Review: Desperate Betrayal by Hildie McQueen

Published Date: September 10th, 2011
Finished Date: Febuary 19th, 2012
Publisher: Crescent Moon Press
Format: eBook for Tour
Series: The Protectors #1
My Rating: 3.5/5
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Blurb from Goodreads:
Cynden Frasier (Cyn) is a member of a group of immortal warriors, the Protectors, assigned to protect humans in Atlanta, Georgia, the epicenter of a major uprising in demon activity. When Cyn is approached by a beautiful woman in a dirty alley, he is intrigued by the fact that she can see him for what he is, a terrifying demon slayer, and still dares to approach him.

Emma Blake, a half-demon, has to convince Cyn to help rescue her sister from powerful demons. Terrified that the Protector will kill her if he realizes what she is, she still goes against every instinct and approaches Cyn for help. Despite knowing that she is leading them both into territory so wrought with treachery, neither of them may survive.

Can Cyn and Emma overcome betrayal, the ancient rules that prevent Protectors from taking a wife, unless she is his one true mate? And if they do, will it even matter?

My Review

My Summary
DESPERATE BETRAYAL is about a group of immortal men who took an oath to protect the innocent from demons who mean harm. They are all lethal, and highly-skilled in battle; They are all loyal towards one another and sexy-as-hell; They cannot marry unless it is a marriage arranged by their leader, Julian, or if it is with their life-mates; They are called the Protectors.

Cynden "Cyn" Fraser is one such man. Born three centuries ago in Scotland, he undergone the transformation and took the oath to become a Protector, and is now assigned to keep the demonic at Atlanta at bay. He was slaying a group of demons in an alley one day when Emma walked into the scene. She has been looking for him for quite some time now. Her sister's been held hostage by the Supreme demon, Gerard, and he wants Emma to lure Cyn into his den. Briana's all Emma has left, and so she agrees to this bargain.

Emma is a half-demon, borne of a high-level demon for a father and a human mother, and so naturally, she keeps her heritage a secret when she first confronts Cyn, afraid that it will incite a negative response from him. Cyn refuses to help her the first time, something about his senses tells him that something about her is amiss, and his immediate attraction to her isn't helping matters either. But the second time Emma manages to find him, he caves in to her request.

As Cyn and Emma sets out to track her sister down, sparks fly, but many treacheries and betrayals abound at the same time. It's hard to trust each other, but it's hard to refuse each other too. Worse still, survival at this point is not certain, put into account all the other lives that they are risking... They're in it big this time.

My Thoughts
Well, that was an awfully long summary. Lol, that aside, I must say that DESPERATE BETRAYAL's main fous seemed to centre around the romance between Cyn and Emma. Not that it was a bad thing, far from it, being the romance-junky that I am. In a way, the PROTECTORS series resembles the BDB series by J.R. Ward. Each instalment in the series is the story of one of the "brothers". Lots of action, but with a larger dose of romance.

Emma is the type of woman everyone wants to be - smart, loyal, beautiful (apparently, this is a prominent trait of hers as many of the boys seem to take note of this point), courageous, stronger than and not fully human, but not fully demon with a compassionate heart. She gave her all in saving her sister, even gave up her love life. Cyn on the other hand, is a tall, intimidating Protector who was fiercely protective, and not only was he skilled on the battlefield, but in bed too. He may appear cold and indifferent on the outside, but he's actually quite the passionate guy when they get down and dirty. Even though it was more of a lust-at-first-sight relationship, they did make a really cute and sweet pair.

As far as the plot goes, it was not bad. One thing I can say about it is, it doesn't drag. The first part of the book flowed smoothly, and I thought the character development and all were done really well, but it detoriated a little as we get to the end. There was one part where the whole scene got rather confusing, and the sentences became a little abrupt. Even though McQueen's style of writing changed at the end, I was still hooked to its pages. I think I can safely say I finished DB within two sittings. :)

I actually got the review copy of DB for its blog tour late, so I'm only reviewing it now, but it was really good! I'm tending more towards romance than action now (but not so far as to go for contemp romance with no action at all whatsoever), so if you're like me, you may want to try DB out. I'd say that DESPERATE BETRAYAL is a mix between the BDB series and the Curse of Gremdon by Ciara Knight. So if you're a fan of either one, you might like to try this out too. :)

My Rating