Series: PALADIN WARRIORS
Plot Type: SMR
Ratings: V4; S4; H2
Publisher and Titles: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Deliver Me from Darkness (2012)
Deliver Me from Temptation (12/2012)
"Deliver Me a Paladin for Christmas" (free e-story)
This post was revised and updated on 12/19/12 to include a review of the second book in the series, Deliver Me from Temptation. That review appears first, followed by an overview of the series world-building and a review of book 1:
BOOK 2: Deliver Me from Temptation
The hero of the second book is 295-year-old Logan Calhoun, the last pure-blooded Paladin and the future leader of the council, which is now headed by his narrow-minded, by-the-books father. Logan and his father do not get along, mostly because of his father's kill-them-now attitude toward all vampires, including Logan's fellow Paladin-turned-vampire, Roland, and Roland's mate, Karissa, who is Logan's half-sister and whose human mother was impregnated and then abandoned by Logan's bigoted and cold-hearted father.
One night when Logan, Alexander, and Valin are out chasing down a succubus, they are halted by a female police detective who believes that they are thugs chasing down a helpless female. That detective is Jessica Waters, a human whose life is guided by the hatred deep inside her for all killers, and particularly for men who attack women. Jessica's twin sister was murdered by gang bangers, and she has never gotten over that tragedy.
The main story line follows Jessica as she works on a cold case that, coincidentally, involves Roland. Jessica is so driven by her hate-filled emotions that she takes all kinds of risks, most of which involve going out alone on late-night stake-outs in extremely rough neighborhoods. Almost as soon as Logan meets Jessica, he realizes that she is his mate, and he is devastated that God has chosen a human for him because he knows that he will have to watch her die after a few decades. As Jessica keeps putting herself in dangerous situations, vampires and demons begin attacking her, and Logan has to rescue her time and time again. He can't let her know of the existence of the supernatural creatures, so he keeps erasing parts of her memory, but Jessica eventually realizes that there's something strange going on.
Naturally, there is a big climactic showdown scene with the hero and heroine in danger from the primary villains, but we all know from the beginning that Logan and Jessica will get their HEA. What is surprising is the twist at the end about how they achieve their happiness. The free e-story, "Deliver Me a Paladin for Christmas," is a follow-up to the Logan-Jessica story, so don't read it until after you read Deliver Me from Temptation.
A possible new character for the series is introduced in this book: Jessica's partner, Mike, who has a few Paladin genes somewhere in his ancestry. As part of Valin's continuing story, we see him trying to track down the vampire, Gabriel ("Gabby") after a group of human hybrid Paladins breaks into the Haven with a message from her about demon action in New York City. I'm sure that both Mike and the human hybrids will turn up in future books.
This is another formulaic paranormal romance, but it's a step above the usual SMR novel because the characters are more fully developed and the plot has more depth. This novel can be read as a stand-alone because the author provides plenty of background information on the Paladin world and its primary characters.
WORLD-BUILDING
In this world, the immortal Paladin warriors were chosen by God from volunteers among the ranks of the angels. "They were given various gifts and sent to earth to protect His children from the evils seeping into the world." (Deliver Me from Darkness, p. 53). Their lives went smoothly until the eighth century, when jealousies arose over the leadership of the Paladins, and one of them (Ganelon) betrayed his brother warriors, causing many Paladin deaths. Since then, Ganelon has waged war on the Paladins, enlisting aid from Lucifer and his minions and from the vampires, who, in this world, are the dregs of supernatural society. An important part of the Paladin mythology is the mating process. Paladins believe that God promised each one of them a female soul that would perfectly match their own. Unfortunately, female offspring have become extremely rare, so most Paladins mate with humans, and there can be no true mate-bond between a Paladin and a human. The most common bonding in those cases is a marking followed by a ceremony that tests for compatibility. A true mate-bond is the dream of every Paladin warrior, and as you can imagine, we'll see a few in this series, beginning with book 1.
The hero of the second book is 295-year-old Logan Calhoun, the last pure-blooded Paladin and the future leader of the council, which is now headed by his narrow-minded, by-the-books father. Logan and his father do not get along, mostly because of his father's kill-them-now attitude toward all vampires, including Logan's fellow Paladin-turned-vampire, Roland, and Roland's mate, Karissa, who is Logan's half-sister and whose human mother was impregnated and then abandoned by Logan's bigoted and cold-hearted father.
One night when Logan, Alexander, and Valin are out chasing down a succubus, they are halted by a female police detective who believes that they are thugs chasing down a helpless female. That detective is Jessica Waters, a human whose life is guided by the hatred deep inside her for all killers, and particularly for men who attack women. Jessica's twin sister was murdered by gang bangers, and she has never gotten over that tragedy.
The main story line follows Jessica as she works on a cold case that, coincidentally, involves Roland. Jessica is so driven by her hate-filled emotions that she takes all kinds of risks, most of which involve going out alone on late-night stake-outs in extremely rough neighborhoods. Almost as soon as Logan meets Jessica, he realizes that she is his mate, and he is devastated that God has chosen a human for him because he knows that he will have to watch her die after a few decades. As Jessica keeps putting herself in dangerous situations, vampires and demons begin attacking her, and Logan has to rescue her time and time again. He can't let her know of the existence of the supernatural creatures, so he keeps erasing parts of her memory, but Jessica eventually realizes that there's something strange going on.
Naturally, there is a big climactic showdown scene with the hero and heroine in danger from the primary villains, but we all know from the beginning that Logan and Jessica will get their HEA. What is surprising is the twist at the end about how they achieve their happiness. The free e-story, "Deliver Me a Paladin for Christmas," is a follow-up to the Logan-Jessica story, so don't read it until after you read Deliver Me from Temptation.
A possible new character for the series is introduced in this book: Jessica's partner, Mike, who has a few Paladin genes somewhere in his ancestry. As part of Valin's continuing story, we see him trying to track down the vampire, Gabriel ("Gabby") after a group of human hybrid Paladins breaks into the Haven with a message from her about demon action in New York City. I'm sure that both Mike and the human hybrids will turn up in future books.
This is another formulaic paranormal romance, but it's a step above the usual SMR novel because the characters are more fully developed and the plot has more depth. This novel can be read as a stand-alone because the author provides plenty of background information on the Paladin world and its primary characters.
In this world, the immortal Paladin warriors were chosen by God from volunteers among the ranks of the angels. "They were given various gifts and sent to earth to protect His children from the evils seeping into the world." (Deliver Me from Darkness, p. 53). Their lives went smoothly until the eighth century, when jealousies arose over the leadership of the Paladins, and one of them (Ganelon) betrayed his brother warriors, causing many Paladin deaths. Since then, Ganelon has waged war on the Paladins, enlisting aid from Lucifer and his minions and from the vampires, who, in this world, are the dregs of supernatural society. An important part of the Paladin mythology is the mating process. Paladins believe that God promised each one of them a female soul that would perfectly match their own. Unfortunately, female offspring have become extremely rare, so most Paladins mate with humans, and there can be no true mate-bond between a Paladin and a human. The most common bonding in those cases is a marking followed by a ceremony that tests for compatibility. A true mate-bond is the dream of every Paladin warrior, and as you can imagine, we'll see a few in this series, beginning with book 1.
BOOK 1: Deliver Me from Darkness
The plot focuses mostly on the ups and downs of the romance, with a secondary plot that involves the efforts of various bad guys to kidnap Karissa in order to take her blood. A brief story thread deals with the attraction that all of the Paladins have to Karissa. They all want to mark her and make her their own—perhaps to achieve a true mate-bond. These scenes are pretty creepy, with Karissa surrounded by big, beefy alpha men who are determined to mate with her. But...they're out of luck, because Karissa and Roland are definitely true mates. In the climactic final scene, Karissa's life is in jeopardy, and Roland must save her in the nick of time. By the end of the story, both Roland and Karissa have life-altering experiences that change the Paladins' minds about Roland's vampire self.
In many ways, this is a typical paranormal romance, with its damaged hero and clueless heroine thrown into an angst-filled soul-mate situation that they both fight until the heroine's life is threatened. We've seen this story line hundreds—thousands—of times. What puts this series a step above the average SMR series, however, is the well-developed cast of supporting characters, both good and bad. Even Lucifer is interesting. Among the Paladins, Logan seems to be the most fair minded and open to change, while Valin (aka Dark Knight) is just as tortured as Roland. He was married to Roland's sister, who was expecting their first child when the vampires murdered her, and he has lived in darkness ever since. In Deliver Me from Darkness we see him finally take an interest in life when he rescues Gabriella, a young vampire, from captivity. Future books will no doubt feature situations that force the stodgy Paladin Elders to wake up and face the 21st century.
I liked Tess Hilaire's world of Paladin Warriors -who are former angels that choose to become protectors of mankind and their descendants - plus vampires, demons, and a fallen Paladin who are evil, and various crossbreeds of all of the above who may or may not be evil. Since the hero Roland who is a Paladin that was turned vamp and is dead as far as the rest of his former brethren know, he's outside of the main brotherhood so there's not much male bonding or insight into the relationships and regular workings of the Paladin brotherhood yet. And actually the few views of the Paladins en masse is not wholly favorable as the heroine Karissa is a hot commodity - since she's a rare female of the bloodline - and all the Paladins want to claim her for their own.
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