The Guardian by Mary Calmes

[reviews_and_ramblings]

This is the second book I read by Mary Calmes, and while the first one was good, but maybe I felt still like it was a debut novel, The Guardian feels way more accomplished. As in the previous novel there are strong yaoi influence in the novel, but not the usual seme / uke pair, maybe more that yaoi novels where the innocent young boy discovers that his pet is not exactly what it seems. Only that here, the young boy is not so young, but he still preserves all the physical traits of that pretty boy.

Jude is a successful PR working in marketing, he is very handsome but not in a blatant way, he is the type of man that at first you didn’t look twice, but then he enters under your skin, and before you realize it, you are addicted. It happens so that, when Jude’s boss changes, the new boss is more interested in Jude’s partner, than in him. And Jude, diplomacy is not his strength, decides to dump both lover than job. While he is commiserating himself, he feels the strong need to help a stray dog, a very big stray dog. Everyone seems scared by “Joe”, but not Jude: from the first moment the big dog heralds himself Jude’s guardian and Joe has only two things in mind, protect Jude and avoid that anyone else come near him.

Obviously Joe is not a dog, he is a creature from a fantasy parallel world and his name is Eoin. In his world Eoin is indeed both a Guardian than a beast, he is born as a dog, and was given to a noble family to be raised as the Guardian of the house. He is able to shift between man and dog, but indeed he was raised and he still lives like a dog. He has no family, he was separated from them when he was only few weeks old; then he was trained to be a warrior and to not have a personal interest if not the one of the family that owns him. He is not treated bad, but indeed he is no more than a pet: he is fed and dressed, sometime also petted, but no more than that. Eoin doesn’t know family, and so when he meets Jude, and recognizes in him his cairn, his heart, his mate, Eoin has only one thing in mind, to make him happy, and obviously means for Jude to be with him.

Jude is a nice man, but I think he is also very lucky and sometime unaware of the world. I have the feel that he has not had so many bad experiences in life, and even loosing his boyfriend was not bad after, he was not the right man for him. Jude has a good job, that he likes, a family that love and support him and friends who are willing to deal with him when he is in a swinging mood. Even when he finds himself in a fantasy world, a medieval nightmare for everyone else, he takes it almost like a special holiday, like he is in a themed amusement park. But Eoin doesn’t want him to change, Eoin loves him exactly like that, his oblivious cute little mate.

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Amazon: The Guardian

Amazon Kindle: The Guardian

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Cover Art by Anne Cain