The Protector by Abigail Owen – a Review

 

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Description:
The cousin of the High King, Lyndi Chandali has lived with the constant threat of being pawned off as a political prize. A rare, female-born dragon like Lyndi can’t trulymate—not in the way it counts. Which is why she’s kept her distance from a certain sinfully delicious Beta. Instead, she’s built a life for herself giving orphaned dragons in the Americas a home.

As Beta of his team of enforcers, Levi Rowtag is a fighter first, last, and always. His job is to protect—his team, the shifters in his territory, and the stubborn woman hell-bent on fighting with him at every turn. He knows from the moment they first meet what she’ll never accept—they are destined to be mated.

But with the kings at war, the enemy is now coming for Lyndi. Worse, he’s coming for her orphans, too. He’ll have no choice but to defy his king and go rogue if he has any hope of protecting them all…and finally claiming his mate.

Each book in the Fire’s Edge series is STANDALONE:
* The Mate (prequel)
* The Boss
* The Rookie
* The Enforcer
* The Protector

 

Review:

The Protector by Abigail Owen is the 5th book in her Fire’s Edge series.  I’ve read all the previous books (and loved them) so I’m happy that we are going back to see the guys in this series. It’s on the same time line as her other series (Inferno Rising Series) so we get a few crossovers (again I’m a happy bunny)

We get going with a blast from the past, we get to see how the clans are formed and how this team comes together…. 

Dragons usually live in clans and mostly live with their own colour (we have six clans—gold, blue, white, red, black, and green, and only recently based in America, they’ve come from Europe and Asia originally) 

But under the new rule of their king Pytheios, the King of the Red Clan, and the defacto High King (took the throne to govern the rest of the clans) of all dragon shifters. He wants them to guard the New World) Levi and his team the Huracáns are to settle permanently in America. The Huracáns should consist of two members from each of the clans, twelve in all. But for some reason the King had never sent more…..it’s was just the five of them…. Levi, Finn, Rune, Titus, and Deep (their leader) and Calla, Deep’s mate. 

His team are enforcers (they uphold the laws of dragon kind) 

Rule number one among his kind was humans should never learn of dragon shifters’ existence! 

Levi meets the lovely Lyndi when her brother Drake (his book is the Enforcer) asks to join their team. Levi’s dragon has gone berserk, it wants Lyndi for its own!! 

Lyndi Chandali is never going to mate (female dragons can’t produce babies) so if and when she mates, it’s going to be more of an alliance rather than a love match! Well, she’s not having that, Lyndi would rather be single and alone than marry for the sake of an alliance! So she’s thrown all her love and affection into giving a home to orphaned dragons, she teaches them how to shift a d how to survive, the kids love her, and she loves them, she’s be content if it wasn’t for a certain gold coloured dragon. He makes her long for more, but if she can’t have young, what’s the point of a female dragon?! (Human women who have a mark on their body will turn into dragons and become mates, and they are either hunted and forced into a mating competition or if they are lucky, they will helped and guarded and treasured by their mate) 

You don’t need to read the previous books to enjoy this one, but if your going to read the series, then it is best to start at the beginning as there are a few things you need to be aware of.

The alliance (the governing council) want the Huracán team disbanded, (they don’t answer to the council and they’ve stolen mates for other dragons!) so there are plans to set wheels in motion and disband them. And If a dragon doesn’t have a mate by a certain age, then an illness sets in (they slowly turn into stone) King Pytheios has that disease, but he’s not about to give up his throne (that’s where the spin off series “Inferno Rising” comes in) but it impacts this series too. The dragon clans are dividing and picking sides for an all out war! 

I loved this book, it was great catching up with the Huracán team. Really liked the prologue, as I’ve read the other books in this series and I was curious how the team came about. The banter between the team had me chuckling they work well as a team, but have become more like brothers over the years. 

Levi, the teams Beta has watched as team members have died, mated and turned rogue (see I told you it was a good series) but through it all his feelings for Lyndi have never changed….The story then goes to the present day…… 

The war between dragon clans is escalating (dragon clans are warring with each other over mates and the tyrannical rule of King Pytheios) and the call for dragons to return to their clans has been issued. Levi knows he doesn’t have much time left before he has to return to the Gold King. Can he finally tell Lyndi how he feels about her? 

Lyndi has loved Levi from the moment she saw him, but he wouldn’t look at her as a potential mate for two reasons, one she can’t have young and two, she will be used as a pawn for a political marriage, so why should Levi look at her? But the team is splitting up and returning back to their Kings, and Lyndi is scared that not only will she lose her orphans, but she’ll be made to marry a dragon King of Pytheios‘s choosing. 

The action as usual is fast paced and frenzied. The storyline is very engrossing (I couldn’t put it down) and catching up with the team made me want to go reread their stories again (which I did) 

Levi and Lyndi’s story was just heartbreaking, you could see they were meant to be together, you could see they would be happy. But they’ve been kept apart by rules ….. female dragons are barren!! So, that didn’t mean she couldn’t be happy! Oh hell no! Ever since that first moment in the first book of this series, I have wanted her to get a story…… and here it is ? you’ve had glimpses of how they both feel about each other in previous books. So to finally have their story I had to cheer. 

Fighting their feelings for one another was getting harder and harder. But admitting those feelings (it was like squeezing blood out of a stone!) was even scarier! Levi has to get Lyndi to admit to her feels and to want to fight for their future. But fate may have a different path for them, she’s to be married off to another King! The only course of action for Levi is to leave his clan and King. To go rogue usually carries a death penalty! But Levi is willing to risk it. 

I must have ridden that rollercoaster through the whole of this book, the ups, the downs, and then throwing you for a loop! It was a wild ride, and I’m so glad I got to share this ride with them. 

So do they get a happy ending? Well…. no…. you need to go read this yourself. 

Highly recommended read. 

Reviewed by Julie

Copy supplied for review