Review: Archer's Lady

Reviewed by Jen
 

Grace has made a new life for herself in the Old West border town of Crystal Springs. She left her disreputable ways behind, reinventing herself as a school teacher --a lady.  But her town is now under attack by vampires and it's barely holding on.  They need help if they're going to survive.  That's where Archer comes in.

Archer is a Bloodhound, a shape shifting supernatural, sent in by his Guild to clean-up the vampire problem.  He's rough around the edges, but strong. And he's determined to save the town from the vampire threat.

Archer sees past the facade Grace hides behind. He senses a little something of himself in her, I think. Someone trying to rebuild themselves in the wake of past sins.  The two them find solace in each other, a simple honesty neither has ever had with anyone else.  It grows into more as they work together to figure out why the vampires have targeted the town and then to defeat them.

This is a bit of a departure from my usual fare in that it's set in an alternative Old West and it has some steampunk elements.  But I found that I liked it anyway. I think Archer is the biggest draw.  He's powerful and gruff, yet gentle and yearning in ways that even he never expected.  He's very sexy and that made the love scenes go from hot to muy caliente.  The sexy times were plentiful and highly enjoyable, but I thought they really helped build the relationship between Archer and Grace, and never threatened to overwhelm the story.

This is book three in the Bloodhounds series, and I can tell you as a new reader, it worked well as a standalone.  There were a few things, especially toward the end, which seemed to reference earlier stories, but I never felt lost. The world building was accessible and I felt like it was built seamlessly into the story without any obvious info dumps.

I liked it.  And I would read from this series again.

Rating: B+

*ARC provided by author for review

Click to purchase: Amazon

Archer's Lady

by Moira Rogers

Release Date: July 3, 2012

Publisher: Samhain Publishing