Dark Defender - Alexis Morgan

As a Paladin warrior, Blake Trahern fights and dies again and again to keep mankind safe from the Others. Sensing his humanity slipping away with each battle, he retreats from the world...until the one person who still has a claim on his soul needs his help. It's been twelve years since Blake vanished from Brenna Nichols's life, years that have turned her from a love-struck teen into a headstrong, sensual woman. He'll fearlessly give his life to protect her -- yet he dare not risk his heart.


Brenna is stunned by Blake's reappearance, and by a shocking discovery about her father. Everything she has ever believed is thrown into question -- everything except the desire that Blake still ignites. But as they search together for a traitor among the Paladins, danger looms: the next battle could tip Blake into madness, destroying his life, his soul...and the only woman he has ever loved.

I was interested enough in the first book in this series to get this one but I have to confess this didn't hold my attention as much as the first one. The main chracter here is Blake Trahern. In the first book he is almost losing his humanity and both Laurel and Bane are worried about him. Now he must discover who killed his former mentor, and one of the Regents, Judge Nichols, while he also protects Nichols's daughter Brenna against the same killer and discovers what the Judge was investigating that got him killed.

The romance was ok, this was an unrequited love story and I have no problem with those - no preference either - but the fact that Blake first got the hots for Brenna when she was 14 sounded a bit too early for me. And since it's been quite a while that they've been in touch  I would have expected that they spend some time getting reacquainted with each other before jumping into a relationship...

The thing is that the world building is still a bit fuzzy. There are a bunch of secondary characters, a few more are introduced here, but I still don't get why the Others continue to invade the Earth and what exactly are they and what kind of world they live in. And why one particular Other is different from the rest? There's a bit more about that in this one but not enough to make it work for me. There are several villains in this story, besides the Others, but we still haven't discovered who is really calling the shots agains the Paladins.

Morgan seems to be setting up Jarvis, another Paladin introduced in this sory, as a potential hero of a future book but to be honest I'm not sure that I will be continuing this series...

Grade: 3/5