Secrets

The Guardian Trilogy #1

by Liz Schulte

While Olivia Martin observed life through her camera, the abyss gazed back at her. She discovers mysterious men follow her around, people close to her are dying, and her dreams are no longer her own as she falls head over heels for a perfect stranger. A chance encounter leads to an obsession that could destroy everything she has ever known or loved.

Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Ebooks, Demons, Urban Fantasy

279 pages, ebook

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

Many authors claim to have known their calling from a young age. Liz Schulte, however, didn't always want to be an author. In fact, she had no clue. Liz wanted to be a veterinarian, then she wanted to be a lawyer, then she wanted to be a criminal profiler. In a valiant effort to keep from becoming Walter Mitty, Liz put pen to paper and began writing her first novel. It was at that moment she realized this is what she was meant to do. As a scribe she could be all of those things and so much more.

When Liz isn't writing or on social networks she is inflicting movie quotes and trivia on people, reading, traveling, and hanging out with friends and family. Liz is a Midwest girl through and through, though she would be perfectly happy never having to shovel her driveway again. She has a love for all things spooky, supernatural, and snarky. Her favorite authors range from Edgar Allen Poe to Joseph Heller to Jane Austen to Jim Butcher and everything in between.

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Secrets indeed! Blergh. Olivia is a (conveniently) self-employed photographer who is a bit of an introvert and a loner until two mysterious guys show up in her life and make mysterious statements, all the while mysterious things start to happen to and around Oliva. Around page 134 of this 207 page book, we readers are finally clued into the nature of the paranormal activity, but at this point I was pretty much beyond caring.

This book consists of one chapter of events from Olivia's point of view, followed by a chapter of the exact same events from Holden's (aka Mysterious Guy #1) point of view. The exact same events. As in, the same dialogue and action you had previously read. Only from another point of view. Is that irritating here? It is super irritating and beyond boring once you realize that Olivia and Holden have incredibly similar voices. There are a few other characters, Juliet (Olivia's bff), Quintus (Mysterious #2), Olivia's mom, and an ex-boyfriend. We are told about these people's personalities, but never really see them through the dialogue. And there is a ton of dialogue. People in this novel have conversations spanning two or three pages at a time, and while I felt the language to be realistic, it made me realize the beauty of brevity. That is, unless there is flirting, action, danger, intellectual discussion, or something exciting I really don't need nor care to be privy to every word a character utters.

Liz Schulte, like many UF authors, has some interesting ideas. Unfortunately the execution was not captivating enough to inspire me to read this series further.

[Phaedra Seabolt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first thing I want to say about the book is I love the different perspectives for each chapter. There really are two main characters instead of the normal single main character. You have Olivia as main female and Holden as the main male. It is obvious since they alternate perspectives every other chapter that their destinies are intertwined. Olivia is a photographer with an unnatural ability to read people. She can figure out who they are in a matter of minutes. She can see their desires and tell when they lie. She is also a very trusting person even though she only has one really good friend and her mother. She buries herself in her photographs which tend to capture the essence of the person just as she is able to read them herself. Where Olivia is the light, Holden if her opposite. He is withdrawn and bored with life. He has no friends and doesn't even want any. He can read people's emotions as well, but he's better at affecting their emotions.

The bulk of this story is about how Olivia's life is pretty much destroyed. People she cared about (current or not) are killing themselves for no reason that she can understand. Holden keeps popping into her life which is leading her on, but then he pushes her away. He tends to act like he wants to be with her, but as soon as they start getting close to one another, he leaves. He won't answer any of her questions. You don't find out what Holden is until the book is almost over or why there is someone out to kill Olivia. The suspense will keep you turning the pages and you will lose hours waiting for the ball to drop. It's exciting (if not sometimes depressing due to the amount of grief Olivia goes through) and well worth reading.

Read more reviews at http://identitydiscovery.net

[Mindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am really starting to hate trilogies. I think this probably could have been a one book event, but instead it is going to be painfully drawn across three books. The sad thing is that I started out really liking the book and being intrigued. Unfortunately the pacing was so bad that by the time there was a clue about what was going on (67% of the way through on my kindle), I was bored and was checking the snyopsis on Amazon to figure out what this book was supposed to be about (actually this was somewhere around 40% of the way through). The only good thing: At least there wasn't a love triangle.

Maybe with a good editor to really cut the unnecessary bits this would have been a good book, but as it is, I will not be reading the next books.

[Ginny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written and poorly edited. Chapters alternated between the two main characters, which would have been fine if their voices weren't so much alike. Olivia is a young woman and her romantic interest, Holden, is a supernatural man with a history of murder, so there is no reason for them to sound so similar. Apparently no editor went over this book to do any formatting, because there were a lot of places where beginning a new paragraph would have clarified the story, but these opportunities were overlooked. I would have probably abandoned this novel after the first few chapters, but I was out of reading material for my daily subway ride.

It was marketed as an urban fantasy, but it's really just a romantic novel. Olivia is young and innocent, completely unaware of her special gifts; Holden is the dangerous and handsome man with - of course! - green eyes. Ho hum. And the other new man in Olivia's life, Quintus, doesn't pursue her romantically at all, even though he appears in her apartment without invitation. Both these men stalk her, which would have set off my suspicions, but she trusts her instincts about them that neither of them will hurt her.

I won't give away the ending, but let's say that it ends in the middle of a situation, making it necessary to get the next book of the trilogy if you want to find out how it ends. I find this infuriating.

[Ashley Lavering · Rating 3 out of 5]

My thoughts:
Liz can really write a dark character that you fall in love with. I was so engrossed with what would happen next that it carried my happily to the end, where I was begging for more! I have to say that the dreams were really cool and I loved Holden. I would have totally given this book four stars, but there was quite a bit of grammatical errors: words missing, misspelling character’s (Liv, Livi) and thing’s (Jinn, Jinni) names, and some confusing sentences. It pulled me out of the story, so I have to give it three stars, but I really loved the word Liz has created! Excited for book two!
Note: Swearing, drinking, and a brief sex scene. I would rate this R, mostly for all the swearing.

Originally posted at www.ashleylavering.blogspot.com

[Heidi R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea what this series was about - usually I'll read the synopsis first, but just I dove in on this one. It's a great read!! I already started the 2nd book "Choices"!

Goodreads Synopsis:

While Olivia Martin observed life through her camera, the Abyss gazed back at her. Mysterious men follow her around, people close to her are dying, and her dreams are no longer her own as she falls head over heels for a perfect stranger. A chance encounter leads to an obsession that could destroy everything she has ever known or loved.

[Jen Rattie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic. I ripped through it when I got it to review. It was hard to get used to the narrative at first but after I did I was hooked. The characters are so vivid, I feel like an observer...not a reader.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not my usual read, but after I got into it I really enjoyed it. Needless to say I bought the next 2 books in the trilogy.

[Andrew Leon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Secrets is a great example of how even a poorly written novel can be popular. And, when I say "poorly written," I mean it on just about every level that you can mean it. Still, though, it's better than Snow Crash but, then, Snow Crash is a level of stupidity all its own.

The first and most obvious issue the book has is that it needed an editor. This may be the most poorly edited book I've ever read. There were misspellings, homophones, tense issues, missing words, wrong words (above and beyond the homophones, which are, technically, wrong words), missing letters, wrong letters... um, did I cover everything? I'm not actually sure. And it's not that there were these things; it's that there were these things on every page. And not that there was, like, one per page, it was a handful per page. And I haven't even mentioned the punctuation... oh, wait, there, I did. Let me just say, and not just to whomever edited the book (I'm assuming the author (but I don't know that)), but to everyone (because this is becoming a real peeve of mine): a dash is not a "catchall" piece of punctuation. You can't just stick in a dash (either kind) because you feel like it. Dashes have a purpose, and they are much more limited than most people think. [Let me just put it like this: Quit using dashes! Seriously.] There were more punctuation issues than just the dashes, but it was like someone just sneezed dashes all in the book.

At any rate, if editing is an issue for you, don't attempt this book, because you will want to pull out a red pen and mark all over your Kindle screen (or whatever screen).

The next issue is that it's first person but not just first person: It's written from two different first person perspectives in alternating chapters. Which, in and of itself isn't an issue [I mean, I've done that, so who am I to complain, right?] except that both perspectives are written in exactly the same voice. There is nothing to differentiate them and, especially considering one is male and one is female, there ought to be some differentiation. The author doesn't even bother to give us alternate perspectives on the same event once we get past the first few chapters. For the most part, they just pick up where the other left off or show us what is happening where the other character isn't. Not to mention the fact that [spoiler alert] during the climax, when Olivia starts to doubt Holden, there is no suspense because we've been in Holden's head the whole book (and so has she, actually, for part of it) and we know how he feels about her.

[More spoiler alert.]

The story itself is pretty typical; in fact, I felt like I was watching a cheap knockoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer through most of the book. So let's see:
1. Female protagonist born with a hidden destiny that she doesn't know about.
2. Bad boy romantic interest whom only she can save and turn to the light.
3. Good boy romantic interest to create some tension.
4. Traumatic death of a loved one.
5. Enigmatic mentor who never tells her anything useful other than that she's "special."
Yeah, it's got it all. Actually, it's worse than what I'm saying, too, because the female protagonist, who hasn't been in a relationship for over a year, finds herself instantly infatuated with two men at the exact same time. What are the odds? [Is the sarcasm coming through?] She immediately begins acting in ways that are just not her. Of course, we don't know that other than that she tells us that "she never does this kind of thing."

There are two things here:
We have to take Olivia's word about things way too often. The author never shows us how Olivia supposedly really is. For instance, when Quintus tells her that she's been born this guardian (the first one in 2000 years, so she's mega-special), he says to her something along the lines of "Haven't you always been a loner? Someone on the outside looking in?" But we never see that about Olivia. In the book, she has an awesome best friend who has been with her since middle school (that doesn't sound like a loner) and she's quite adept at being a socialite, so none of that stuff rings true in the book (it reminded me of Percy Jackson and how, at least in The Lightning Thief, he is constantly telling the audience he's one thing (a rebel and troublemaker) while acting completely the opposite).

It's quite difficult to take Quintus as a love interest seriously since Holden is the one offering the alternate perspective to Olivia's. To put it another way: Quintus is never a credible threat.

And speaking of vampires, Holden is "Vampire Lite." It's like the author really wanted to do a vampire story, but she also wanted her vampires to be able to go out in the daylight, so she just calls them "jinn," instead. Or "jinni." She seems to use the terms interchangeably, and they have nothing to do with the actual jinn mythology. It's just a word she uses, which, actually, bothers me. If you're not basing it on the actual thing, make up a word, or, you know, make your vampires all sparkly. Oh, and jinn have demons in them that operate much the way Whedon's vampires do without the actual changing into vampires.

Perhaps the thing that bothered me most, though, is the sudden, inexplicable, telepathic bond Olivia and Holden develop. It's all very much "we love each other so much, we know each other's thoughts! We're just made for each other! Two halves of the same soul!" [Yeah, I want to go wash my mouth out from just typing that.] So, yeah, their connection is so deep that they spontaneously develop the ability to read each other's minds. And, yet, at the end, even though Olivia has been inside Holden's mind, she doubts whether he really loves her and thinks that maybe he's just been using her the whole time.

Mostly, I just found the book tedious. There's nothing in it that hasn't been done elsewhere and done much better. If it had been well edited (or just edited), I might even would say: If this is the kind of thing you like (cliche love-at-first-sight stories), give it a read; as it is, I can't say that. Evidently, though, based on the other reviews and ratings, most people don't care about that kind of thing, so, I guess, if you like cliche love-at-first-sight paranormal(ish) love stories and don't mind bad grammar and poor punctuation, give it a read. I won't be going on to the next book, though...

Which reminds me! Considering the cliffhanger ending (which I won't spoil), it shows how much this book didn't hold my attention, because I don't care what happens enough to endure another of these books. The two stars I'm giving it is me being generous. I'd say it's a 1.5 star book; I didn't hate it.

[Kyra Halland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting and entertaining paranormal suspense/romance. After Olivia has a chance encounter with a handsome, compelling stranger, frightening and tragic things begin to happen all around her. In the meantime, she and the stranger find themselves irresistably attracted to each other - against both their better judgments - and Olivia is faced with a destiny she doesn't want and a heartbreaking choice.

This kept me reading to find out what happens next. It's clear from the beginning that Holden is no ordinary human; the hints and suggestions that are dropped during the chapters in Holden's point of view make an entertaining puzzle, and, for me, the big reveal comes at exactly the right point in the story.

I liked the alternating sections in Olivia's and Holden's points of view, overlapping so we see the events of the story through each character's eyes. Most scenes aren't repeated; usually it's done so that a chapter takes place in one character's point of view, then the next chapter overlaps the end of that bit of the action so we get the other character's reflections and reaction as the story moves on. I thought that was very well done.

The characters of Holden and Olivia and engaging and likable, as is Olivia's best friend Juliet. The other mysterious guy involved, Quintus, doesn't have quite as much personality, he seems kind of smug and perfect, but that seems to be on purpose - he's supposedly a force for good but without real empathy for human emotions. I did have a little trouble with Olivia; she seemd kind of stubborn and prickly, with a tendency to sometimes make not very smart decisions. This is something I've noticed in contemporary urban fantasy/paranormal (though I'll admit I haven't read a lot in the genre) - orneryness being used to show that a female character is "strong". However, I did like how thoughtful she is in evaluating the realities of who Holden is and if she can deal with that. And I liked it that when confronted with Holden's supernatural identity, she was able to accept it without denying what's been right in front of her all along. It bugs me when characters refuse to accept the magic or supernatural things that are happening even when they see them happening right in front of them.

There's some pretty depressing stuff that happens in the book, which made it a little hard to get through, and the ending is inconclusive. But I enjoyed it enough to download the sample for the next book right away.

[Joey Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were a ton of things I adored about this book. Number one was the characters. Even in a situation that goes above our own comprehension of reality, Liz managed to create believable, lovable characters that you will celebrate in their triumphs and sob in their defeat. The friendship between Olivia and Juliet almost reflected perfectly the relationship between M and myself. And if you love a great bad boy, you'll be swooning over Holden. Second, I loved the format of the book. It switches back and forth from Olivia to Holden's perspective which gives so much more of an understanding and insight. From Olivia's side where she's fighting to figure out what's going on to Holden's where he struggles with himself and how to deal with his newfound emotions.

But what do you do when you're faced with only three decisions about the direction of your life and none of them seem to be in your best interest? That is exactly where Liv finds herself and her decision is one that truly exceeds anything I think I could handle if placed in her situation.

It was a bit frustrating going through the book not knowing what was going on with the underlining story, but with a title like Secrets you can't ask for much else! But when the truth bursts through and comes to light it's a pretty awesome spin on the paranormal genre. I want to go into so many more details, but I don't want to give anything away about this novel because this is one you absolutely want to read. I'm very happy Liz decided to take her hand at writing the paranormal genre and I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

[Alissa Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The series story line is driven with the same conflicts good versus evil, and an impossible love story between two unlikely individuals. HOWEVER, that is where the similarities end. The concept is unique and keeps you interested from page one. I would recommend this to anyone that would like to read an original concept. In the realm of fantasy this series ties the impossible together with the human ability to feel, an unlikely presentation of selfishness, selflessness and sacrifice. I really liked this series.

[Sarah Delacueva · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the alternating narration between the main character Olivia and the mysterious man she is seemingly bound to, Holden. The book does a good job maintaining tension; from one chapter to the next we are never quite sure whether we can trust Holden. I found myself wanting to know more and I will probably pick up the second book in the series some day.

[Scott Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the plot line of the story. Great idea. The characters are well defined as well and I like the way she flipped back and forth between their perspectives. Only real complaint is that I thought she held out on his real identity for a little longer than necessary. Can't complaint too much though as I enjoyed the read and am curious to see where she takes this. All SORTS of options. :)

[Megpie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

I didn't like it but I didn't hate it. However for the price of being free it was a decent story to pass the time on my day off from work. I'm not sure I'll ever get to the sequal since this book didn't really pull enough interest from me but for the price of .99 cents you can get the whole trilogy on Amazon- ya can't beat that!

[Shadow Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always Liz takes us on an engaging roller coaster ride. She is a brilliant writer and I will recommend all her books.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great! Totally fun read.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Initially I was going to give this two stars as I thought perhaps this was the author's first novel. That is not the case and as such I have to say this is awful. Almost 50 Shades of Grey awful.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly, we as a book club are reading this trilogy because it felt like the lead in to another trilogy I've got queued up immediately following. That being said, I dove into this hoping for some good world building, character introduction and generally a good time.

This book starts the building of a world where demons and angels are real, but hidden. Olivia is a photographer who lives a somewhat solitary life, with the only exception being her friend Juliet. They live side-by-side in separate apartments, but are essentially family to one another. Always a little bit odd, she certainly finds herself growing more odd by the day after meeting Holden. Meeting is probably too strong a word because she literally run into one another at a bar, but then continue to wander into each other's dreams and, subsequently, lives. The dream thing is a little strange and, honestly, we don't actually get an explanation on that. It's one of many mysteries that we are left with.

Holden is a bad guy. Even with lots of secrets (see? the title!) around him, we know he is bad news. He, however, appears to be willing to curb his bad side to be with Olivia. He's sexy and dark, so she is obviously intrigued. One other secret we don't get answers to is his past. There are hints, but we don't even get to learn more about his family. All that aside, he and Olivia are like magical magnets to one another. Even when some very good and very bad guys get involved, they just can't stay away.

Overall, there is a distinct lack of smut, but I found myself not that annoyed by it. What was difficult was going through events back and forth from both perspectives. The book would have been half as long if it was simply from Olivia or Holden's side. I'm hoping for less of this in future installments because it really slowed down progress of the story. Without giving too much away, the ending is shocking and dark and left me determined to go to the next story. Overall, this story was significantly darker than I anticipated, so if that's not your scene, put this book down now. Otherwise, the world was interesting and unique, minor complaints aside.

[Amanda Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't get enough of these series there are two separate series 3 books in each from each of the two main characters point of view, Adding the point of views of a few other characters as well. The author makes you fall in love with each of her characters! Thankfully she adds them to her other books & writes them their very own series . I personally loved how real and well explained her characters are. With their own back story filled with suspense , Liz Schultz keeps you hooked from beginning to the end in most of her books but the Guardian trilogy was my favorite. When you start this book you won't want to put it down.

[Devin Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was interesting. It started slow, especially with the POV switching to retell the exact same event in different perspective in the beginning, but then it picks up a little where we start to realize there is more to Holden, than we thought. However, it takes for ever to get to the point where we know what exactly is going on.

Liked the ending though. No triumphant party at the end. Bittersweet.

[Kim Dennis · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

This story had potential -- I guess. I wasn't thrilled with the language at the beginning, but I was going to put up with it until about an hour in and the f-word was in there twice in about a 5-minute period. I don't like language like that, so I stopped and decided to move on to something else.

[Mcf1nder_sk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit of a push trying to get into the story, but about halfway through, the pacing of the story picked up and I could not put this book down. The questions this tale raises will either have the reader enthralled or annoyed. Relax, all questions are answered by the end.

[Lisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though a different slant on fantasy, it was definitely a love story. The alternate chapters on characters was good. I only don't like it when the author writes a book with intent on a sequel.
I'm not interested to read the next book.

[Allison Galloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

An original story idea. I wish the story's climax would've come about sooner, but it was ultimately a good story.

[Grace Nawi · Rating 4 out of 5]

That sounds good😁👍👏

[Takiyah Dudley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure I'd like this at first but it quickly grew on me. not the greatest read but good enough to continue the series. plus a wonderful cliffhanger.

[Juliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

I really enjoyed the story. The grammatical errors took away from the story but i sul enjoyed it. The author does a great job conveying the characters emotions.

[Alicia Huxtable · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good first book in series

This was different. I love Holden, he made me smile with some of his remarks. The dynamic between the characters is good too

[Rebecca Schafer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great introduction book to fantasy. The world-building is okay but the characters are the shining spot. If you don't usually read fantasy, this is a great place to start.