Beyond the Darkness (Guardians of Eternity, Book 6)

The werewolf population is in danger of extinction unless purebred females are found. As their king, Salvatore Giuliani searches for a pureblood candidate before the vampires grab them. He catches a whiff of Harley and goes after her. He rescues her from a cur pack and knows she is his soulmate, but she rejects him in spite of her attraction to him; as Harley learned to never trust a werewolf having been held prisoner by one. However, all hell breaks loose when a nasty demon resurrects an odious evil rival of Salvatore, who still covets being the werewolf ruler; collateral damage means nothing to either malevolencies including destroying much of the Were pack, vampires, and Harley's recently discovered family. The sixth Guardians of Eternity (see Darkness Unleashed and Darkness Revealed) is a terrific romantic fantasy as the regal pompous Gucci wearing King of the Weres meets his queen only to be rejected by her. Alexandra Ivy is at her best as she turns the arrogant royal into a heroic champion protecting his soul mate and others rather than just ordering his pack. Beyond the Darkness is another winner from one of the leading urban fantasists. Harriet Klausner

I have all of this author's books and I have enjoyed each of them. I really didn't like the "King of the Weres", Salvatore Giuliani. However, this book changed my mind about him and I liked the romance. He was so arrogant in the other books that I thought he was not a likeable person. Now however, Harley, his mate brings him down to earth. The romance is good the supernatural aspect is excellent and I recommend this one, if you liked her other novels. Harley is one of the babies stolen from the weres. She is one of four born without the ability to change. Therefore she will be able to carry her babies to term. She doesn't know this as she has been held her whole life by a group of curs. These are weres who were bitten instead of born. Salvatore finally finds her and rescues her from the curs. But Harley has been held to long and now she wants her freedom. Salvatore has hunted the babies, one of whom he plans to make his Queen, for 30 years. When he finds Harley he finds more than he bargained for, there has not been a true were mateing in many, many, years. So it is hard for him to accept that he and Harley are true mates. The fact that his powers are weakened by her nearness, and the musk that now permeates his skin, finally convince him that he must quickly make her his mate. The identity of the true evil that is killing the packs and draining their power is finally revealed. This power is now determined to kill Salvatore and take his place. The action is fast, the romance hot and I love these stories. There are as usual a few secondary characters that you know will be in the next novel and leave you wanting more.

Werewolf King Salvatore Guiliani is on the hunt, he's scented a pureblood were female and strongly suspects that it's one of the remaining genetically altered females who were supposed to mean salvation for his declining race. Having already lost two of the four sisters to the dirty bloodsucking vamps, Salvatore is amazed to discover that this one is 'his Queen'. Harley has been told for years that Salvatore is the bogey man who killed her family and wants to wipe her out too. But somehow the reality of Salvatore just doesn't mesh with what Harley's been told and Salvatore's scent stirs a hunger deep inside her soul. But can Harley trust Salvatore when he spouts fairy stories about their true mating - despite Harley's inability to shift, she is no submissive female willing to pump out pureblood pups for the arrogant were. But Harley's acceptance is crucial, for Salvatore's old enemy has arisen and with the mate bond incomplete Salvatore may lack the power to save his people from immediate extinction. Werewolf King Salvatore has been a total arrogant jerk in the previous books, but Ivy manages to make him a decent hero here. Somehow Ivy manages to do that while still keeping Salvatore's character mostly intact - he's still arrogant, but here all that attitude makes Salvatore sexy and seductive. And as despicable as Salvatore's been at times in the past books, he definitely has some noble moments here. Harley is a surprisingly good heroine too. After Harley's previous two sisters stories, I was expecting them all to start blending. But even though Harley has that same core of strength as her siblings, her story stands out because she uses the that strength to make Salvatore really work for his happily ever after. And since that strength allows her to stand up to Salvatore, it ultimately makes Haley a good queen to his king - and fortunately Salvatore is trainable:) I have really grown to like Ivy's books and though it sounds cliché, this series really does keep on getting better. Which is great since we still have three novels and a Levitt short story to look forward to. Even though vampire assassin Tane's book is next up (he's paired with a half djinn), I am hoping that the final sister Cassandra, whose story was started here, gets her own book too - though I wouldn't mind if a bit more of her story is woven into Devoured by Darkness to tide me over.

I admit, I believe the Guardians of Eternity series hasn't quite reached the level of exceptional paranormal romance (yet). I think it's a very solid and satisfying paranormal romance series - with a slight issue here and there. There doesn't seem to be a lot that differentiates and individualizes the lead romantic pairing in each book in either character development or the formula of the evolving romance, and I believe that is what separates the solid and satisfying from the exceptional. I've long been a huge fan of paranormal romance novels and series, though, so I have a pretty high tolerance for that lack of differentiation and individualization. It's a common malady in the paranormal romance series sub-genre. That being said, there are some series, like Christine Feehan's Carpathians, that I stopped reading a long time ago because the formula got to be too much, the characters too interchangeable, the women too often somehow lesser than their mates. I'm taking a break (and have been since Acheron) from Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series for similar reasons. I'm still reading Alexander Ivy's Guardians of Eternity series. Why? Because it's still giving me exactly what I like in my paranormal romance novels. An uberalpha male and a strong, independent female that lock heads, fangs, fists AND wits, humor, and charm to create an explosive chemistry that works for me quite nicely. There's also the characters from previous novels that get tossed into the mix, and I love seeing the continuing development there. In Beyond the Darkness, in particular, Ivy has gone one step further, and seems to have added another dimension to the series arc, hinting at something coming that may draw together all the characters we've met so far and pit them against one decidedly evil threat to all demonkind. It was a tantalizing and tricky thing to do, because it provided the series a cohesion and depth previously unattained. Not to mention, this particular book is the first of the series to provide a male pureblood werewolf as top dog (so to speak) instead of another of the leeches (as Salvatore would call them), so we got to get a much better - though still too brief for me - view of the difference between the vampire culture and the declining werewolf culture. The differences were handled nicely, even if I wish I'd seen a few more of them to make them really stand out. When combined with my appreciation for the series and the characters to date, it raised my enjoyment of this book and the series even higher. Not to mention that Alexander Ivy has managed to take a character I have disliked since he was introduced, Salvatore Giuliani, and made me not only like him (a little), but understand him better and appreciate his responsibilities and the demands of saving a race from extinction. That stunned me, because I said in my review of the previous book in the series that I was NOT looking forward to a book about Giuliani. Up until this point I've found him arroga

I love this book. There is humor, danger, sexual tension, etc throughout the book that will keep your heart rate up. I could not put this book down and actually finish it in one day. Highly recommended.