Guardian's Grace (Dark Protectors 12) by Rebecca Zanetti

★★☆☆☆  I received this book as an advanced reader's copy. 

This novel is the twelfth in the Dark Protectors series by Rebecca Zanetti. If you haven't read the prequels, you can still read this novel and mostly understand what is happening. Of course, if you do, you will miss out on much of the character and plot establishment that occurred in previous novels as Zanetti interweaves previous main characters throughout this novel. I have read one or two related novels previously but I'm not following the series.

The novel follows the romance of Grace, an enhanced human female, and Adare a vampire/demon. As with most of her previous novels, the chemistry between the two feels a little bit forced but the romantic scenes are spicy. I didn't really like either character much. They were a little flat in my opinion. The plot also left something to be desired. If the main heroine is smart and caring, then why would she not explain her motivations for striking out solo and realize how much danger she was potentially putting herself in? She also falls too much in the damsel in distress category for my liking, but that's just me. Another plot question I had, did the bad guys really play pretend family in her old apartment for 5 years? That seems to be the indication, but if correct it doesn't make much sense if they are as high-ranking as they claimed to have been. Also, the author's use of "male" and "female" as a convention feels forced and unnecessary for example: "A male wearing a baseball cap covered with snow kicked the door shut..." couldn't we just say a "man" as is more common? And while I understand that much of the basis for the novels revolves around finding and marking and preserving "mates", this seems to be something that will give many a feminist a bad-day. 

If you don't over-think most of the plot points in this novel, then it's a quick read with some hot scenes in it. Based on just this book, I probably wouldn't go out and read the rest of the series. 

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