Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Hunted Guardian
SERIES: The Shifters #7
AUTHOR: M.D. Grimm
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 140 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 29, 2014
BLURB:
The Shifters: Book Seven
In eighteenth-century Egypt, falcon shifter Con’s parents died attempting to keep powerful, ancient scrolls out of the hands of a monster. Now it falls to Con to keep the scrolls hidden and lead the hunter away so their sacrifice isn’t for nothing. But he isn’t quite fast enough, and he finds himself helpless in an unfamiliar English countryside village. That is, until a beautiful man with a limp carries Con to his manor to tend to his wounds.
As an alpha wolf, Quincy’s compassion is not valued by his pack, which leads him to nurse the falcon in secret. A bond quickly forms between Quincy and the mysterious raptor, so he’s concerned at Con’s reaction to the arrival of another visitor, the Countess Blackburn.
REVIEW:
After reading the first six books of this series, the author took a completely different turn with book seven and instead of continuing the current story line, she did a one eighty and went way back to a time before the city of Haven was established and individuals like Poe were really needed. Think of this as a kind of origin story for the rest of the series and as such you don’t have to have read any of the previous books to understand what’s going on here as there is no storyline or character connection to the first six books.
The two main characters in the book, Con and Quincy, are both Guardians in different ways; Quincy acts as a kind of enforcer/protector for his pack and their lands while Con and his family were protectors of a set of scrolls too dangerous to allow to fall into the wrong hands. (The scrolls in question were mentioned in the previous book and so this kind of acts like a small tie in and explanation all in one.) When Con is injured in his shifted form, he’s rescued and nursed back to health by Quincy, who doesn’t know the bird he’s been tending to is a shifter. Con doesn’t exactly know how to break it to his caretaker that he’s just as much man as animal but when danger unexpectedly shows up on his pack’s doorstep, he finally breaks his silence in order to try and help. What follows is a bit insta-love but that’s not unexpected with this series and it was kind of sweet so I happily just ran with it.
Personally, I liked the story and I was actually happy to see the author take a step back from the current storyline; it can be all too easy for things to become a little stagnant in series’ that are longer than the norm and this was a great break from what had been going on before this. Also, if you aren’t a fan of historical novels I wouldn’t let that deter you from reading this as there were very little ‘period’ details that I noticed. All in all this was a fairly easy read that had enough action in it to keep me happy and I was glad to get away from the story arc from the previous six books. If you liked the series so far you will probably enjoy this one, too, but if you’re in it for Poe and the other established characters it may not be as good a read for you.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Dreamspinner Press