Customer Reviews

So Still The Night: A Novel of The Shadow Guard

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So Still the Night is Kim Lenox's new historical paranormal romance set in Victorian London, and I found this second book in the Shadow Guard series to be just as sumptuous as her first, Night Falls Darkly.

As the love child of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, it's not surprising that hero Marcus Helios is beautiful, passionate and larger-than-life. In the pursuit of becoming legendary, at the end of the Night Falls Darkly, Mark sacrifices himself, so that in So Still the Night he is fighting for his existence and trying to prevent his transition into one of the evil souls that the Shadow Guards exterminate.

The key to saving himself rests with information held by the delightful Mina Limpett, whose eccentric father has disappeared with some ancient Akkadian scrolls of supreme supernatural importance. From the moment Mark and Mina meet, the attraction sizzles. She's feisty and smart and the perfect match for a formerly self-involved god-like creature like him.

Lenox does a fabulous job of blending nail-biting dark suspense with evocative description and occasional moments of wonderful wry humor. As the story progresses, Mark is losing time and possibly descending into madness and murder, the body count is rising, and a new and terrifying killer, the Dark Bride of Jack the Ripper, emerges. Despite the danger of getting distracted, Mark can't resist the urge to pursue Mina. Falling for him complicates her life, as she must contend with the jealousy of female rivals for his affection. And later Mina faces the realization that the man she loves is not mortal and will never be hers alone.

Lenox brings the story to a smooth and stunning conclusion with surprising twists that give Mark and Mina's love story a satisfying ending while also leading into the next book in the series. As always, I loved Lenox's storytelling and greatly look forward to the new installment in the Shadow Guard series, Darker Than Night (April 2010 by NAL).

I love a good romance novel. Historicals are my absolute favorites. The immortals, brotoi(bad) and Shadow Guard (good) are woven into history so well that they truly feel a part of it. What I love about her books is that she doesn't spend page after page of overexaggerated love making with a smattering of story tossed in. The stories themselves hold their own. Her balance of intimacy and story are perfect, not overdone as in most cases you find in most historical romances. I truly cannot wait for the next book to release. For any fan of historical romance, I think most everyone will enjoy these stories as well as the love between the characters in them.

SO STILL THE NIGHT (A Novel of the Shadow Guard)
KIM LENOX
Paranormal Romance

Rating: 4.5 Enchantments

Marcus Helios is not only an immortal, a former member of the elite Shadow Guard and the son of Antony and Cleopatra, but he also in the depths of Transcension, bringing him to the depths of madness. His only hope of salvation lies in two ancient scrolls he believes are in the possession of the beautiful Willowmina, and he'll do whatever it takes to get his hands on them. But with the mysterious Dark Bride hunting him in London and having to deal with his twin sister Seline, who's desperate to become his official assassin, things are complicated enough without falling for the beautiful Mina.

With her father faking his own death, sending her back to London to report the grim news, then to go into deep mourning for her own safety, Mina suddenly finds herself on her own. When strange things begin to happen, such as being the victim of an apparent random attack in the street and having her father's papers shredded in her room, she becomes uncomfortable and slightly scared for her own safety Surprisingly, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to Mark, Lord Alexander. When he unexpectedly asks for her hand in marriage, she's thrilled when her uncle agrees to the betrothal. Now she can get out of the house and hopefully start over, completely unaware of her new husband's immortality.

I adored SO STILL THE NIGHT. While not your typical historical romance, Mina and Mark are two strong individuals, both fighting their own battles: Mark's for his sanity and Mina for trying to overcome the loss of her father. The chemistry between the two is some of the strongest I've read and the scenes between them are sizzling hot. I loved how Mark wore down Mina's resistance to him, especially the scene with the hot air balloon at the club. My favorite scene though is after the two are married and Mina learns his secret. While on the search for her father, they visit an old family friend of Mina's, a rather eccentric character who owns a warehouse full of unusual items. It's a fun and a nice respite from the darker tone of a lot of the book, it's one that made me laugh and stayed with me through the rest of the book.

I have to say SO STILL THE NIGHT is a wonderful read that quickly earned a spot on my keeper shelf. Mark is a delicious hero, filled with a dark intensity and a purpose that I haven't read in awhile and quickly fell for. Mina's strong enough on her own, but watching her fall for Mark and accept who he truly is makes this a great read. The only drawback to the story is the ending chapters are rather fast paced, and rush by quicker than the rest of the story.

With a fast paced ending with a few surprising twists and revelations, SO STILL THE NIGHT leaves the reader breathless, going back through the story for clues they may have missed as to the Dark Bride and her cohorts identities. I can't wait to read the next in this series, Darker Than Night, due out in April 2010.

To learn more about this book and the Shadow Guard series, visit Ms. Lenox online at her website: [...]
Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
January 2010

This is the second in a series by Lenox. The first being Night Falls Darkly. Even though this book has its own conflict and story line, I would still recommend you read the first book first. There was a lot more explanation in the first book as far as who and what the Shadow Guard are.

We were introduced to Lord Mark Alexander in the first book. He was portrayed as young (regardless of his 19 centuries) and eager to make his name famous. More famous than his mother and father (Mark Anthony and Cleopatra). His drive led him to doing the unthinkable--Transcension, which usually means becoming insane and having to be killed by another Shadow Guard. In this book, Mark is looking for two scrolls that might be the answer to saving his life...which ultimately leads him to Mina. Mina is the daughter of the man who has those scrolls. Mark decides that he wants both the scrolls and the girl.

The whole book was very fast-paced. That includes the romance to the action to the drama. Rarely can I say this, but I most certainly did NOT predict the end (as far as who the bad guy was). That in itself deserves kudos! This is a definite recommendation to read this series.

Kim Lenox follows up "Night Falls Darkly" with "So Still The Night", book two of her historical paranormal 'Shadow Guard' series. Her immortals are those who hunt down the bad guys who have made their way to the human realm, killing merrily along the way. The increase in slaughter recently is all part of their scheme to prepare the way for Tantalus, uber-bad guy.

Mina has spent her life traipsing on the heels of her father's fascination with books and learning. On their late trip to Nepal, her father's increasing strange behavior took a wild turn and he left Mina to make her way home alone, saying it would be safer for her if all believed him dead. Her long trip back to England was a battle to keep from constantly looking over her shoulder...WHAT was it about those scrolls her father kept gibbering about? Could it be that there is more to this world than Mina ever imagined?

Marcus is the son of Antony and Cleopatra, made an immortal Shadow Guard. He sacrificed himself to save his leader, Archer, and now if he doesn't get his hands on Mina's father's scrolls, he will be hunted down by the remaining Shadow Guards and killed to stop his descent into evil. But his trademark seduction routines don't seem to be working with Mina, and it's not long before Marcus is fighting BOTH his descent and his growing love for Mina.

For such a smart woman Mina teeters back and forth between acting logically and being a twit. I lost count of her TSTL (too stupid to live) moves about halfway into the book. Once you realize the bad guys are real...STAY WITH THE GOOD GUYS! Her constant waffling on Marcus was quite irritating too--she loves him, she loves him not; she likes him but refuses to fall in love; she loves him but he's immortal; this goes on and on and on and on.

There IS a continuing story arc, but it just didn't stand out enough to stick in my head between the first book and this one. So I took the time to scan through the first book again and STILL had difficulty following the 'big picture'. And I really, really don't like unanswered questions and gaps; what happened during those three months? What did Marcus have to do with the weather? Where was Mina's father? How did he discover the mirror? There were more, but I'll stop there.

I consider this series more of a fantasy with a bit of hot sex thrown in than a true paranormal romance, but that's just me. My heroes and heroines need to draw me into their lives and minds...and this story just didn't do that.

Though it cost him what her cherished most in life, Marcus Helios sacrificed himself to protect his peers, the Shadow Guardians. By doing what he did he acted unselfishly and heroically but is no longer a Shadow Guardian and subject to assassination.

His only hope to save himself resides with an enigmatic ancient missive found amidst ancient scrolls owned by Willomina Limpett. However, upon meeting Mina, Mark concludes others less ethical about collateral damage will kill her to steal the scrolls. He vows to keep Mina safe especially from her diabolically insane lover Jack the Ripper, who once jilted her and now has the dark power to destroy the world.

The sequel to the exciting NIGHT FALLS DARKLY, SO STILL THE NIGHT is a superb Victorian romantic urban fantasy that hooks the audience from the first moment that fallen Shadow Guardian Marcus meets Ripper's jilted fiancée Mina. The story line is filled with plenty of action and the right amount of romance. Once again time and place in a supernatural Victorian England seems plausible as the Shadow Guard saga continues with its overarching refreshing effort to stop Jack.

Harriet Klausner