Guardians of Stone by Anita Clenney ~release day review

Guardians of the Stone
by Anita Clenney
Series: The Relic Seekers #1
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Publication date: December 4, 2012
Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy
Purchase*: Barnes and Noble/Amazon/Book Depository

Kendall Morgan is a human bloodhound. Spending her childhood hunting relics with her ambitious archeologist father, she knew the two of them shared a sixth sense for the history and location of objects—sometimes even people. What she didn’t know was that their paranormal gift could ultimately be their undoing. After the tragic plane crash that killed her father as well as her childhood best friend, Kendall dedicated her life to finding and protecting relics. When mysterious, sexy billionaire Nathan Larraby hires her for his latest expedition—the search for four powerful relics —she’s thrown into a world of high-octane danger. He sends brooding mercenary Jake Stone to watch Kendall’s back, but he may have created danger of a different kind.As the team chases down clues, a man called the Reaper makes a play for the artifacts and will stop at nothing to put them to his own sinister use. What’s worse is that Nathan hasn’t told the whole story, and the dark secrets he’s keeping could cost them the mission…and their lives.

When I saw the cover and the blurb for Guardians of Stone I immediately set out to order it for my Nook. Now many of you know I have a self-imposed rule about only buying eBooks during 2012. Now I have gotten around that a few times on holidays by specifically asking for a particular book, but you can only get away with that so many times. So I wrote the author and asked when and if it would be released on Nook and she graciously had the publisher sends me an ARC. I love Urban Fantasy, Dan Brown, and Indian Jones and was eager to start this series. I found this to be a delightful start to a new series and was completely caught up in the quest.

Kendall Morgan spent her childhood hunting relics with her archaeologist father. She has a paranormal gift that helps her find objects. Lately her skills have been changing and she doesn’t quite have control of them. She has spent her life finding and protecting relics, and when she is approached by the smexy and mysterious Nathan Larraby she agrees to help the billionaire locate four powerful relics. With little instruction she finds herself headed to Italy with mercenary Jake Stone in search of a box. The tale that unfolds is action packed and may just get them all killed.

Clenney gives us three really strong, flawed characters to deal with and they were completely fleshed out, annoying traits and all. Kendall is very inquisitive and often follows her sixth sense rather than using caution.  She totally reminded me of Rachel Morgan from the Hollows minus the whining. This trait drives Jake absolutely batty as he tried to protect her. He also finds himself attracted to Kendall and makes his attraction known to her. At first I found him abrasive, but he slowly grew on me. Nathan intrigues me most of all; this sexy, disheveled mystery man. He is secretive and keeps things from Kendall and Jake to protect them. I struggled with how he chose to keep them safe and out of the loop; feeling that one negated the other. It is clear he has feelings for Kendall but hasn’t acted on them. He is ruthless and I am eager to discover all of his secrets. I loved the characters they interact with from other tourists to seekers of the relic. I am very curious about the man they call the Reaper. We have a love triangle, and some intense moments but nothing really develops. Kendall cares about both men and is attracted to them both for different reasons..we shall see.

The quest was fascinating and fans of Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons will enjoy this as will fans of National Treasure and Indian Jones. We have hidden relics with power, a secret order to protect them, catacombs, booby-traps, clues and lots of action packed danger. The tale is told through Jake and Kendall but every once in a while we got a peak into the mind of other players. This was jarring at times, and I found myself saying, "Who is speaking?" "What just happened?" It was like watching an intense scene in a movie and someone changing the channel. Despite it, I found this action packed tale intriguing and the perfect start to the Relic Seekers series.

I recommend Guardians of the Stone to fans of urban fantasy and action packed quests. While not without flaws this tale kept me highly entertained and even had a dose of humor. Anita Clenney is a New York Times Best Selling author and you can check out more of work here.

I want to thank the author and Montlake Romance for providing this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

I gave this novel four coffee cups out of five