Review: Guardians by Heather Burch

 Vigilance.
The mission to safeguard Nikki Youngblood depends on the fragile alliance of two half-angel, half-human guardians, both struggling with intense feelings for the girl who has been assigned to their care. Mace, steadfast and deeply in love, wants to protect Nikki at all costs, while Raven's loyalty to Nikki finds him advocating for her independence and battling his own darker inclinations. At the same time, Nikki finds it harder and harder to choose between the two heavenly beings she may never have. Dangers intensify, and tensions between Mace and Raven flare as the purpose of their mission becomes clear. Can their defenses hold up to master manipulator Damon Vessler and the powerful secret he holds regarding Nikki's heritage? Can anyone protect Nikki from her true purpose and destiny? -barnesandnoble.com

Nikki Youngblood has lost everything.  Her parents, her dog, her motorcycle, even the home she grew up in.  She is stuck with three gorgeous half angels, two of which she is falling for, but has to avoid them at all cost even though she needs them both now more than ever because if they fall for her they turn themselves over to the dark side of their beings, a line that Raven is teetering on, and will be damned for eternity.  When she finally gives in to Mace, causing Raven to leave, it seems to turn everyone against her and after a brief misinterpreted goodbye to Raven, Mace feels the same.  Nikki turns to the only person she believes she has in the world, Damon.  Guardian has that love triangle that so many love in a book, adventure, darkness, action, and whopping smack in the face of where did that come from by the end of the book that makes it better than it's predecessor.

  
Although for the character they are not good, I really liked the changes in Nikki throughout the book.  In the first book she is strong even before she loses everything.  But in this book she is not just strong throughout the book she slowly becomes harder and darker as everything is thrown at her from Raven leaving, Mace and the other Halflings turning their backs on her, to seeking her revenge for her parents death with Damon.  Through it all she becomes stronger than all of them but it consumes her she finds that she can't even be nice to the few people that have always been there for her and have been nothing but kind to her with nasty things flying out of her mouth without even realizing where the thought had come from.

If we are choosing sides, I am team Raven all the way.  Especially after this book.  Mace was the nice responsible guy in the first book.  But in Guardians he was a bit annoying.  I understand that there's the whole damned for eternity if a Halfling falls in love with a human but if he cannot stand Raven and Nikki flirting because Raven is much more forward than Mace he should try to truly move on or risk it.  Considering the fact that I'm team Raven, Mace's broodiness is just fine for my cause.

Damon didn't really make too many appearances in the first book but in this one he around quite a bit.  In the first book as the reader I knew there was something not right about him.  In the second book he puts on a super nice act with Nikki but as she continues to change you know that it is him that is the problem and there is something really wrong happening.  Throughout the first book and most of Guardian you know there is an ulterior motive and by the end of the book we finally know what it is but I'll let you guys read and find out for yourselves ;]  But it's pretty mind blowing.
   
I really liked the change of scenery in this book.  The whole first half of it was on a boat or in Europe, giving the book a good summer read feel even though it is clearly not summer.  There is also a small handful of new characters that lighten up the book a bit as well as some mystery of who was that and will we find out who that stranger was in the next book.  This book ended with plenty of unanswered questions that leave you impatiently waiting for the third book. 

Heather Burch is the author of the Halfling series.  She grew up loving fiction books and after marrying into a family of published authors she discovered that fiction writing was her passion.  She lives with her two sons and husband in Florida.