Title: Faire Protector
Series: The Faire #2
Author: Madeleine Ribbon
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Length: Novel (263 pages)
Publisher: Loose Id (June 30th 2014)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 3.5 hearts
Reviewer: Tams
Blurb: Max’s soul has become a virtual slave to the magical Renaissance Faire, and he can’t leave the grounds. He’s very, very attracted to the Faire’s brewmaster, but Shepherd wants nothing to do with him. Shepherd thinks Max is the reason his cousin got back into drugs, and Max has a bad history—dealing, a prison term, and last but not least, a little four-year stint as the personal assassin of a drug kingpin. For once, Max didn’t do it, but Shepherd isn’t about to believe him.
When Max’s old boss becomes a threat, the Faire that had been his prison becomes his protection. Max hides out at the brewery. As he deals with Shepherd’s bad attitude, the physical and mental side effects of having his soul imprisoned, and guilt over the people he’s killed, he finds himself falling for the sexiest man to ever hate him. But the only way he can keep Shepherd is if he can find some sort of magical redemption for his past.
Purchase Link: http://www.loose-id.com/faire-protector.html
Review: Max brought evil, hatred and danger to the Faire for which he is being punished by losing his soul. Locked away in an amulet worn around the neck of the Fae Joryk, his soul remains there until his penance is served. What neither Max nor the Fae realize is that there is a thread binding his soul to him and Joryk, forcing him to obey even the most miniscule of requests. Furthermore, it’s unclear if Max will even survive once the amulet is destroyed. His soul should revert back to his body, but that scenario is looking less likely with each passing day.
Max was not a nice person in the human world. His reputation precedes him, and makes it difficult for his attraction to the sexy brewmaster, Shepard, to actually go anywhere. Shepard doesn’t trust the human, can’t stand the sight of him, and is livid when Joryk sends Max to work for helping with the brews. Watching Max every day, listening to him and seeing firsthand how much Max wants to change makes it harder to hate him though. When the strain of the amulet becomes clearer and more draining on Max, Shepard is there to care for him, and the attraction they share becomes too strong to overlook.
An uneasy partnership is born of a mutual adoration, sex in the strangest of places and Shepard’s need to take care of the fragile young man. But Max has more than just the possible deadly effects of the amulet to contend with. The demons of his past are literally haunting him, and his old boss won’t give up on finding him, even if it means taking down the Faire and the people Max has grown so found of in the process.
This was an intense read and not necessarily due to the content, more like the ever looming threats that kept me on the edge of my seat. Between Max hearing voices that is actually his minds way of dealing with his inner demons, the possibility of his death when the amulet is destroyed, and the mob boss constantly lurking around the Faire trying to find a way inside to get to Max… my head was spinning.
My hang up with the story was that there was so much going on at times I was confused, especially toward the end in the caves. And the complete 180 that Shepard did, pretty much in a blink threw me as well. But overall, it was a very intriguing read that kept me guessing right up until the very end.
If you are a fan of Fae, hard luck cases getting a second chance and the possibility of a happy ever after, then this is a story for you.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *