Jennifer A. Ruth, The Guardian

The Guardian

Jennifer A. Ruth

Five Star, August 2005, $26.95, 278 pp.

ISBN 1594142335

As a Helper to Protector Alana Devlin, Carrick "Rick" Murphy watches her back and protects her when she is battling creatures from the Otherworld. His vocation doesn't leave him much time for a love life but when he meets librarian Ruth Westland he can't help but falling in love with her and cherishes having a normal relationship with her. This proves to be a difficult feat when he has to keep leaving her to battle a monster killing men in a horrible fashion in Las Vegas.

Devlin believes a sorceress summoned these creatures from the Otherworld to do her bidding. When Alana's sister Fiona casts a spell she sees the sorceress and draws a picture of her. Rick recognizes her as Joan's next door neighbor Lisette. The Devlin sisters ward Joan's apartment to protect her but all it does is make Lisette want to harm Joan. Rick uses his strength, with the help of the Devlins to keep Joan safe but nobody is prepared when Lisette grabs him. Only Joan, using her empathic powers, has a chance of saving Rick before Lisette kills him.

Jennifer A. Ruth has written a fantastic urban fantasy in the tradition of the works of Tanya Huff and Mercedes Lackey She place magical creatures in a mundane world and makes them so believable that readers will entertain the possibility that these magical entities actually exist. There is enough fantasy, horror and romance in THE GUARDIAN to keep fans of the three genres very happy.

Harriet Klausner