Willing Sacrifice ( The Sentinel Wars #8) by Shannon K. Butcher-a dual review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk/ Barnes and Noble / KOBO / The Book Depository

WILLING SACRIFICE (Sentinel Wars #8) by Shannon K. Butcher

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 4, 2014

They are the Sentinels. Three races descended from ancient guardians of mankind, each possessing unique abilities in their battle to protect humanity against their eternal foes: the Synestryn. Now a warrior weighs the price he will pay for love….

Theronai warrior Torr has never forgotten Grace, the human who stole his heart and nearly gave her life to save his. So when he is summoned to the aid of Brenya, the powerful woman who healed Grace, he is devastated to find that Grace’s cure has left her mind devoid of any memory of Torr or their love.

However, despite not knowing who he is, Grace is inexplicably drawn to the dark warrior. As they team up to stop the invasion that threatens the people Grace now considers family, her memories slowly start resurfacing. But sometimes the past is best forgotten—a lesson that Torr may learn too late….

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Sandy’s Review

WILLING SACRIFICE is the eighth storyline in Shannon K. Butcher’s paranormal, romance, fantasy series-The Sentinel Wars. The Sentinels are three races descended from an ancient race of guardians known as the Athanasians, who defend and protect mankind from the demons at the door. The Theronai are the protectors, the Sanguinar are the healers (as well as blood feeders) and the Synestryn-the demons.

The premise follows Torr as he is commanded to Temprocia in an effort to quell the forces on the hunt for Brenya-one of the most powerful females known to the Theronai. As the legions of Hunters, demons and the Warden draw near Torr will be paired with his one-time love Grace-a woman who has no memory of Torr or of their relationship. What ensues is Torr’s need to keep the woman that he loves safe from harm when she continuously goes out of her way to protect the stranger who has been sent to save her world. Grace is drawn to Torr, for reasons she cannot explain, but the more she looks deep into herself, the more her memory begins to return.

WILLING SACRIFICE is a story of second chances in a world where staying alive is a daily struggle. The reader is pulled into an engaging and suspense filled storyline where a human places a stranger’s life above her own. Call it woman’s intuition or a self-sacrificing soul, but Grace cannot explain her need to protect the man who calls to heart-a heart she didn’t know could feel so much love.

There is little to no reference about the previous storyline characters or premise. Willing Sacrifice focuses on three people: Torr, Grace and Brenya. Most of the storyline revolves around the struggle to prevent the Hunters and Demons from discovering the whereabouts of Brenya and Torr’s attempts to keep Grace safe from harm. The storyline’s connection to the Sentinel Wars is limited in its’ affects on the series or any of the original premise.

Shannon K Butcher weaves a tale of lost love in a world of death and destruction. Torr and Grace are soul mates who will get a second chance at happiness-if they can only survive  the demonic attacks and each other.


Barb’s Review

Sandy’s wonderful review details everything about Shannon K. Butcher’s wonderful Sentinal Wars series.  Here are my thoughts on Willing Sacrifice.  This book belongs to Torr and Grace. In the last book, we knew how much Torr was suffering from injuries caused by demons that nearly cost him his life.  Without his knowledge, Grace, who is human, willingly uses a magical talisman to help Torr recover, thereby bringing his horrific injuries to herself.  As Grace lay in a coma, the book ends with her being whisked away by a powerful Attanasia female, who by taking her to another world, would try save her. 

When Willing Sacrifice begins, Torr is depressed and cares about nothing anymore, especially without his Grace.  He doesn’t care if he lives or dies; then out of nowhere he is also whisked away to the world where Brenya, the powerful female, needs his help. He learns that Grace is still alive, 4 years has passed (in this world), and she no longer has any memory of her life before or him. We also learn more about Brenya, who plays a major role in this story.

What follows is an exciting story of Torr working with Grace to help fight the enemies who come to destoy them  Slowly the romance builds on its own, and you feel all of Torr’s pain, as his love of Grace is so strong, even if she is human and cannot be his mate. Torr and Grace were so beautiful together.  Grace was strong, stubborn and determined to help Torr, no matter how dangerous it was.  She found herself first attracted to him, then the feelings became stronger, and Torr did all he could to keep his word he would say nothing. It was fun to see him react to her putting her self in danger, and his constant trying to protect her or send her away to safety, only to have her rebuff him. We knew that somehower, the barriers that blocked Grace’s feelings for Torr would be hard pressed to stand up against their true strong love for each other.

I have loved this series from the start, and love Shannon Butcher’s writing, as she weaves a wonderful, exciting, tense, romantic and steamy storyline in every book.  Willing Sacrifice has all of that, but was different then most of the books.  Almost 95% of the book was Torr, Grace and Brenya, with a small part being Tori.  It is rare that a story is solely with a minimum few, but we got to spend a lot of fun time with this fabulous couple.  What amazes me is that Shannon still made this an exciting fun hot story that is not to be missed, which proves what I have been saying. Shannon Butcher is a fantastic writer.

Copy supplied by the publisher.

Reading Order
1. Burning Alive
2. Finding The Lost
3. Running Scared
3.5 The Collector
4. Living Nightmare
5. Blood Hunt
5.5 Bound by Vengeance
6. Dying Wish
7. Falling Blind
8. Willing Sacrifice

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––