- 4 Fear The Stars -

Fear The Darkness is book nine in the Guardians of Eternity series by Alexandria Ivy.

This is Caine and Cassie's story, who where introduced in [b:Beyond the Darkness|6941324|Beyond the Darkness (Guardians of Eternity, #6)|Alexandra Ivy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351279851s/6941324.jpg|7174225] and have had little features in installments after. I have been waiting to get their story and Ms. Ivy did not disappoint. In [b:Bound By Darkness|9832985|Bound By Darkness (Guardians of Eternity, #8)|Alexandra Ivy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1310054028s/9832985.jpg|14723643] everyone was looking for Cain and Cassie. Here we get to see their journey and what became of them. We also get to learn about Cain’s history before he became a Cur. Levet still brings humor to the story and surprises us with they role he plays. As always we get a unique adventure with some big surprises.

Everything is coming to a head with the prophecies, the big bad, a bloody battle with all key players in attendants and more. I am enjoying this series, the characters, plot direction and world. Each book builds on each other and are best read in order.

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Caine & Cassandra's story is sweet. Caine learns what it means to be a full blooded were and Cassandra adjusts to the outside world. The book has a progression of the demon lord's agenda. Good character and plot development. ( )

Better than the last few in this series. ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Great installment for fans of the series, with a dark and creative world. Had me hooked, can’t wait to start this series from the beginning.

Opening Sentence: The abandoned silver mine in the Mojave Desert wasn’t the first place someone would expect to encounter Styx, the current Anasso.

The Review:

Fear the Darkness begins with Cassie and Caine on the run. Cassie is a prophet and many people would like to use her to further their own power. Cassie has spent most of her life locked up before she was rescued by Caine. Because of her imprisonment, Cassie is quite naive and inexperienced with the world. She doesn’t really know how to act around people. Her immaturity is quite funny at times and Cassie eventually learns to adapt to her new life as a much stronger woman. Meanwhile, Caine is uber-dedicated to Cassie. He doesn’t like to leave her side even when he is checking on their safety. He was a little clingy but I still found him to be quite hot.

Starting a series, nine titles in can be a little bit intimidating. The Guardians of Eternity is a complex world of vampires, werewolves and other supernatural creatures. I was immediately swept into this world that also includes hidden dimensions. Unfortunately, I wish I hadn’t started at book nine with Fear the Darkness. I was never really lost in the story but keeping track of the huge cast of characters was a little bit daunting. I also felt like the previous books secrets weren’t ruined for me, just enough information was revealed to further the plot, and there were enough hints that make me really want to pick up the rest of this series.

As I mentioned above, the cast of characters in this series is quite huge, so almost half of this book isn’t focused on their relationship but the ongoing storyline with the Dark Lord. The point of views jumps from many different characters, good and evil. The only real problem I had was in the middle where a battle had obviously happened but it really wasn’t discussed except to know that it had happened. (I wonder if this event happened in one of the previous novellas? If that is the case, then I understand why it was omitted.) Thankfully, the final battle was not glossed over at all.

While the relationship wasn’t the focus of Fear the Darkness, the novel does focus on a world that has been creatively built up with a truly evil villain and supernatural creatures who just want to save the world. With just this one taste of the world, I would pick up the beginning of this series just to see how it got to this point. I definitely want to learn about certain characters from this series, especially Styx.

Notable Scene:

He ruthlessly arranged her slender body beneath him, settling between her legs and propping himself on his elbows to gaze down at her startled expression. “Let’s get two things straight,” he growled.

She remained silent a long minute, no doubt trying to decide whether she wanted to hear what he had to say or punch him in the nose for behaving like a caveman.

At last curiosity won out. “What?”

“I was born to become your mate.” He placed a hand over her mouth when she would have protested. “Just listen.”

She rolled her eyes, waiting for him to remove his hand before muttering her opinion of males and their deficient DNA. But thankfully she made no effort to escape. “Fine, I’m listening,” she at last conceded.

“My destiny has always been to protect you. Always.” He caught and held her gaze, laying bare his heart without hesitation. “And if you ever try to take that away it will destroy me.” He heard her breath catch at his blunt honesty, a startled tenderness flowing through their mating bond.

FTC Advisory: Zebra/Kensington provided me with a copy of Fear the Darkness. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

Fear the Darkness is the ninth book in Alexandra Ivy's Guardians of Eternity series and I gotta admit this series is one of my guilty pleasures. Finally we get Cassie and Caine's story. Cassie is a full blooded were who can't shift, she is one of the four sisters and the last to be found she is also the prophet who sees visions of the future and everybody good or bad wants a piece of her. Cassie grew up in caves and now that she has escaped she just wants some freedom so she has been avoiding everyone hunting her. Caine had been a cur, that's a were who was bitten, and not so nice guy he spent his life trying to become a full blooded were until he makes a deal with the big bad, he dies and comes back as a full were. He meets Cassie and becomes her protector helping her stay away from all those that want to find her.

The romance for these two was pretty direct, they had been together in previous books so there was nothing really in the way of them getting together. The romance kinda took a back seat to the rest of the action, trying to stop the Dark Lord from crossing into their dimension and bringing chaos. Needless to say there was lots of action that kept the pages turning.

I think every character that was ever in any book in this series made an appearance. A lot of the book really centered around Styx and Viper as they lead the charge against the Dark Lord. One thing that I did find disappointing was not enough Levet. He is half the reason I love this series, he is hilarious. He didn't show up until half way through and he didn't get a lot of page time but as usual he does save the day in his own way. Super big showdown at the end that this and the last couple of books have been leading up to, it makes me wonder what direction the series will go in next and who the next couple will be. With the previous books I always had some idea of who was gonna be next in the series but this time not so much....AND I have to wait a year to find out and that sucks. While it wasn't really my favorite in the series it was definitely a good read. ( )