The Endangered Series 1-3 by S.L. Eaves-Reviews and Guest Post

PREY TILL THE END
Endangered #3
by S.L. Eaves
Release Date: November 14, 2017
Genre: adult, paranormal, vampires, werewolves

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The 3rd installment brings the The Endangered Series to a gripping conclusion that will keep you on the edge of your seat till the last page.

Seven years have passed since Lori exiled herself from her clan. Seven years without bloodshed, without demons, without torture, without premonitions. Seven years of peace and quiet in the civilian life she’s cultivated for herself.
Seven boring years.

Then Vega appears at her doorstep with alarming news: a former member of his clan is responsible for the recent string of homicides across the southwest and the Purebloods are holding her clan responsible. To make matters worse, this traitor is working with an enemy from Lori’s past who is hell bent on revenge.

Now she’s faced with returning to the world she’s tried so hard to escape in order to save the only family she has left. Lori finds unlikely allies in a slayer and a werewolf hybrid, both survivors of S&D Pharma’s experiments. Together they fight to stop the vampire’s killing spree and absolve her clan from the Pureblood’s wrath. That’s if a ghost from her past doesn’t succeed in stopping her first.

•••••••••

REVIEW: Wow !!!! What a great ending to a fantastic trilogy.

Seven years have passed since book 1 & 2 (which I really think you’ll need to read before the last book) seven long boring years, she hasn’t seen or heard from her clan since her self exile. The war seems to be over, casualties on both sides, and the humans are safe (for now)

But they need her help, a member of her old clan has been murdering humans, and her clan is being held to account.

But is it all as it seems ? Are there more questions than answers? And why do her clan want her help now ? And why her ?

The story moves along at the same fast pace as the last two books.

Lori seems a lot more confident now, but still has moments of doubt and self
loathing (things she did in the other two books) . Again the secondary characters are all well written, loved the interaction with the
hybrid werewolf, slayer and Lori. And the face from the past ?!?! Wasn’t expecting that one !! ?

This book was full of many twists and turns that will keep you guessing as to what
will happen next. It wasn’t too hard to sit and read in one afternoon.

It was a shame to say goodbye to Lori and the world SL Eaves created. Could have happily read another book (or three) ?

Copy Supplied for review

Reviewed by Julie B

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THE ENDANGERED
The Endangered #1
by S.L. Eaves
Release Date: September 4 2014
Genre: adult, paranormal, vampires, werewolves

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Book One of The Endangered Series introduces Lori, a newly turned vampire who’s been pulled into the middle of a war against werewolves who are infecting humans and threatening to take out the last of their kind in the process.

S&D Pharmaceuticals is developing a new vaccine with sinister side effects. A viral outbreak has the humans begging for a cure and Striden, the CEO of S&D, offers a remedy that promises to cure the virus, but is engineered to turn its unsuspecting patients into werewolves.

The werewolves are opposed by an allegiance of vampires who, while initially out for revenge, stumble onto the wolves’ plans for mass infestation. Among the vampires is an ambitious rebel named Catch and his newly turned protégé, Lori. Catch brings this treacherous world to Lori’s doorstep and turns both their worlds upside-down in the process. Secrets are exposed, allegiances are formed, and blood is spilled as they do everything in their power to preserve both their own kind and their food supply.

••••••••••

REVIEW: This book is an extremely interesting and imaginative book. Totally different to anything I’ve read before. I liked the style of the book and it grabbed me from the very beginning, and right up till the end. It’s an extremely fast paced book with full of adventure. The characters were very well written and they held your attention from the start. This was the first time I have read any of the authors work and I really enjoyed it. The story flowed very well and I didn’t want it to end. There were many twists and turns.

So ….. vampires and werewolves are at war with each other, (humans aren’t aware of them as of yet) and werewolves are plotting for domination, the vampires plan to stop them.
If they don’t, then their meals (the humans) will disappear, and that’s the end of the vampire race.

Humans are being turned into werewolves, (a virus is spreading through the human population) and beg a huge pharmaceutical company to cure them, but the cure doesn’t work.

Lori use to be a human, but was “turned” by Catch. Lori is reluctantly “recruited” to the vampire cause. If she doesn’t help, she won’t last long without blood, and nor will her new family.
Catch is an unusual character (he’s never turned anyone, so it was nice to see how he grew as he taught Lori) Her vampire “family” are a great addition to the story, and you can’t help but hope they win against their enemies the werewolves.

The author had such a way with words, you could see yourself in The Covenant, or the many sword fights (I had myself ducking a few times?) the world of vampires and werewolves according to author was a very fascinating world.

If you have a thing for vampires, or if you love a good action book. Then “The Endangered” is for you.

And I can’t wait for the next in the series.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Julie B

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DEAD AND DAMAGED
The Endangered #2
by S.L. Eaves
Release Date: September 2, 2016
Genre: adult, paranormal, vampires, werewolves

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk /

Book Two of The Endangered Series picks up with Lori attempting to track down the
source of stealth technology rogue vampires are using to hunt humans. Her pursuit
leads her into the arms of a government agency with similar objectives. A temporary
alliance is formed in an effort to stop the corporation responsible for putting the
technology in malignant hands. Their mission goes awry, however, and leaves Lori
with more enemies than friends.

Her situation worsens when Marcus learns that the corporation has also been working
with vampires to develop daylight suits and synthetic blood. He convinces his clan
that this organization and its infinite resources will be a valuable asset in the
evolution of their kind. They begin questioning Lori’s motives and Marcus takes the
opportunity to capitalize on their distrust. Consequently, Lori soon finds herself
on the run from her former clan and turns to Vega for help exposing the truth behind
Marcus and his new deceitful allies.

••••••••••

REVIEW: Oh My God !!!! I didn’t think the second book could get any better than the first
one ….. boy was I wrong. A few twists and turns and I’m on the edge of my seat.

In this second installment of The Endangered trilogy, we find Lori struggling to
find her place in the vampire world. (She was a human until turned by a vampire
called Catch)

Lori decides to side the with humans in a government agency, they want to help
destroy the werewolf plan of domination, (they designed a virus to turn humans into
werewolves) but this doesn’t help Lori, in fact, she becomes suspect in the vampire
world. (Lies and mistrust doesn’t help Lori’s cause) and then has to outrun both her
old vampire family and the werewolves.

Lori has grown since the last book, and her finding her vampire feet, has made for
great reading….. from taking bullets (which don’t kill vampires) to falling six
stories from a building (she lands on all fours like a cat). She still has her
doubts and would swap being a vampire to a human in a heartbeat, but she knows there
is no going back, so will do her best to rid the world of werewolves.

The cast of secondary characters are just as strong as the first book. And the
antagonist exchanges between Lori and Brixton. And the loyal friendship of Quinn
make great reading.

I would recommend you read “The Endangered” first, which will make “Dead and
Damaged” more sense.

I will be eagerly awaiting the next and last instalment.

Reviewed by Julie

Copy supplied for review

How The Endangered Became a Series by S.L. Eaves

When it was released, The Endangered was never intended to be more than a standalone novel. I’d signed a book deal with a now defunct scifi & fantasy house, Zharmae Publishing Press, and the book sold well for them (though clearly not well enough) and sat in the publisher’s top five the year it was released. On the heels of its modest success, they reached out to me with a series contract. This was met with panicked resistance from me initially. I work full-time and the first book came together after years of work and a very daunting editing process. To say I was less than receptive to the idea of going through the process again is an understatement. A series is a big commitment. But after some discussion with the staff at Zharmae and some coaxing by my editor to flush out the short story I’d tacked onto the first book as the epilogue, the beginnings of a concept for the sequel began to form. They were also very supportive in my desire to write a more grounded, spy-centric story.

For the second book in the series, Dead and Damaged, I focused on two major plot pieces from The Endangered: the death of a major character that would have a ripple effect across the remaining characters, impacting all their relationships, and a secret that would serve as a catalyst for Book Two’s main story. With these two notions in mind, I took the epilogue from the first book as a baseline and set out to writing. Roughly three months later I had the first draft of the sequel hammered out.

Once the ball got rolling, Dead and Damaged poured out much faster than I’d expected. The characters backstories and relationships were solidified in The Endangered. The world was built. Book Two was a breeze by comparison. I also opted to go with a primarily linear narrative based on one central storyline and told almost entirely from the main character’s point of view. Which helped improve the flow and pacing.

It was also a conscious effort on my part to correct certain “flaws” of the first book, which jumped around as a result of its origin – short stories strung together over several years didn’t flow as smoothly as I’d have preferred. When you have to force the puzzle pieces to fit the result is a weaker, unnatural structure.

Another important factor is it more accurately represented what I wanted to write about at the time – less Blade/Underworld and more Mission Impossible/Metal Gear Solid. Personally, I feel that you can tell when the author is having fun writing versus when they’re just trying to get it off their plate. While I enjoyed writing the stories and characters that would eventually form The Endangered, piecing together the book with a team of editors felt like a second job. But I learned a lot from that process and was better prepared to navigate those waters with the follow-up efforts.

I started working on Book Three, Prey till the End, during the writing and editing process for Dead and Damaged. Having the ability to anticipate future entries in the series gave me more flexibility with the story arcs and I feel both books benefitted. What I hadn’t anticipated was the publishing house shifting from pressuring me to crank out more entries in the series as quickly as possible to suddenly going dark. At one point I didn’t even think Dead and Damaged would be published. From a writing perspective, the train was on the tracks and I was plowing forward, with or without a publisher. Eventually Book Two did get released. And by this point I was roughly halfway through the manuscript for Book Three. Then a few months later the publishing house closed. I debated shopping the series around, but going through the whole process of re-releasing the first two books in the series (and changing it into what the new publisher envisioned – because that comes with the territory when they own the rights) was less than appealing. Instead I opted to complete Book Three and independently publish the series.

This also impacted Book Three’s story because I decided that I did not wish to continue the series independently. For better or for worse, Prey till the End, the third installment in The Endangered Series is my most ambitious piece of writing to date. With it, I had two main stories I wanted to tell. The challenge was intertwining and eventually concluding them. My other objectives with Prey till the End were to address the aftermath from the events of previous books as well as tie up loose ends. Part of this involved utilizing the characters established in previous books; taking their stories further, giving them new challenges and new environments to play in, while also added a couple new characters to the mix to keep things fresh.

I loved telling this story. Loved. But I struggled mightily to make it work. It’s fair to say only twenty-thirty percent of what I wrote made it into the final manuscript. Tons got cut. Mainly as a result of the story’s evolution during the writing process. The story I initially envisioned didn’t quite work on paper. For example, I had one chapter outlined and storyboarded out, then two or three paragraphs in I realized it wouldn’t work. As mentioned earlier, I’d learned with the first book not to force in the puzzle pieces. The result was much smoother and plausible than my initial idea.

One challenge when you’re three books into a series is keeping it interesting and unpredictable. For instance, I initially intended to rekindle a relationship from Dead and Damaged, but found it had run its course and became bland, so I went a different direction to keep the characters compelling. I took the same approach with the main character’s interaction with a major character from Book One. The two characters rarely shared the same space “on screen” in The Endangered (and when they did they were fighting) so I wanted to give them more dialogue together and let the story develop naturally based on their interactions. Decisions like that helped drive the narrative to new directions.

Ultimately, the biggest hurdle was the conclusion. With the last book in a series you feel the weight of the whole series; you want to give the characters a satisfactory send off, to solve open mysteries, to tie up loose ends, and manage relationships/arcs while staying true to the characters and their journeys. All without repeating events or exposition from previous books or seeming cliché, contrived or tedious. I really felt that burden with Prey till the End. Tying all the books together to create a cohesive series turned out to be less challenging than wrapping everything up. But I tried to trust in the characters to lead me to where they needed to go. I was along for the ride during much of the writing process. And hopefully readers will join me in this journey and enjoy reading this series as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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S. L. Eaves is a Philadelphia area native who received undergraduate degrees in film and writing from University of Pittsburgh. She returned to Philadelphia to earn her MBA in marketing from Drexel University while freelancing as a writer and brand consultant. She penned the first two books of The Endangered Series for Zharmae Publishing and went on to complete the series independently after the publishing house closed. Presently, she works in marketing and escapes into the world of fiction every chance she gets.