Reluctant Guardian
Elisha Bugg’s Reluctant Guardian (The Otherworld Guardians) is the first book in what will be an interesting paranormal romance series. For those readers who love to find themselves immersed in a world of shifters, demons, witches, and vampires this book’s cover and blurb promises everything you would ever want. Thane Marrok, a wolf shifter, is deliciously dark and brooding. The heroine, Anya Shaw, doesn’t understand her past or why she’s drawn to Thane. And the universe the author builds for the reader is a world in which Guardians like Thane must protect themselves and others like them from a society of human hunters.
I eagerly jumped into this book and was hooked by the end of the first chapter. The dialogue between characters is well written and the description of each character was intriguing enough to keep me reading. However, as an indie author myself, I began to notice issues that had nothing to do with the quality of the story—the formatting of the ebook was one issue. Perhaps this isn’t a problem with the paperback, so I kept reading. (And it’s an easy fix if the author uses the kindle formatter provided by Amazon’s publishing company.)
Because this is a no-spoiler review, I can tell you that the author kept the pacing of the book brisk, giving the reader just enough world-building information to set each scene. She also treated the introduction of new characters in the same manner. As a reader, I appreciated that. But because Elisha Bugg is clearly not an American author, she thinks nothing of using British slang in her writing. And I’m usually okay with that! The only time the slang jarred me from the story was when she used the word floor for ground—when the characters were clearly outside.
So, with the formatting issues and slang aside, Reluctant Guardian was a fair introductory book. It can be easily read in a weekend. The slowly developing romance between Anya and Thane was maddening enough to make me want to finish the book. And the plot and character’s histories were tight, so by the end of the book, everyone got a happy ending, reader included.
This review was posted on Amazon and Goodreads.com. If you would like to learn more about Elisha Bugg, check out her website.
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