They both live Shadowed lives.

Shadowed by Rebecca Zanetti appealed to me instantly. It is the perfect mash-up of some of my favorite romance tropes.

Vampire, Jase Kayres, is the ultimate fun-loving, bad boy turned tortured hero. Literally, tortured. He spent five years being tortured by demons and lost some of his powers in the process. Now revenge is the only thing on his mind. But he is still a Kayres brother, part of the ruling family, and he has

Brenna Dunne, a very special witch–the eighth sister of a seventh sister, an anomaly, and subject of prophesy. She was a powerful witch until she was poisoned; now she’s weakened and dyeing. These two come together in a marriage of convenience (MOC) of sorts. They believe their mating might help save each other. If the mating helps them regain and share their powers, they might be able to save Brenna’s life and Jase will have the power he needs to exact his revenge.n’t forgotten his responsibilities or the importance of protecting the good in the world.

To make things better, Jase and Brenna aren’t the typical strangers often found in a MOC story. These two were friendly before their lives took bad turns, so this is also a bit of friends to lover story. Because they aren’t strangers, they are happy to indulge in what Brenna calls “wild, monkey, vampire sex” right from the beginning. It makes for a fun, sex read with plenty of worry over whether friendship and attraction will turn into love and heal them both.

What I loved about Brenna: She is a bad-ass witch when she has to be, but she is really more of a nurturer. She has that well grounded center that allows her to navigate her way through dealing with Jase’s rage and need for revenge without constant fights, complaints, or histrionics. Of course that doesn’t mean her heart isn’t hurt when she fears he’ll never be able to love her.

What I loved about Jase: He is a good-natured bad-boy. He likes to brawl at the bar or with his brothers and he likes to make his new mate scream with pleasure, but he understands that she needs more than good sex to be happy and he tried to give her that.

What else makes this book work: This book is part of the Dark Protector series. As part of that series, the world is rich and fully developed. There is a lot going on, but you don’t need the earlier books to understand this one.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Length: 274 pages
Publication Date: October 3, 2013
Primary format: e-book
Publisher: eKensington
Blush Quotient: Red

This book was kindly provided by the publisher for an honest review.

Other books in the series:

And don’t forget, Rebecca is one of the Coastal Magic Reader Con featured authors.  Register to attend and hang out with all the authors, bloggers, and readers!