the strength to fight the evil force threatening to destroy them--and
take most of the continent with them!
This was my first futuristic novel, and I put off reading it for quite a
while, not convinced I would enjoy it. Instead, I couldn't put it down.
This was a 'typical' JAK [I mean typical in the best of ways!] in that a
strong hero is in a dominating position, yet the heroine isn't intimidated.
She sees through the exterior, to the man beneath, showing her true love for the man he is, rather than the one everyone else sees. There is lots of suspense, and the dialogue is snappy and fun. And now that I know what a codpiece is, I can reread with a full understanding!
Four and a half stars.
Sue Waldeck
