After a miserable childhood, Lark has finally found the family he always wanted. There isn’t much he wouldn’t do for his new liege, Max, including undertaking a secret and dangerous mission to save the most hated creatures in their society – the chades. He only wishes his partner wasn’t a lethal, stoic ranger with a mouth he yearned to make smile.Ivy is a ranger. She is judge, jury, and … executioner to any who break the strict laws of their world. So how has she become the trusted operative of a legitimate goddess who wants her to save the chades instead of beheading them? To make matters worse, she is partnered with a fresh-faced earth paladin with green eyes, a body that won’t quit, and a perky attitude in direct opposition to her hostile one.
But as their mission evolves, Lark and Ivy discover pieces of a convoluted and terrible plot buried within the very foundations of their society. The secrets they uncover run deeper and are deadlier than any of them could have imagined. In order to save the chades and prevent a civil war, the two must reconcile their differences … and their hearts.
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This series just keeps getting better with each book. Montana Ash is a definite one-click author for me without even reading the book blurb. If you like paranormal romance, this series will not disappoint!!
2nd read : 2020
1st read : 2017
3,5 stars
The ‘Elemental Paladins’ series is a series that you really need to read in order. I was late in discovering it but the plus side of that is that I could read the books in one go. I really loved and enjoyed the first three books. ‘Ranger’ is the fourth book and the newest book in the series. I was really looking forward to this one, because it’s about Lark (the youngest paladin in Max’s order) and Ivy, the stoic ranger who we already met in the previous books.
After reading it, I can say that I liked the story but it didn’t hold my attention as much as the other books.
Every society or culture has his own bogeyman, in the warden/paladin society that ‘honor’ goes to the rangers. They are feared because when a warden goes to the ‘dark’ side and become a chade, it is the rangers who goes after him, to imprison or kill him. Something that doesn’t really make you popular with the rest of society. So being a ranger is a lonely job. But Ivy is okay with that, she isn’t a really social person and she’s happy with the love of her younger brother Breyden and the company of her fellow rangers. Ivy is happy with her life like it is but with the arrival of Max, things are changing and that’s also the case with Ivy’s life. For the first time she’s also accepted by non-rangers. Max and her order have no problem with the fact that Ivy is a ranger. This is something that give Ivy really mixed feelings. And then you have Lark, one of Max’s paladin. A younger guy who seems always happy and smiling and also someone who gives her other feelings. Feelings that Ivy doesn’t want but that she can’t hide from. So she tries to ignore him but when Max sends them on a mission together to find chades who can be saved, it becomes very hard to ignore him.
Lark is intrigued by the stoic ranger. Ivy is a mystery to him, a mystery that he wants to uncover but Ivy isn’t a ranger for nothing. She knows how to build walls between them and then you have also the fact that she considers him too young for her. She thinks of him like a young, pleasant but useless child! She couldn’t be more wrong, his father made sure that Lark know how to fight and defend himself. He simply decided for personal reasons to hide his warrior talents from the world.
So now Lark has to prove to Ivy that he could be the right man for her and the more time he spends with Ivy the more he’s convinced that she’s the woman for him but Ivy isn’t an easy woman to please and after some time Lark is getting desperate! Can he convince Ivy of giving the both of them a chance at love?
The focus in this book was more on Lark’s intelligent (something that we saw traces of in the other books) and the way that his mind works. But Lark’s also a very talented warrior and I missed this a little bit in this story. There was some fighting but I would have loved more action of the warrior Lark and the ranger Ivy. Ivy was also a very different character than Max, Cali or Dianna. She was more silent, she liked to think things through before reaction to something. Their ‘courting’ was more an intelligent courting in my eyes, yes, there were sex scenes but very late in the story.
Just like in the other books, this story had also his little surprises in it. That’s one of the things that I really love of this series. The writer is capable to surprise me in every book with some new detail or secret that’s being revealed.
‘Ranger’ was a good story but it didn’t give me the same high like the other books in this series. Everything in his book was slower, the romance was a slow burner, the pace of the story was slower, it also had a little bit of a different feel and vibe for me. But it wasn’t bad, just a little different.
This story felt more like a warming up to the next book ‘Custodian’. Every move and detail in the story felt more like a chess board where every player was set up for the big battle that’s coming, a battle between good and bad. That isn’t bad but that made the story less fluent for me. I really appreciated the note that the writer wrote in the back of the book with a little information for the next book. So we know what to expect of it.
I enjoyed ‘Ranger’ but I would have like it more with some more depth and craziness in it. But I can understand why the writer wanted to slow it down and give us first more information before the next book. I’m very looking forward to it!
AMAZING! SIMPLY AMAZING.
A solid five star read that raises as many questions as it answers. Who can they trust to be on their side? Who are their enemies? Why is the council calling in Wardens and Paladins from around the world?
Rivalries within the council, a society that refuses to change with the times, narrow minded outlooks, and dated laws make for a page turning read. Add to that a few brow raising revelations and you get one can’t put it down read.
How can a socially inept antisocial Ranger and a Paladin that thrives on family and is a borderline genius work together? Only Max would pair these two together and the result is a 5 star must read book.
Lark and Ivy’s mission to seek out Chades that are redeemable is working, proving Max’s theory correct. But, and it’s a big but, factions within their society are spreading vicious rumors and casting doubt on Max and her outcast Paladins.