Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  The Protector

AUTHOR:  Cooper West

PUBLISHER:  Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH:  250 pages

BLURB:  

Guardsmen are always matched in a bonded pair. The Protector can shift into a weredog, and the human partner is his Handler. They are incredibly rare and highly valued, but people also fear them for their mystical abilities. No Protector in living memory has outlived his Handler—until Alex Taylor.

Now a widower, Alex lives a lonely half-life and faces day after day of grief with no hope for happiness in the future. When he unexpectedly bonds with the young and vibrant Handler Marcus Stephanek, Alex is angry and unwilling to leave the memory of his former Handler behind. He pushes Marcus away and tries to distance himself from their bond. But then a mysterious villain who has been secretly shadowing Alex for years sets his plan in motion. Alex and Marcus must learn to trust their bond and love each other, or risk not only their own lives but the lives of those closest to them.

REVIEW:  

Marcus sunk lower into himself. Everything about Theo sounded perfect. Marcus knew he was good-looking, but that seemed to be the only thing he had over Theo, who had been smart and kind and loving and adored. John leaned over, putting his hand on Marcus’s leg.

“Hey, it’s not a competition. You’re Alex’s bondmate now, end of story.”

Marcus glared at him. “Don’t fool yourself. It’s a damn competition, all right, and I’m already losing to the dead guy.”

No Protector has ever lived past the death of their Handler.  No one–until Alex Taylor.  And there is no one who dislikes the fact more than Alex himself. He is an anomaly. People fear him, scientist want to study him, and other Guardsmen avoid him like he has the freaking plague.  But Alex…well, Alex only wants to grieve his Handler, and his lover, in peace.  It is not like there is anything else for him to do.  He is one half of a whole…and the half that got left behind is pretty much useless without its partner there with him.

Handler Marcus Stephanek has pretty much given up on ever having a Protector of his own. Despite the fact that he has done everything right, taken every action to make sure that he would be the perfect Handler for his Protector, his Protector has yet to show up.  And at 26, it is unlikely that he or she ever will.  So now he can either stay in his half life, one built on waiting for something that apparently is never going to show, or he can simply move on, accept defeat, and admit that he is a failure. His parents would be thrilled.

Then the unthinkable happens…Alex bonds with Marcus, and boy does the shit hit the fan.  Alex can’t (won’t) accept Marcus as his bondmate, Marcus is left fighting with a (perfect) man’s ghost, and, oh yeah, someone may or may not want to kill Alex before either of them get their heads out of their asses long enough to realize they are perfect for each other.  So…life could be better.

Oh the angst! Oh the drama! Oh the fucking hell that was hot!

This book sure tried to twist me up into a pretzel–and it did a pretty good job doing it as well.  Which I probably would be more upset about, except I kinda liked it.  Go figure.

First off, the world built in this book was great.  It is close enough to our version of reality that I didn’t have to spend too much time dealing with background issues, like where the fuck am I and why the hell would the government do that that is fucking stupid! and was it really necessary to drop 15 pages of backstory on us all at once?!  Instead we were given a version of the world that was just a little off from our own, yet it was written in such a way that it feels real.  I love reading stories that can pull this off, because while I do love an in depth exploration of fantasy worlds, if not done correctly they basically bore the shit out of me.  Here it was just fun.

And the Protectors were great.  And they turn into dogs!  I love dogs.  Well, actually I don’t really like them up close, but far away or in pictures they are fucking great.  But I loved that they didn’t turn into wolves.  Wolves are so overused (even though I love it and have spent the last few weeks reading almost nothing but Teen Wolf fanfics).

Plus the whole Protector/Handler bonding thing is something I am a huge fan of.  Especially when it all goes to shit moments afterwards.  I do love to be tortured, for some reason.  This book did a great job of showing how drawn to each other Alex and Marcus were, but also how that bond that might also be tearing them apart. They both want something–Alex for Theo to come back to life, and Marcus for Alex to realize that Marcus is right there in front of him, now–but they can’t seem to fucking communicate worth a damn.  Well they communicate (i.e. yell words at each other), but either they are unwilling to listen (Alex) or they can’t get past the perfect picture they had built up in their minds (Marcus).  And dear god in heaven it feels like they will never ever get their shit together–I may have wished for the ability to reach into my Kindle and strangle Alex on more than one occasion–but when they do, oh I really did love it.

I wasn’t a big fan of Alex’s actions at the end though. Partly because I pretty much had the villain figured out from the beginning, but mostly because that whole “I shall protect you by not tell you anything” mentality is fucking annoying.  Rarely is it ever productive to keep someone safe by not telling them the fucking truth. It usually comes back to bite you, them, and a lot of other people, on the ass.  But I have to admit that Alex did redeem himself a little, just not enough that I stopped thinking strangling thoughts at my Kindle.

If you read this–and you really should–just be warned that the whole Alex-is-a-bonehead-douche angst aspect does carry on for a good portion of the book.  You will want to hit things, throw things, scream into your pillow until the rage inside you is cooled by the fact that you are acting like a crazy person.  It is a really great story, and I am pretty much going to read any books set in this world because Cooper has set up some awesome situations with the events that happen here.  And I have to read more because I have to see how Ryan handles all this shit.  Gah–just go read it so I can fangirl about it with somebody.  Anybody.

(I would also recommend that you have a fluff book on standby, for when you finish this one, to help bring your angst levels back down to manageable levels.  If you’re anything like me, you are going to need it.  I recommend Strong Enough by Cardeno C. It did the trick quite nicely for me.)

RATING:  

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