Customer Reviews

In Twilight's Shadow (Light Warriors, Book 2)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Magic trouble-shooters, demon Gods and hot men with hot romance all mixed together. What more could a happy reader want? "In Twilight's Shadow" picks up where Ryne left off, with her older sister Maia and Ryne's friend who betrayed her, Creed.

It's fun to watch this author put them through their paces in order to earn their happy ending.

This book is setting us up for more, too (at least I hope so!) Can't wait to read more about this whole new world. Thanks Patti O!

Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

I have been intrigued with Maia Frasier since meeting her in her sister's book, In the Midnight Hour. Now at last, we get to find out the reasons she ceded her magic all those years ago.

Maia left the world of Gineal Troubleshooters behind with her magic and thought she was done for good. Unfortunately for her, you can't run from who you are and this has never been more apparent than when a demon fighting Troubleshooter shows up on her doorstep, wounded and desperate for help. Now she is reluctantly drawn back in to the battle when she discovers a new enemy may not be so new after all...

Creed Blackwood has nowhere else to go. He is on the trail of the most powerful demon he has ever faced and is actually in danger of losing this battle. His magic has become unreliable. When you mix in frequent blackouts where he has no memory of what happened, it is a recipe for disaster.

Having ceded her magic, Maia is no longer a welcome member of the Gineal warriors. However, she has ties to this demon and is the only one who can help Creed defeat him. The last thing either Creed or Maia needs is to fall in love with a reluctant partner in the war against dark magic. Will they find the strength they need In Twilight's Shadow?

I loved In the Midnight Hour but I think I loved In Twilight's Shadow even more! Dark, sexy, and full of surprises, I couldn't put it down. Maia got my attention and I have been waiting for her story. Then there's Creed Blackwood who did something unforgiveable in the recent past, even though he thought it was for the greater good. How could I not fall in love with not one, but two, black sheep in the Troubleshooter world?

Maia knows first hand the seduction of dark magic and she pays the price for it still to this day. I felt for her as she battles those old fears and frustrations when dragged into Creed's hunt for his latest foe. Even worse, when she starts to fear Creed has turned to the dark forces, she is torn between helping him and turning him away. Her love for him shines through brightly, even in the blackest hour, and I so desperately longed for them to find their happy ending together.

I am coming to love Patti O'Shea's writing style and vivid imagination. In Twilight's Shadow is a fascinating read that kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what was next to come. Book three in the Light Warriors series can't come fast enough for me!

© Kelley A. Hartsell, May 2008. All rights reserved.

This second book in the Light Warriors series was even better than the first. The characters were rich and multi layered. The love story had a great natural progression. The world of the Light Warriors is becoming more fascinating. I didn't even mind the ending, after all, there will be more books to come.

Maia Frasier was raised among the Gineal and trained to be a troubleshooter. Several years ago, when Maia finally realized that she had fallen to the dark forces and that her younger sister, Ryne, would be sent to kill her, Maia willingly ceded her magical powers. Now she lives in Minneapolis, human but not human, struggling to survive as normal humans do. Maia believes her days of dealing with demons. So she is aghast when a wounded enforcer turns up in her home insisting on sanctuary and claiming that Ryne's life is in danger.

Creed Blackwood is after a high level demon in the area. He desperately needs Maia's help to hunt the demon down, especially since Creed believes his powers are becoming erratic. Lately Creed has been blacking out, acting strangely, and doing things he does not later recall. Creed's Gineal reputation has always been for being cold and lethal. He was the strongest and baddest troubleshooter until Ryne's power level became known. By rights, Creed should have gone to Ryne for sanctuary and help since she is the troubleshooter in charge of the Minneapolis area; however, Creed had withheld vital information in the not-too-distant past which almost caused Ryne's death. (Story in the book titled "In the Midnight Hour".) Needless-to-say, Ryne would refuse. Worse, Ryne would call for healers to help Creed's condition, something he does NOT want.

Maia wants to deny Creed sanctuary too. But when she learns that the demon he is hunting is Seth, Maia knows she really has no choice. Seth is the main reason Maia fell to dark forces. When Maia ceded her magical powers, she also managed to betray Seth in the most devious of ways. The very thought of Seth coming back for revenge terrifies Maia, but even worse is finding out that the powerful demon is after her sister, Ryne.

***** This is the second installment of the Light Warriors and it is just as potent as the first. The main characters of the first book, Ryne and Deke ("In the Midnight Hour"), are secondary characters in this one. Author Patti O'Shea manages to convey how hard it had been for Maia to give up her powers, how difficult it still is for her to fit in the human world, as well as how frustrating it is for Maia not to be allowed to know anything that is going on since she is now consider to be an Outsider. The story is so well written that Maia's anguish and despair seemed to dance on my nerves, making this a compulsive page-turner. *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

This book is the follow up to 'In The Midnight Hour' which introduced Ryne Frasier, a magical enforcer, and her partner Deke Summers. In this story we follow Ryne's sister Maia as she continues to come to terms with her life as someone who has had to give up her magic. Seven years ago Maia got pulled into black magic and had to give up her powers to prevent her sister being tasked to kill her. Unfortunately Maia's whole life had been focused around her magic so without it she feels rather bereft and is stuck in an unfulfilling job.

When magical enforcer Creed Blackwood arrives at her door she initially considers turning him away as she knows that Ryne has fallen out with him. However she offers hospitality to Creed, helping him to recover and then eventually teaming up with him as he tries to hunt down a powerful demon, Seth, an entity that Maia knows on a very personal level from the days when she was sucked into black magic. What Maia doesn't realise, however, is that something evil has begun to get behind Creed's mental shields and it looks as if he is falling into black magic. Can Creed and Maia keep Ryne safe from Seth when both of them are wounded in their own ways? Can Maia have any sort of a life with a magical being now that she is without her magic? Can Ryne and Deke forgive Creed for his behaviour?

I found this book more enjoyable than the first in the series because the characters felt like they had more depth. There were still some occasional plot improbabilities and the overall world of the magical creatures was fairly loosely hung together, nevertheless the book wasn't boring and both central characters were likeable, partly because of their faults. The action scenes tend to feel slightly less convincing than they could do and there were some aspects of the story that weren't completely explained, however the plot moved along at a good pace and the resolution was suitably complete.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

In essence this is really a continuation of the story in IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR. Maia is the sister of Ryne, she gave up her powers when she found herself being drawn to the dark. I liked the book right up until the end and found the end disappointing. I would have liked a better ending but that is me and you might think different. Anyway, the book is very good and I will look forward to more in the series.

Maia has been living her life in quiet solitude for the last seven yrs. She has a job she hates and is just existing missing her lost powers every minute. She has made her life a bland landscape, her home is bland and her wardrobe is bland and even her car is bland. When Creed Blackwood arrives at her apartment and asks if he can stay a while she immediately says no. But when he tells her Ryne's life is in danger she changes her mind.

Creed Blackwood is an enforcer, he doesn't have a territory he travels wherever he is needed. Until Ryne he was considered the strongest enforcer in the service. Creed is searching for a powerful demon. He is also suffering problems with his powers, suddenly he is having blackouts, and headaches. He thinks he is falling to the dark and he must find this demon to destroy the hold he has on him. After fighting a demon he hears the name Maia in his head. That is why he is here, he is sure Maia was connected to the same demon while she was an enforcer.

Maia is determined to help Creed find the demon, who goes by the name Seth, possibly he is really Set the egyptian god of chaos. Although Creed finds himself drawn to Maia he is determined to form a bond with a strong magic user so he can increase his own magic. Maia at first finds him abrassive, brash, and standoffish. But living togather and hunting Seth the two begin to see the soft undersides that the other hides from the world.

The story was good, the action fast, and I liked the romance. I did not get quite the ending I would have liked, but then I did not write the book. However, I still would have read it and I do recommend you read it, like I said you might like the ending better than I did. It just felt abit incomplete to me. I think this is a good series and we can expect more from this talented author.

It's hard for me to believe that the same author who wrote the wonderful Ravyn's Flight" wrote this book. There were way too many things here that didn't make sense to me. I'm always ready to accept a few things, this is Urban Fantasy after all, but this book went way past the tipping point. To defend this opinion, I'm going to have to give some mild spoilers. For anyone who hasn't read the book let me just say that I found the "hero" to be way too self centered to be likable and both main characters were TSTL.

SPOILERS...


I understand that Creed was being influenced by Seth but it still didn't make sense to me that he would hide his blackouts from the Council. That is really serious stuff! I totally lost my respect for him when he almost killed a child and still didn't turn himself in. And I lost all respect for Maia at that point too. It became ludicrous when he tries to kill Ryne and he still doesn't come clean to anyone. If Seth is that powerful and has that much influence over him, why does Creed think he has a chance to defeat Seth on his own? Maia knows how powerful Seth is, how can she even think that not telling her sister about the threat is a good idea? Ryne is suppose to be the most powerful ever but she needs to be kept in the dark? Instead, Maia and Creed go to nightclubs night after night hoping to confront Seth. But what are they going to do when they confront him? They have no plan for defeating him. They are going to places crowded with humans hoping to start a fight? WTH?? Maia is given a book that was specifically written to her hundreds of years ago. Instead of immediately sitting down and reading this book cover to cover she's going out to nightclubs in the hope of confronting Seth? And the seer who writes the book writes a note in the beginning of the book that doesn't include words to the effect of "when the demon becomes a threat, look on page 42 to find the deux ex machina to defeat him."? I honestly found these charaters too stupid to live.

Then there were the little things that bugged me. At the beginning of the book Creed was in the forbidden zone but it's never explained how or why he was there. Speaking of Creed, it seems that he has been cultivating a friendship with Ryne for years so that when he's actually able to overcome his revulsion of trying to romance her, he can form a true soul pairing and therby gain power. What a nice guy! At the end he does settle for Maia but I have to believe that once the first blush of falling in love has worn off, he is going to resent being tied to her powerless self. He is already thinking along those lines. How romantic!

I think the universe that Patti O'Shea has created here is an interesting one and I have high hopes that the author of "Ravyn's Flight" will be able to take her time and write the next book in a manner that holds together and makes sense.

Maia Fraser almost lost herself to the dark forces. Rather than have that happen, she ceded her powers and lives her life as a human rather than as a Gineal Troubleshooter. It was hard, but to her, it was what needed to be done. Now Creed Blackwood is bringing her back into a life she has tried so hard to forget.

Creed Blackwood is hunting a demon. He needs Maia's help to get to his target. As a Gineal Troubleshooter, he has done what he needs to do to survive. Now, however, that survival is getting iffier by the day.

The demon that Creed is after is after Maia's sister. Can Creed and Maia work together and survive? Or will their mutual enemy win it all?

In Twilight's Shadow is a fantastically woven paranormal adventure. Ms. O'Shea grabs the reader's attention and does not let go. With a mix of humor and suspense, In Twilight's Shadow is an excellent example of Ms. O'Shea's writing style. I had read and enjoyed her previous novel, In the Midnight Hour, and I was not disappointed with In Twilight's Shadow. In fact, I enjoyed In Twilight's Shadow so much, I have to Joyfully Recommend it.

Emma
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

This series should be getting a lot more attention. If you are a paranormal romance reader then this Light Warrior series is for you. It has everything a reader could want. It contains amazing action scenes, an alluring romance and wonderful characters. This is the second in the series featuring Maia, a Gineal troubleshooter who gave up her magic in the first book, In the Midnight Hour. Creed Blackwood is one of the top troubleshooters for the Gineal. The Gineal are a magical people that keep their identity hidden from humans. The troubleshooters keep the demons that cross into our dimension from being noticed by the human population. Creed is often called out to handle any disturbances from the demon inhabitants. The book is easy to read, has fantastic dialogue and the romance builds over time. I enjoy this series very much and anticipate many more to come.