Ancient Retribution (Ancients Rising 5) by Katie Reus-Review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 22, 2022

A dragon princess once lost…

Juniper hunts down the most dangerous criminals on her black ops missions—and she’s good at it. A dragon shifter who was raised by wolves, she doesn’t know her birth clan and gave up trying to find them a hundred years ago. Since The Fall, when rogue dragons razed half the planet, she’s spent her days hunting down supernaturals who think they can escape justice, delivering her own. During a dangerous mission, she falls into the claws of a sexy warrior dragon adjusting to the modern world—and from the start she knows she’s in trouble.

Is now found…

Dragon shifter warrior Zephyr doesn’t fit into this new world. He doesn’t feel like he fits in anywhere—until he meets Juniper and her crew. He knows from the moment he sees the sexy and brave female dragon that they’re destined to be together. Unfortunately, life just got a whole lot more complicated. Not only are they in the fight of their lives against an overwhelming enemy force, but she’s royalty and her long-lost clan has come to bring her home. Even as they fight side by side to save hundreds of humans, he knows that winning her heart will be the hardest and most pivotal battle he’s ever waged. Juniper doesn’t want to get mated, doesn’t trust anyone with her heart—but this is one battle Zephyr will never stop fighting.

••••••

REVIEW:ANCIENT RETRIBUTION is the fifth instalment in Katie Reus’ contemporary, adult ANCIENT RISINGS paranormal/fantasy romance series. This is ancient dragon shifter Zephyr, and Black Ops dragon shifter Juniper’s story line. ANCIENT RETRIBUTION can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

SOME BACKGROUND: Months earlier, several dragons rose from their sleep, and in the aftermath destroyed much of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, in an apocalyptic showdown known as The Fall, but in doing so revealed the existence of the supernatural world to humankind. Ancients Rising focuses on the recovery of the city, and the group of supernaturals and dragons who have come to call New Orleans their home.

Told from several third person perspectives including Zephyr and Juniper ANCIENTS RETRIBUTION focuses on the hunt for a group of vampires trafficking human women. Upon his escape from the H*ll dimension, an injured Zephyr is rescued by Black Ops dragon shifter Juniper, and Zephyr knows immediately our heroine is his mate but Juniper and her crew are on the search for the being responsible for opening the gates to the H*ll dimension, gates that are the portals between H*ll and Earth. With a number of human female missing or dead, Juniper and her team are tasked with uncovering the truth, a team that now includes our story line hero. As Juniper and Zephyr track down the people responsible for the missing and murdered women, Juniper’s past comes full circle, when our heroine comes face to face with the family she has never known. What ensues is the slow building love and relationship between Juniper and Zephyr, and the potential fall-out as Juniper’s past, present and future collide, revealing a betrayal at the very heart of murder and greed.

Zephyr is a powerful ancient, and a male who has finally found the mate to his heart but Juniper is a Black Ops warrior, whose past is shrouded in mystery, a past that reveals Juniper’s royal lineage, and a possible bloody ascension to the throne. Juniper never expected to find a mate, having spent most of her life living and raised by a pack of wolves, but falling for Zephyr was a struggle in the face of not knowing the truth about her own powers, or what happened or why.

The relationship between Zephyr and Juniper begins when Juniper and her team ‘rescue’ and help heal our story line hero. Zephyr and Juniper are immediately attracted to one another, but Juniper struggles with the idea of mating, and the reality of the unknown about her history and her past. Zephyr knows Juniper is his mate, and bides his time hoping to seduce the woman with whom he will fall in love. The $ex scenes are intimate, passionate and intense without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

Once again, there is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters most of whom we have met in previous instalments. We are introduced to the family that raised Juniper, and her newly found biological family, a family that has been searching for Juniper for over one-hundred and twenty-five years.

ANCIENT RETRIBUTION is a story of power and control, betrayal and vengeance, search and rescue, retribution and love. The fast paced premise is engaging, tragic, detailed and dramatic; the romance is edgy and captivating; the characters are energetic, powerful and animated.

Reading Order and Previous reviews
Ancient Protector
Ancient Enemy
Ancient Enforcer
Ancient Vendetta

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Katie Reus is the New York Times, USA Today, and IndieReader bestselling author of the Red Stone Security series, the Moon Shifter series and the Deadly Ops series. She fell in love with romance at a young age thanks to books she pilfered from her mom’s stash. Years later she loves reading romance almost as much as she loves writing it.

However, she didn’t always know she wanted to be a writer. After changing majors many times, she finally graduated summa cum laude with a degree in psychology. Not long after that she discovered a new love. Writing. She now spends her days writing dark paranormal romance and sexy romantic suspense. Her book Avenger’s Heat recently won the Georgia RWA Maggie Award for Excellence in the fantasy/paranormal category.

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