Review: Like the entire "Warder" series, "Cherish Your Name" is an interesting mix...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 4, 2012
I've just finished reading all the books in the "Warder Series" by Mary Calmes. I know I should feel guilty about liking these books so much, but I don't. They're fun, well-written, fast-paced, and very, very romantic. Which, of course, means they're not for everyone.In the world of m/m romances, these books are, to me, most obviously written by a woman for an audience heavily skewed toward female readers. In this world I am part of an enthusiastic minority. "Cherish Your Name" is (at least for now) the last of the Warder books, which posit a world in which a group of gay men work as a team to keep the people of San Francisco safe from marauding demons and their ilk from Hell. Although all of these books feature well-drafted action sequences in which the various warders wreak mayhem on the hellbound; they are all really about the relationships that the warders have, both amongst each other as colleagues and friends, and especially with their romantic partners--their hearths.The very concept of a "hearth" is so marvelously romantic and essentially female. The frequent sexual interactions which form a large part of the appeal of this series are laced with declarations of love and fidelity, of yearning and of wide-eyed passion. Appealingly, and particularly in this volume, the families of the hearths add complexity to the nature of the hearth-warder relationship.  The big secret in these books is not that the warders and their partners are gay; it's that they're part of a supernatural SWAT squad keeping evil at bay.I recommend that you read "His Hearth" first...and if you like that, buy all of the warder books and read them in order.  The stories are only slightly linked, but reading them in the order Calmes published them helps to give the reader a fuller sense of the whole team of San Francisco's warders. If these men are your cup of tea, it's a good strong cup to savor.