Dark Sentinels Book One:Sable [Kindle Edition]

Dariel Raye (Author)

Book Description

Dr. Akila Marshall is a veterinarian with a calling – save as many stray animals as possible. The only child of wealthy, yet distant parents, she’s convinced that love is not for her. Until…

Sable’s search for his twin sister leads him to Akila. Born into a rare species of wolf shifters whose main purpose is protecting others, he has always been forced to fend for himself, but Akila’s loving, protective nature draws him – and not a moment too soon. Together, they must learn to trust each other enough to overcome a new, deadly enemy.

Product Details

• File Size: 244 KB
• Print Length: 60 pages
• Publisher: Dariel Raye Publishing (July 13, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008L87H0O
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #164,448 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Quick, Easy & Fun Read July 19, 2012

By Mia Darien

Format:Kindle Edition

Over all, I liked it. It was a quick, easy read with romance and the paranormal. These things are always fun. I did have a few little problems with it, though.

Mainly, Akila's early motivation in bringing Brutus into her house and just letting him loose could have been clearer: how did she know this would be okay? She kind of says why later, but I would have liked to know earlier. It would have given me less of a "really, lady?" kind of moment.

There were some behind the scenes events about local animals that Akila references that I would have liked to know more about why of later, since it does tie into the story. And I would have liked to have seen Sable be a little more take-charge and kick-ass. He had the size for it -- your usual romantic hawt hero -- so I would've liked to have seen it more, like in the ending, which happened kind of fast and did a drive-by of a couple other characters introduced late. (I'm hoping maybe that is a set-up for future books.)

Yet, all that being said, I liked Akila a lot. As a woman who has to close her eyes or look away when she sees dead animals on the side of the road, I really liked her love for all animals and how their pain affected her. So the plot issues I had might have made me give this 3.5 stars, Akila sold me and made it a 4 star review. I'll be keeping an eye out for future Dark Sentinels books.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, sexy, strong! August 22, 2012

By studentwriter

Format:Kindle Edition

I received this book as a kindle-gift and could not put it down!

This is Book One of a novella series, so it is shorter than I expected and the action and story, I assume, will continue in the books to come after. Knowing that, it is brilliant! For paranormal romance fans who are already familiar with the concept of shifting, it will flow with great excitement and likable characters from the first page. A female vet falls in love with a gorgeous male wolf-shifter and they quickly work together to thwart a dastardly plot against nasty, evil animal abusers who are after the wolf and his twin sister! Very exciting! Of course, the good guys will win in the end. That end does not come in Book One, but the interim sex is so good, we don't mind!

Characters strong and likable, story engaging, sex enjoyable!

But there is more to this series than all that. This story, narrated from the voice of an African-American female vet, incorporates ethnic issues like silk flowing over satin! She and some of her co-workers are black, and that issue is so smoothly woven into the story, presented so naturally in reference, for instance, to beautiful skin tones, that the white Caucasion reader remains inside the narrator with no problem. It is not easy to produce literature like that in a white macroculture like ours. In the reader, there will usually be a line drawn between who is white and who is not.

I welcome this brilliant writer who knows and shows that inside out, people are just people and we are certainly all alike, dealing with very important common issues of pain, good and evil. Of course, the ethnic theme is repeated in the wolf-shifter theme. Sable makes love to Akila as a man, but then afterwards he sometimes shifts back to a wolf.... Yes, she is a vet who loves animals, and loved him when she thought he was just a wolf, but can she psychologically accept this cultural stretch, to love a man who is both man and wolf, and therefore a new cultural form altogether, a hybrid she has not encountered before? Will her society accept it? Can she love him enough to get past it? Is she WILLING to make such a psychological change?

This is a brilliant cultural transition book hidden in the mode of a light, popular young paranormal genre that does not always provide us with such questions and ideal role models.

WELL DONE, DARIEL RAYE and PLEASE produce the sequels quickly! Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of Sable - the Dark Sentinel Series August 3, 2012

By L. Vannae

Format:Kindle Edition

Sable, a sentinel wolf-shifter who has lived his whole life protecting other shifters, leaves his home to find his twin sister. They grew up alone because their parents died when they were young, so they have always depended on each other. The ones they protect don't care about them because they're different, so they can't mate with any of them. Sable stumbles on a plot to experiment on his kind and gets poisoned so he can't shift back to a man at will.

He escapes from the lab, and someone sees him and calls the animal shelter. They're about to have him "put down" when one of the staff calls her friend, a vet, to come save him. Akila grew up with animals, and trusts them more than people. She notices how beautiful he is the moment she sees him, but she also notices that he's a wolf. A black wolf with blue eyes, and he shouldn't be in city limits. She owns a no-kill shelter, but she likes him so much, she takes him home with her instead of taking him to her shelter.

The poison doesn't last in his system long, and he shifts back, but leaves Akila so she doesn't see him again until he's a man. She wonders why he "seems so familiar," but can't put her finger on it. One thing leads to another, and in his search for his sister, he ends up making a full circle back to Akila, asks her out, and things really get spicy after that. The attraction is raw, and the sex had me fanning myself. I fell in love with Sable, and Akila was easy to like. She was smart and kind. Some other supporting characters were introduced that I'd like to know more about. There was really nothing I didn't like about this book. I read it in one day. I'm looking forward to the next one. Five stars.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Read! August 3, 2012

By L.V. Bridges

Format:Kindle Edition

This was a really fun book. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down, and then it ended too fast for me! A scientist catches a werewolf shifter and drugs him so much he ends up stuck as a wolf. The wolf gets away and someone puts him in a shelter. In the shelter, though, he tries to bite everybody, probably because he's still full of the drug and confused. The people he tried to bite don't care, though, and they are going to put him to sleep. The wolf is looking for his missing twin sister. He's not used to anybody else caring about him until a vet who owns an animal shelter comes to his rescue. This is where it gets really funny. Dariel Raye talks for the wolf so you know everything he's thinking. He is foul mouth and real, and I immediately liked him.

He's extra strong because he's not just a normal shifter, so he's able to switch back to a man in the middle of the night. He traces his sister to the same vet who took him in, and there is an instant attraction between them. He's gorgeous as a man, and he already thought the vet was "cute" when he was still a wolf. The sex is hot! I could tell he had no inhibitions, and she's really comfortable with him, but the scientist catches him again.

The only problem I had with this book was that it ended too suddenly. I wanted to know more about them, and what happened later. I guess the author meant to leave me in limbo about some things because more answers will be in the next book in this series. Hint, hint. I definitely plan to keep up with the Dark Sentinels. Sable won me over from the very beginning. I give it 4 stars!

More About the Author

Dariel's love for books, as well as her fascination with animals and all things paranormal, prompted the beginning of her writing journey at the tender age of 8. The paranormal romance, "Raven's Shelter," one of five stories in Taming of the Wolf, was her second publication, and her first with The Wild Rose Press as a result of placing second in their "Got Wolf" competition - prompted the new "Dark Sentinels" series. Also a paranormal romance, "Vashti's Star," which she has plans to update, was her first published novel. Dariel has written articles for The News Item of Mobile, and Black Health Magazine of Atlanta.

A classically trained pianist and vocalist with a degree in piano and vocal performance, Dariel plays more than 10 instruments, and worked as a band and choral director. With a master's in counseling psychology, she worked in mental health therapy, substance abuse counseling, and school/career counseling for more years than she wishes to reveal. She has presently completed studies for a Ph.D. with the exception of her dissertation, but a more recent battle with kidney failure changed her perspective and renewed a focus on her first loves, writing and music. Dariel is a native Mobilian and minister of music. In addition to her novels and articles, she has written and directed three musicals and composed more than 30 scripturally based compositions. She lives with a variety of pets, where she is working on three paranormal romance series, composing music, and making plans to record soon.