- ISBN13: 9780553589610
- Condition: New
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Product Description
She’s hunting a killer—
and shattering every boundary—
she’s ever known.…
Part vamp, part werewolf, Riley Jenson plays by her own rules, whether it’s her stormy love life or her job as a guardian. But when her family’s alpha male demands that she solve the mystery of a vanished girl, Riley can feel a trap closing in around her. Because the job comes with a catch: if Riley fails, her own mother will die.
Now the stakes are raised, the hunt is on…and when more women vanish, Riley is caught between a lover who demands that she give up her work, a serial killer who knows no boundaries, and a club where humans and supernaturals mix—at their own peril. Thrust into a realm of seduction and violence unlike any she could have imagined, Riley has to battle to save everything she holds dear. But the ultimate hunt has only just begun….
Helen Hancox @ 6:50 am
This book is a real improvement over Keri Arthur’s earlier stories in Riley Jenson, Guardian series – there is a greater focus on plotting and characterisation and less emphasis on sex to carry the story along. The book starts with Riley on holiday on an island to recover from all the events of the last year (and last four books). She is contacted there by a member of her former pack who demands that she looks into the disappearance of a pack member, Adrienne, and threatens to hurt Riley and Rhoan’s mother if she doesn’t comply. Shortly afterwards the Directorate ask her to look into the strange murder of a woman who appears to have been torn limb from limb by her fiancé and Riley discerns a supernatural element to the crime. She works on both investigations at the same time, also finding herself under attack from an unknown assailant, dealing with the memories that contact with her pack has dredged up, and trying to make sense of her relationship with Kellen who wants to ‘go solo’ with her. Riley’s not sure if she can commit to that and clearly has some feelings still for vampire Quinn, although he doesn’t appear in person in this story.
The plotting in this book was excellent with good pacing and with the variety of two simultaneous investigations. The caustic relationship between Riley and Salliane, ‘The Cow’, is very amusing, and adds some light relief in a story with a fair amount of darkness. Riley’s skills are growing and strengthening and she discovers a new aspect of her nature in this book following the drug treatment that she received in the first instalment. Her brother Rhoan features in this story as he helps Riley at the denouement at the end of the story when they uncover the evil behind a string of grisly deaths from the UK to Germany to Australia.
This book relied far more on plot and characterisation, particularly Riley’s workaholic nature and her complete absorption in being a Guardian and how that plays out with her personal relationships, rather than sex; for me, this made it a much stronger read and made Riley a more sympathetic character. It ended on a cliffhanger in Riley’s personal life (although the major plot lines were all completed) and made me look forward to the next book. Although part of a series all the relevant backstory was given in a smooth and concise way and so this book would be easy to understand for a first-time reader despite the complex supernatural world and the varied skills that the non-humans have. “Embraced by Darkness” is a great addition to the series and a book that will probably win this author new readers.
Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book, [...]. © Helen Hancox 2007
Detra Fitch @ 6:56 am
Riley Jenson is part vampire and part werewolf. She had been forcibly given an experimental fertility drug in her past. She has developed a few interesting powers due to side effects, such as the abilities to see souls rise and spirits walk in the shadows. Riley never knows when another ability will pop up. However, they tend to come in handy during her job.
Riley and her brother, Rhoan, are Guardians; they are the super-cops, hunter-killers, of the nonhuman world.
When Blake Jenson, her family’s alpha male, demands Riley help the pack, Riley is ready to tell him to get lost. Riley and Rhoan had been thrown out of the red pack back when they had been thirteen-year-old pups. But Blake throws down a verbal gauntlet when he informs Riley that should she refuse to help or fails in the mission her mother’s life would be forfeit. Riley is now on the hunt for a serial killer. At the same time, Riley’s lover is trying to convince her to quit her work. Yet should Riley do so, many will die.
**** This is the fifth book in the Riley Jenson Guardian series. The plot starts out immediately, on page one. Readers are able to dive right into the scenario. The action slows down two or three times during the course of the novel, but gets hotter than a blow torch by the end. This may be the fifth book of the series, but new readers will not find themselves totally lost. The author does a good job of filling them in. I found this to be a compelling story that held my attention well. ****
Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.
Marbee @ 7:56 am
I loved this series since the first installment. It’s true that this book doesn’t have the “heat” of some of the previous books. Here we see Riley starting to develop more as a character who isn’t a complete prisoner to her hormones.
Hopefully, Riley will have someone new come into her life. Quinn has his own issues, and can’t accept her for herself. As for breaking off her relationship with Kellem, it was no great loss. His character always seemed a little flat to me.
Ms. Arthur has a good imagination so hopefully she will surprise us all in the next book.Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jensen, Guardian, Book 5)
Katie MacAuly @ 8:31 am
This by far is the best installment yet (hence the four stars) but it still leaves something to be desired. The characters are finally becoming something more than one dimentional but the plot line is still predictable and the love scenes fizzle. Quinn disappears which wouldn’t be a bad twist if the author had explored the dynamics of Riley and Kellen’s relationship more instead of throwing us in the middle of it (SPOILER)) only to see it’s demise.
All in all, Keri Arthur appears to be growing as an author and I’m looking forward to her next book.
Dawn Ibanez @ 10:21 am
As a Guardian, Riley begins working two cases. One is connected to her former Pack, another deals with a Serial killer. They’re connected, but again, not really.
What has me so disappointed in this outing isn’t the lack of steamy sex scenes. It’s there, but after the first few books Riley was really becoming like Anita Blake… doing any thing, any time, any where… so her promise to try to make a go at it with Kellen was something fresh and unexpected. What I had a problem with is that this lacked the pick up and go action that the first novels had. I purchased this book when it first came out, and I’m only getting around to reading it now because from the very beginning, I was able to put it down at any time. Riley has always been one to grab my attention from go, and that was missing this time. It was like just another day in the life… which tends to get boring if not done right. And sadly enough, this was just 3 shades away from boring.
I like Riley. I really do. But Embraced By Darkness left a lot to be desired. And I hope that with the return of Quinn in The Darkest Kiss, the next book will return Riley back to her glory.