Hard, inked, huge—all anyone sees is the warrior. But not her. Cora knows I need excitement and the thrill of a fight because she craves action, too. She knows I chat romance books with women twice my age, including her grandmother. She knows that I’m more than the bodyguard—because she is, too.She’s struggling to get her new security firm off the ground while set-backs pile up and threats loom. … while set-backs pile up and threats loom. She needs my help, but I’m torn between duty to my pack and allowing myself to embrace what I truly desire.
I’ve always wanted her from afar, and once she’s close, I can’t deny my feelings for her.
Even if she doesn’t know it yet, Cora is my mate.
This is a standalone story in the Protectors of the Pack series. Expect steamy shifter romance, edge-of-your-seat action, scorching love scenes, and a happily ever after.
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Warrior has some really great elements in it. I loved how our hero Dax, was a true beta—a man who was strong and confident in himself, but not a man who had to be the leader, or in charge. In that sense, he’s a great balance to his heroine, Cora. After years of being a bodyguard to others (just as Dax does in his job), Cora’s chosen to strike out on her own and create a new security company. The complications of Warrior arise from her challenges not only in creating a new business but from another established security company that doesn’t want a new player in town.
Cora is more opaque as a character—she’s defined by her job and her desire to succeed in it. We don’t get any sense of her hobbies or interests outside of work. In contrast, Dax is well set up, and some of the best parts of Warrior are his encounters with the members of his monthly romance reading book club. You can just tell Blackwood is having the time of her life writing these scenes where she can play on every romance cliché in the book (and the scene where we finally get to read the fruits of two members’ romance writing labors is flat-out hilarious).
Blackwood also has a deft hand with secondary characters—the book club members, Cora’s new employee Tristan, Cora’s first job contractor, Wanda—who are all well drawn. But the plot itself is somewhat meandering to start, as Dax doesn’t seem to want to be with Cora even though he’s compelled to do so as a shifter recognizing his mate. And the opacity of Cora is also apparent here: Dax’s longing is palpable, but I didn’t get a similar sense from Cora, as she is so concerned with her move and her new job.
So after a slow build, we get to an action climax involving many of the characters we’ve met in Warrior. I can’t say more without getting into spoiler territory, but I was frustrated here as there were several elements to the denouement that didn’t make sense to me—characters who shouldn’t have come easily at Cora’s (or her grandmother’s) beck and call do, moments when characters shift into their animal states but clothes (and the things in them) are miraculously undamaged, etc.
So I loved the gentle strength of the hero, the fantastic sense of humor in the romance book club, and the desire of Cora to be independent and build her own business. But the opacity of the heroine and the way the denouement didn’t work logically for me drove my rating down a bit. Nonetheless, I enjoyed Blackwood’s style and humor—and found a refreshing change in Dax and his romance-reading habit from the other alpha-driven heroes of most shifter romance.