Ancient Sentinel (Ancients Rising #7)

Katie Reus

Blurb:

He never expected her…

Jaguar shifter Ren never expected to fall for anyone again—not after the last woman he opened his heart to tried to cut it out. Literally. But the moment he met Grace, he fell fast and hard for the sweet human. Except she’s made it clear she’s only looking for friendship, and he wants it all.

Grace officially has a crush on her friend—a quiet jaguar shifter with kind eyes and deadly skills. But he hasn’t given any indication he wants more than friendship. So she vows to move on—until they’re given an assignment by their Alpha. When they’re stuck together under the same roof, sharing one bed, it becomes impossible to hide her attraction.

When danger comes for them, they’ll be forced to decide whether their bond is worth risking everything.

Themes: Paranormal, Shifters

Rating: 4 stars

Heat Rating:

Review:

The next shifter has fallen in this beautiful story set in Post-Fall New Orleans, as two friends finally come to terms with their long time crushes and find a way to admit their feelings for one another. Katie Reus has built such a complicated and intertwined world of shifters, witches, humans, and their friends that fall into so many other categories that you never know what amazing new creature will fall in love next. I have been looking forward to Ren finding love since we met him a few novels ago and seeing him fall for a human show that even the most discerning of shifters don’t overlook us normal ladies when losing their hearts. Ren has settled into New Orleans pretty easily after his previous leader found her mate and moved to her home realm, but the hardest part if knowing that the woman that he knows is his mate is so close but not yet his. Grace has had a crush on her friend Ren since he saved her from an attack and the jaguar-shifter doesn’t seem to realize just how much she has fallen for him. When they are tasked with a project together out of town by their Alpha, Ren decides the time has come to let Grace know his feelings, but one the truth comes out they both realize how much time they have lost and quickly being a relationship that surpasses all their dreams. Grace was such a sweet woman, brave by turns but so easily broken when she thinks that Ren is not interested and I wish she had more self-confidence. She was smart of course and remarkably sassy and I loved watching he make Ren and his friends laugh, but my favorite moments by far when she was taming Ren’s urges and reminding him that their unique love is worth fighting for. Ren was a little bit harder to connect with at times, seemingly immature until he quit messing around and showed his true colors. I loved his interactions with Grace’s grandmother, that gentleness and sweetness such a contrast to his ferociousness in battle, and you can just tell he will make a great mate and father. I would have love had their story been just a little bit longer as it seemed to have been even shorter than some in this series, but I guess being that they were both already enamored of one another, the passion that jumped and sizzled between them was easier to accept than had they just met. I am dying for the next book where we finally get to learn more about the Tiger Twins and one of them finds her love and HEA, but I know whatever is in store for the amazing residents of this crazy world, I won’t want to miss a moment of it. Katie Reus is a tour-de-force and her Ancients Rising series is one of the best I’ve read and I am always ready to jump right in when I get a new edition.

*eARC provided by the author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review. No compensation was provided.