Secrets in the Shadows [Paperback]

A Secret in the Shadows is the second in the Guardian series. In this book, Jules is a Guardian Vampire. The Guardians police their own kind, killing rogue vampires. Jules suspects his squire, Ian, is responsible for multiple killings in Baltimore. Jules defies the head Guardian, Eli, and goes to Baltimore to kill Ian. Carolyn Mathers, who was the main character in Watchers in the Night, goes to her best friend, Hannah, who is a PI and asks her to follow Jules to Baltimore. In the course of the story, Jules discovers Ian is too powerful for him to kill alone. Hannah must come to his aid.

We are also introduced to Ian's squire and her son Gabriel. Gabriel is big and bad and wants information on Eli and the Guardians. Jules is then forced to work with Gabriel to bring down Ian.

I have enjoyed both of Jenna Black's Guardian series, but I must say I have found in both books that the lead male characters are slightly wimpy. They are vampires, and by rights should be powerful and strong but there always seems to be other vampires that are more powerful and stronger than the main male characters are. Maybe I'm just use to other paranormal romances where the men are somewhat bigger than life. Jules just was not a strong male character. Somehow, his character just fell flat. However, other than that, the plot was good. Hannah was a strong, self reliant, and independent female character. I hope that in the next book, which will feature Gabriel, we will finally get a major bad boy for the lead male character.

This is the second book in the Guardians of the Night Series.

Jules's transition from mortal to vampire was less than pleasant. His maker, Ian, not only betrayed him but did some unspeakable things to Jules that has caused a lot of pain in his vampire life. Since that time he has been part of the Guardians: a group of vampires protecting Philadelphians from Vampires like Ian. Ian is known as a Killer, a Killer is a vamp who kills mortals for food. Jules belongs to the other vamp population; he survives on a lamb's blood and milk concoction.

With a recent tragedy fresh in his heart, he spots an article featuring his maker and begins to investigate the Baltimore, MD papers for vamp related crimes and brings them to the Guardians attention. Eli, head of the Guardians, knows Jules's main motivation is revenge and explains that they can not intrude on other territories. Jules leaves the meeting with the intent of going rogue, a major no-no in the Guardian realm.

Hannah Moore is a PI who recently lost her partner, Carolyn, when she left to join the Guardians with her vamp fiancé, Gray, in the book Watchers in the Night (The Guardians of the Night, Book 1). Carolyn asks Hannah to accompany Jules to Baltimore to help him stay safe during the day; Hannah reluctantly agrees.

These two couldn't be more opposite. Hannah is tough, sassy and tom boyish. Jules is refined and the metrosexual poster boy. They end up being the perfect balance for each other and it opens both up to find a mutual respect and some vulnerability in each other's normally tough facades.

With the introduction of two new Killers to this series, Camille and her son Gabriel, the story takes on a sadistic and bone chilling tone, really bringing the bad side of vampires into the forefront. The characters in these stories are not one dimensional; with their real to life flaws and strengths they come to life on the pages. This story is a compelling mix of terror and titillation, deceit and discovery, good and evil and that hazy area in between, I love this series!

Shadows on the Soul (The Guardians of the Night, Book 3)
Hungers of the Heart (The Guardians of the Night, Book 4)

Jules Gerard is a Guardian, a vampire who has vowed to kill other vampires who kill humans and to never make another vampire himself. When Jules learns that the man who turned him into a vampire is alive and still making new fledglings in Baltimore, he is determined to go down there and put a stop to it. Ian Squires was Jules's friend before he betrayed Jules by turning him into a vampire and using glamour to commit unspeakable acts against him. Jules believes that the world would be a better place without Ian in it, and he's going to make that happen whether he has permission from Eli, the leader of the Guardians, or not.

When another guardian, Carolyn, a mortal PI who dates Jules's vampire nemesis, learns that Jules is going to Baltimore on this suicide mission, she sends her best friend and business partner after him to make sure that he's safe. That was my first problem with this book. You're going to send a mortal to protect a vampire? Really. But okay. I went with it. So off goes Carolyn's friend Hannah to "protect" Jules and keep him out of trouble. Along with Hannah, Eli has sent Drake, a Killer who works for the Guardians (and that inherent contradiction also isn't lost on me), to bring Jules back in one piece. Eli is friends with the master vampire of Baltimore and has her permission to send his Guardian in to retrieve Jules, so long as none of her vampires are hurt in the process.

That's it in a nutshell, but I've gotta say this story was way too convoluted. Jules goes to Baltimore without a plan in mind, which is fine, but after realizing that he's outgunned by trying to kill his maker, who is stronger and older than him, he still doesn't have one. And this is even knowing that he's got a human tailing him who he now has to protect and a Guardian Killer who is determined to bring him back to Philly. But that wasn't even my biggest problem with this book. My biggest problem was the fact that these vampires are wimps. No, really. These aren't alpha heroes, no matter how much they claim to be, because just when you think you've met a strong vampire (as Jules was in the first book in the series) he's off getting beaten up by someone more powerful or rushing headlong into danger that a kindergartner could see coming. And Hannah isn't much better. A more foolish human being I've never read about--or at least can't recall at the present moment. She said it best herself on page 207, "Jesus, Hannah. You're too stupid to live." That statement made me sigh with relief because at least someone else realized it too, even if she didn't do anything about it.

I have the next two books in this series, but I just don't know that I can read them. There are so many great vampire series out right now that I just don't have the heart to waste my time with one that's just so so. For fantastic vampire series with plots that make sense and heroes that can actually protect themselves and their women, check out Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series beginning with A Hunger Like No Other (The Immortals After Dark Series, Book 1) or J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series beginning with Dark Lover: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood (The Black Dagger Brotherhood).

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