Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

The Immortal Guardians series by Dianne Duvall is one that continues to deepen its mythology and tell hot love stories that paranormal romance readers crave. In the third book in the series, former villain turned less villainous Bastien struggles to deny his growing attraction for Dr. Melanie, the one person who shares his desire to help the vampires condemned to go insane. They aren’t the most exciting pair, but Duvall injects their story with plenty of action to help liven it up.

Unlike Rowland and Sarah, and Marcus and Ami, the couple in PHANTOM SHADOWS didn’t have the most creative meeting or even the most difficult obstacles preventing them from getting together. That lack of excitement more than anything else kept me from enjoying this installment as much as the previous two. Duvall writes well and the action scenes are intense and plentiful. The Immortal mythology adds new and fascinating layers this time–especially one huge twist at the end that I can’t wait to see how it unfolds in the next book–, and the love scenes are flirty and sensual.

I had higher hopes for Bastian’s story since as a former villain I expected him to be much more tortured than he turned out to be. Likewise Dr. Lipton wasn’t that engaging either. Neither of them brought the type of heat or volatility that I’ve come to expect from this series. They were attracted to each other, he worried that she would get grief from the other Immortals who still viewed him with suspicion, she didn’t share his worries so they got together. That’s pretty much the course of their relationship. There were some fun secondary stories involving new enemies and drugs that posed a threat to Immortals, potential alliances with the vampires, and new hints regarding gifted ones’ DNA.

PHANTOM SHADOWS may not have knocked me off my feet with this particular couple (they would have made a much more satisfying pair in a novella), but paranormal romance fans who enjoy series like J.R. Ward’s Black Daggar Brotherhood will definitely want to invest time in the Immortal Guardians series. I’ll certainly be back for the next book.

Sexual Content
A couple graphic sex scenes