Honestly, I wasn't all that impressed with this one. It felt extremely rushed and lacked any kind of bulk or substance. At times I felt like I was reading the author's outline rather than a fully fleshed out story. The plot jumped from random event to random event, Gilliam made unfollowable leaps of logic, and the dialogue felt really stiff.

There were also an awful lot of descriptions of how awesome Gillian and her family were supposed to be, but precious little showing us that same awesomeness. Example, while having a contrived tender moment with Mr. Demon King he and Gilly are called back to his castle where he locks her in her room. We get to see her storm around a bit and get angry about being locked up and then be told, 'oh yeah, we were under attack.' (Um, why wasn't the warrior Guardian in that defensive battle again?)

She is then returned home, where said attack is reported and we, the reader, get to see her and her sisters decide which dress to wear to the ball. Leaving aside the whole, 'oh shit, the universe is seriously endangered and maybe we aught to blow off the charity public appearances' I'd be much more interested in seeing the outcome of a pitched demon battle than whether Gillian or her sisters chooses to wear a pink Carmen Marc Valvo or a coffee-colorer Zac Posen. But the latter seemed to be much more important, since it and other such scenes were the only ones that seemed to be related real-time.

This sort of issue reared its ugly head again and again. Even the final conclusion was spent telling the reader what had been discovered in the last days of the investigation instead of showing us the investigation. If I wanted a memo on the highlights of the events I would have chosen something bullet-pointed instead of a novel. The reader is given far, far more firsthand information about what characters are wearing, or driving, or what event they are attending than the actual fight scenes, romance, or mystery solving.

Further, I'm not certain how I'm supposed to really feel the tension of the universe almost being overrun by evil when it's of so little importance to the characters in question that they don't even bother to rearrange their social schedules. Yes, I did gather the fact that the Caruthers sisters lead this double life, but their (and the book's) strong focus on fashion and celebrity meant that nothing else felt important--least of which the supposed universe-wide war that was being waged.

Add to that the fact that I felt like the actual plot point that tied everything back to Gillian made little sense. There really isn't a way for me to address this without spoilers, but it was shaky at best. I saw no reason any aggression should have been directed at a single Guardian. I do see what the author was probably trying to infer, but it really didn't come across.

I also thought there were some inconsistencies. Arath, for example, didn't know who Jesus was or what seat belts were, but recognised Fall Out Boy, DVDs and Dancing with the Stars. What? Really?

Lastly, another side-effect of the bullet-point like plotting was that, with the exception of the fact that you know it's coming by virtue of what type of book it is, the romantic element amped up out of nowhere. I can't even call it insta-love because until the very end, where a perfunctory and very brief sex scene was shoe-horned in, there wasn't any love expressed. Sure Gilly told herself she was in love with this man she had spoken to a mere handful of times, but that's it. There was no sexual tension, no flirting, almost no whispered sweet nothings--she was just suddenly in love. Go ahead and check that bullet off, will ya?

Now all this isn't to say I hated the book. I like the idea of the strong female warriors. And since Gilly didn't do a lot of actual fighting she didn't pull any of the horrid heroine cliché moves, like falling and twisting an ankle so the hunky hero has to carry her home. All right, he carried her home. But at least it was after a fair, if rushed and unprovoked, rare fight scene. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. The sex scenes were decently hot. It was a pretty simple read with a lot of action. I enjoyed the characters. I don't often say this but I could easily see this book turning into a series. The characters could be more developed with future novels. I was disappointed to let the characters go in this book. I must also confess an annoyed with the heroine in this book. Her "hero" was a warrior himself, but everytime you turned around he was having to heal her. I found that frustrating personally - she is supposed to be this "Guardian" and yet it seemed that every battle she got into (even a little one on one), she was seriously injured to the point that he had to heal her. I liked it but that was one of the things I would have liked to have been written differently. ( )

Bought from Bookstore

What I Loved: Snark? Check! Kick Butt Leading Lady with great clothes? Check! Hot Half-Demon Stubborn Man? Check! This was snarky fun at its best and you just couldn't help but fall in love with Gillian and Arath. They were perfect for each other despite the fact that she has been deemed with the responsibility to kill any of his kind that uses the portals to earth. That is the price you pay when you are a Caruthers sister and guardians of Earth. Oh well because Gillian's dating life has always been messy. There were some great storylines in this book and some teases into the future books that make you want to pick up the next one soon!

What I Liked: The Caruthers family in general. They are complicated, smart, fashionable, and multi-taskers that make you go WOW! This book was defiantly a good launch to this series.

Complaints: None

Why I gave it a 4: Snark, Fun, Hot Leading Man, and my face was in a permanent grin when I finished :) Reason enough for a 4!

Who would I recommend it too: PNR readers that like Chicklit because this was a great cross between the two!

Author Website: http://www.candacehavens.com/ ( )

Stupid Title- Good Book. Paranormal romance but it's not all about the romance. ( )

i think I've reached a saturation point with paranormal romances.

One problem with this one is that four sisters are the defenders of not just earth, but several worlds. Oh, they have lots of backup, including wealth, great technology, and lots of minions, but I just find this concept difficult to believe. No matter how super strong or fast or smart, one fighter isn't going to be able to defeat odds of say, 100 to 1. Or a thousand to 1. Oddly enough, the women's enemies haven't figured this out yet.

There's also the problem that has begun to gnaw at me more and more, the good guys and the evil nasties. The women basically automatically kill the beings from some planets, say the demons or the dragons, that go to the planets they are protecting. But as the main character finds out, the King of the Demons is not all bad guy. In fact, he seems pretty good. In fact, she falls in love with him. If that's the case, one has to assume there are other good guys, or at least not evil guys, in the groups they've seen as enemies. Seems to me that anytime one is dealing with sentience, it opens the possibility that someone considered good will choose to be bad, and someone bad will choose to be good. Or, like real life, sentient beings are complex mixtures of good and bad.

But given that weakness, I enjoyed the book. It is an intriguing universe, the characters are ok, and the plot is interesting.

Worth a read, but I don't know how diligently I'll track down later books in the series. ( )