This is the first book in the Guardians of Eternity Series by Alexandra Ivy. The book is about a Girl named Abby Barlow who works for a reclusive woman named Selena. Dante works as a guardian for Selena. Unknown to Abby, Dante is a Vampire. After an explosion in the mansion where Selena lives the story really starts to begin. Without giving too much away, Abby's life changes completely in that instant.
It had an excellent plot, was full of surprises, and I fell in love with Dante, Abby, and Viper. It was a great action packed read. There was some romance and sex, but iI don't think it was too much.
The only unkind thing I want to add is that you do get tired of hearing how hansome Dante is and how beautiful his eyes are and how much she wants to have sex with him. That brings the rating down for me. It gets a bit tiresome reading that in every chapter. ( )

In a few short hours, Abby Barlow survives an explosion, receives a powerful spirit from her employer, and finds herself on the run with a sexy, 341 year old vampire Dante. Dante has stood as guardian to The Chalice all of these years, and now Abby is this woman. The Heroine is likable from the beginning but the Hero comes out kind of flat. ( )

A hodge-podge of other-worldy creatures populate this realm. Almost too many, one gets lost in the nuances between the demons, the witches, and the wizards. Ultimately, like all humanity, some are good and some are evil. The romance seems to be a bit rushed here, with the secondary characters being almost more interesting than the main characters. ( )

Abby Barlow has unknowingly become The Chalice, a host body for The Phoenix, the Goddess designed to keep the Prince of Darkness and his minions at bay. Dante is a 341 year old vampire who's been bound by ritual to protect The Chalice from all the demons and minions now hunting her. With the death of the current Chalice, and it's transference into Abby, they're now running for their lives from the demons that hunt the Chalice, in the hopes of bringing the Prince of Darkness back into our realm.

This book struck me from the beginning because the main character's last name is very similar to mine, and then on the very first page of the Prologue, the Duke of Granville is mentioned, and Granville is my Dad's middle name, taken from what was once part of his last name before he moved to America from England as a teen. In any case, it just struck me as quite coincidental. :-)

This is Alexandra Ivy's first novel and though the story itself was fairly decent, it did have a bit too much romance for my liking. Also, I thought her style left something to be desired. She was constantly using incomplete sentences as entire paragraphs! I know authors often do this for emphasis sometimes, but I thought it was very much overused, such that as a reader, you couldn't stop mid-way through a chapter because you might stop at a paragraph that makes no sense standing alone. I didn't like that... but I often see a lot of quirky things I don't like in an author's first novel anyway.

The story itself was supposed to contain an element of danger, and it tried to, but for some reason, it just didn't come across that way, probably because Abby and Dante were stopping to have sex every 1/2 hour. We hear at least once per chapter about his silver eyes, and long dark hair, and gorgeous body, etc. It's this kind of thing that made it too romance-y for me, and caused my attention to wander. Once I got beyond all these things though, I did enjoy the underlying story. If I hadn't, I would've given up without finishing. So I'm guessing romance readers might appreciate some of it more than I did. ( )

This was a very strange book. It should have had everything to make it great - an interesting and almost new idea, a decent heroine and vampire hero, and some quick and sassay dialogue. The thing is, it totally failed to work. It failed for me and also for a friend I spoke to about it, so I know it wasn't me alone.

When I was reading it it felt like an okay read, but when I put it down, I really didn't care if I picked it up again. I finished it more out of determination than any great need to finish the story.

However, I have no idea why it failed. There was nothing I could put my finger on. It just did. Which makes this review pretty much useful and unhelpful, but I'm afraid I can't me any clearer. I also don't feel the need to waste any more time on it trying to figure out the why of its failure. ( )