Review: Charlee Compo is BACK!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 2, 2013
This book received a Reviewer's Choice Award at TwoLips Reviews, LLC.In the year 3478, the Burning War has left Earth - or Terra as it's now known - a devastated, backward world that's lost three-quarters of its population to not only war, but to tsunamis, earthquakes, and a plague that would have entirely wiped out humanity had the Triune Goddess Morrigunia not interceded. Floods and earthquakes have reduced the size of what used to be the United States by half. The people exist now in a futuristic "old west" in which the large cities and their machinery of old lay in ruin. In what had been the vast Midwest, the Southwest, and Southeast, the land has been divided into territories ruled by the High Council of Shadowlords -- three powerful psychics from far beyond the Terran galaxy. Rogue reapers called Balgairs have been turned loose by the alien Ceannus to destroy the humans of Terra. To eradicate them before this happens, the High Council has brought in seven of Morrigunia's Reapers.Reapers are forces to be reckoned with. Tall, black-haired, and inordinately handsome and well-built, these men each possess a symbiotic worm that gives them the strength of 10 normal men. Neither vampire nor werewolf, but a combination of both, they can shapeshift into both a wolf and a bird. Their senses are enhanced, and they have powers to mesmerize and do all manner of magical things. Tough, unsympathetic killers, they'll melt your heart with the loneliness and despair they hide from the world but cannot hide from the women destined to be their mates. Ultimately, they are the final word of law in the Territories, and nothing is more important to them than the protection of their people. Yet the people they've dedicated their lives to protecting fear these solitary blood-drinking Reapers nearly as much as they fear the blood-thirsty Rogues.Now, 2 years later, youngest Reaper Iden Belial knows an evil like nothing else he's ever faced before permeates his Territory of Flagala (Florida, Georgia and Alabama?).  As he rides farther and farther south along the coastline, dead sea animals by the hundreds lay washed up on shore. Birds. Insects. People and animals. Everyone and everything lies dead before him...until he crosses the long, "pothole-riddled bridge" (Seven Mile Bridge?) to the village of Land's End.  There have been disappearances in Lands End, but the community so far remains untouched by the evil coming their way.  Iden knows he must lead them back over the bridge and west to safety while he can, especially now that he's found his mate among them.Kallista Papandreou knows from almost the first moment she sees him that the black-clad lawman is for her.  But Kallie is already promised to someone else when she turns 21. Her greedy shrew of a mother accepted a bride price for her from Alexi Dranias' father before they left Oceania (Europe?) to come to Serenia (USA?).  His is a powerful and corrupt family, with loads of power.  She knows there's no way she can free herself from her mother and Alexi...unless Iden marries her first.But when they're ripped apart by the combined forces of her mother's deceit and the power of the Nikkeson, a demon that brings death and destruction to everything it touches, part of the demon's wickedness is left behind, inside Iden. The Nikkeson's evil twists Iden into someone he is not. Brought to the Citadel (the former Pentagon?), the Shadowlords must exorcise the seed of evil within Iden before it grows powerful enough to take him over permanently. But what Iden needs is his wife--the only one whose loving and sensual touch can truly make him whole again.And what of the Nikkeson? Will it claim Kallie, something that has just as much power to destroy Iden as does the Nikkeson's spawn inside him?  Or will the Goddess and the WindWarrior/Ridge Lord Desdon Brell be able to save Kallie for him and send the Nikkeson back to the Hell hole from whence it came?Each of the full-length novels in the WesternWind series has been an outstanding read. Likewise, Charlotte Boyett-Compo's action-packed plotting and vivid characterizations make Dark Reaper an extraordinary book, making it difficult to put it down. However, if you've gotten hold of an early ebook copy, you'll find a couple of problems that got past both the book's editor and line editor. There's a minor issue early on in which Iden is removing his clothing and boots and throwing them in the fireplace to burn.  Then it says, "His boot heels scuffed across the carpet..."  The author assures me she removed that line from the finished copy before it went live, but somehow it found its way back in. The more major issue is Chapter 18, which is a repeat of an earlier scene.  According to the author, Ellora's Cave Publishing is "fixing the chapter mistake."  If you encounter this chapter mistake in your copy of the ebook, I recommend you contact Ellora's Cave Publishing for a revised copy.With Dark Reaper, Ms. Boyett-Compo has written a story filled with romance, suspense and an evil so menacing it gave me chills every time it or the result of its passing appeared in a scene. The characters are vividly drawn and either likable or equally dislikeable.  I love that Ms. Boyett-Compo isn't afraid of portraying a strong man in tears over true emotional upheavel. Iden's as determined as the Shadowlords to expunge the Nikkeson's evil from his soul, so Kallie can return to him.  At only 19, she's nearly as strong a heroine as the women who've preceded her as Reaper mates. The sex between Kallie and Iden is passionate, yet sensual and sweet.In the beginning, Kallie's mother and brothers aren't very nice people, particularly her mother. However, her brothers and even her mother to a certain small extent, redeem themselves.  In the end, I was sorry to see what happened to the brothers, but with a surprising turn of events at the end of the book, perhaps there's still hope for them.  With the arrival of nine new Panthera Reapers on Terra, this book sets up future stories about them and what looks like might be the Reapers' final battle with the alien Ceannus.Overall, Dark Reaper is an excellent addition to this amazing and original series, and I can't wait to read the next and final installment for the first generation of WesternWind Reapers. Like all the books in the series, this one is best if read in sequential order for better understanding of Ms. Boyett-Compo's continued world-building and character development. -- This Review is the sole property of TwoLips Reviews, LLC.