A really intriguing story. I like the world that's beginning to form here. I'm really curious as how Jules and Ry's relationship is going to evolve. I knew from the beginning that something out of the ordinary was going to happen in this world, but not exactly what. Calmes laid down the subtle (and not so subtle for people who look for that kind of thing) hints as to what was going to happen. It was done in such a way that I could even believe how the story shifted from a more realistic world to a supernatural one. The strong characters made that leap in logic/plot easy. I liked the people therefore I can believe what happened. Nothing but good things about this story.

I really enjoyed this first book in the new Warder series by Mary Calmes. It's a fascinating story/plot and brings with it a lot of intriguing concepts for fighting and killing demons/others.

I adored Julian from the beginning. There was something about his personality that appealed to me. He was so secure in his personal beliefs. He knew, 100%, what he wanted for himself in a romantic long-term partnership. Julian didn't compromise his beliefs and I really respected him for that. Ryan was harder for me to warm up to until the reasoning behind his behavior was explained. He came across as somewhat immature, narcissistic and desperate until you discovered the desperation a Warder feels when they find their Hearth.

I really enjoyed the story and look forward to the rest of them.

I swear, I remember liking the rest of the series, but I just did not like this one much at all. The pace was too fast, the MC was too "Jory", as usual, and there was too much going on, with not nearly enough time focused on the whole paranormal demon hunting aspect, which really seemed to come out of left field.

I came to the conclusion while rereading this that Mary Calmes essentially writes fanfiction of her own characters. She created a specific set of characters, and just uses them over and over again, in different settings and worlds. Jory, Jory as a government agent, Jory as a wereleopard, Jory as an ad agent, dating a demon hunter, but always always Jory- the cute quirky guy that EVERYONE loves. The secondary characters change up a bit. a lot of times it's just another Sam, but sometimes, we get two Jory-esque characters for the price of one.

I shouldn't complain, everyone knows what they're getting into when they pick up a Mary Calmes book, I just didn't feel that this particular one was done nearly as well as others by this author.

This is just another book that reiterates for me how hit or miss I feel with Mary Calmes. Some of her books I absolutely love and some are just meh. This fell very clearly into the meh category. I didn't hate it, but there wasn't anything particularly gripping about it. It's a short quick read so for that it's beneficial.

Julian Nash is a little bit of an oddity, but his partnership with his best friend Cash Vega has taken them up the corporate ladder at their marketing firm. Their unique style and ideas has endeared them to their clients and brought a great push of business into the company. Stumbling in on the guy he's been seeing for the last couple of weeks sleeping with another guy in the company isn't exactly the way he wanted to spend his promotion night dinner, but he'd still rather know than not. Having drool worthy Ryan Dean show up and defend him feels like icing on the cake. The least he can do is invite him along as his date to the dinner instead.

Ryan Dean has had his eye on Julian for awhile, but the man has never returned any of his calls after the promotional pieces they'd done together have passed. He has a successful local cable show and after working with Julian Ryan is determined to get more. He's heard Julian doesn't sleep around, but he's going to make sure that Julian is coming home with him that night. Ultimately though there's more than meets the eye when it comes to Ryan's background.

Reading this made me feel like I was getting the unpolished versions of Mary Calmes usual character tropes. The unaware, everyone wants him and will do anything to have him, ultra-attractive guy strangely was paired as the alpha dominant type in this story which is unusual for her writing. But at the same time Ryan was written with some of those characteristics too. He just had the twinkier vibe. And that's why at times this really didn't work for me. I felt like the characters were inconsistent and how they dealt with things felt backwards most of the time. Parts of their personalities felt interchangeable and then the parts that weren't felt like they were oft times on the wrong guy. I really disliked how Julian completely abandoned his "no sex until we're together" stance pretty much immediately with Ryan. The worst type of insta-love for me. I so badly wanted him to stand up to Ryan and hold out.

Not to mention that the paranormal/urban fantasy elements of this story really don't enter in until the three quarter mark. This feels like a normal contemporary until just before the end with maybe one little teaser somethings different comment made at the halfway point. Of course when the shit does hit the fan everyone accepts it with a grain of salt. Ok, so demons, sure yeah, totally cool. With the introduction of those elements though there just wasn't enough time left in the story to really give any clarity to anything. I was left slightly confused with dangling threads abounding. Warders, yeah ok, got it. What are those? How are they decided upon? What exactly do they do regularly? Special powers? Or are they just kick ass with blades? So many many questions.

Was there a connection between these two guys? Sure. Mary Calmes always writes this incredible flaring heat between her leads, but that's where she gets in to trouble with me a lot of the time. I want more than just incredible heat. I want to see things develop between my MC's. This flared up and is instantly everything in the world is perfect. It's just not believable, even in the realm of urban fantasy when the fantasy elements are barely there in the first place.

This read fast and smoothly. But I was left underwhelmed.

I really liked Marshalls, but every other MC's books have their share of red flags it's disheartning.

Ryan was a creep. I hated him. Talk about pressuring someone. How many times can one ask another to "come home with me?" That took up like half the book. GET A CLUE! Then the other guy, can't remember his name, told his bestie about Ryan and everybody was okay with it? UGH! I didn't like this.

I really liked this one, it was a new concept and yet and old one. Ryan Dean being what he was needed some one to settle him, give him a home, balance him out, his hearth Julian Nash. Now as I said old concept yet new, most do life-mates or something similar and while “hearth” is similar yet different, you can still see its the same concept. Again liked it and look forward to more by Mary Calmes.

I do love Mary Calmes. I'm not sure that is is my favorite of hers but I definitely enjoyed it.