Review: A little hard to follow...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 8, 2013
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.Reaper Iden Belial is missing, and the evil Nikkeson is on the loose, ravaging the coastal regions of the southeast territories. With the rest of the Reapers, their mates, children and servants are all sequestered behind the steel doors of the Citadel for their safety, it was a helluva time for the air-conditioning to go on the fritz. Within the sweltering heat of the closed building, with tempers flaring, Reaper Kasid Jaborn finds his One destined mate. A woman named Justice.Reaper's Justice, a Naughty Nooner short story set between books 8 and 9 in the WesternWind series, lacks the character development, depth and cohesiveness of the previous books in the series. Without having read the prior books, beginning with book two, Reaper's Revenge, you won't have much of a clue as to who Kasid is and where he came from. And who is Justice? What's her purpose/role at the Citadel? We find out her Gypsy grandmother is a drabarni, a fortuneteller, who told her that when she meets a man with a viper on his arm, he'd be the one for her.Low and behold, Kasid has a viper tattoo on his arm. It's an evil thing he wishes he could remove, but it does bring him together with Justice, and the sparks fly. Like all Naughty Nooners, this one is more about the sex than the story, but if you're keeping up with the series, this one's worth reading. -- This review is the sole property of TwoLips Reviews, LLC.