Review: Phantom Shadows (Immortal Guardians #3) by Dianne Duvall

Dr. Melanie Lipton is no stranger to the supernatural.

She knows immortals better than they know themselves, right down to their stubborn little genes. So although a handsome rogue immortal seems suspicious to her colleagues, Sebastien Newcombe intrigues Melanie. His history is checkered, his scars are impressive, and his ideas are daring. But it’s not his ideas that have Melanie fighting off surges of desire . . .

Bastien is used to being the bad guy. In fact, he can’t remember the last time he had an ally he could trust. But Melanie is different – and under her calm, professional exterior he senses a passion beyond anything in his centuries of experience. Giving in to temptation is out of the question – he can’t put her in danger. But she isn’t asking him… ~ Goodreads

Review:I received Phantom of Shadows at the Authors After Dark convention back in August. This is book #3 in the Immortal Guardian series and I usually hate reading books out of order but to be honest, I didn't have a desire to start yet another series. So I took the plunge and hoped I wouldn’t be lost.

The Immortal Guardians follows your basic series structure of the hero + heroine = HEA with an overall story arc spanning the series. Because of that I did miss out on some of the backstory, particularly with the hero Bastien Newcombe. It seems in the previous two books he has done some very bad things and his fellow immortals harbor deep hatred towards him, while still needing his help as a guardian.

I liked the dynamics between Bastien (a vampire) and the fellow immortals who have a complicated relationship with vampire race. He seems to have a different relationship with each one of them and their spouses. They all hate or at the very least don't trust him but they are a family of sorts and come through for each other in the end.

Bastien was very interesting to me. As I've said, I haven't  read the first two books so I only see things from his perspective. He owns his past choices and I like that. It also made me very sympathetic to him and I wanted to yell at everyone else to stop yelling at or demeaning him already! But from what the other characters said he did I guess he had a lot to atone for.

The love interest Melanie a doctor for the Immortals, was awesome. Smart, funny, direct - everything I like in a heroine and she stood by Bastien at every turn. He doesn't think he deserves Melanie and does a fair job at pushing her away at first but not in that annoying, overly broody, I'm not worthy way. They are a good match and very supportive of each other as both friends and lovers.

Which leads to the one thing I didn't enjoy about Phantom Shadows. I loved Bastien and Melanie's refreshingly mature relationship so much that it disappointed me when towards the end the story became more about Melanie being a damsel in distress with Bastien constantly having to save her or run back to her.  It wasn't a deal breaker for me - I still enjoyed it but it bummed me out.

Rating: 3 out of 4 I really should have read this in order but oh well! I missed quite a bit of back story but I enjoyed the hero and heroine anyway as well as the other characters. A few minor flaws near the end but still a good paranormal read.

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Source: Authors After Dark NOLA
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