Author Spotlight Review: Guardian Angel by Julie Garwood.

Rowena’s review of Guardian Angel by Julie Garwood.

Hero: Caine, Marquess of Cainewood
Heroine: Lady Jade St. James

The Emerald flew across the seas, carrying the pirate Pagan — despised by the ton, whose riches he plundered, and beloved by the poor, whose plight was eased by his gifts.

The Marquess of Cainewood vows to hunt down the pirate wretch in revenge for his brother’s death. But when Jade, an enchanting vision of rippling red hair and eyes of jewel-green, appears at his door to beg desperately for his protection, the Marquess agrees to keep her safe from the villains who want her dead. Jade is infuriating, exasperating, and gorgeous; Caine is noble, strong-willed, and powerful. No woman has ever befuddled him so, nor so deeply aroused his desire. But as Jade answers his knowing caresses with an innocent, wild abandon, they are drawn into a web of treachery that will test the very heart of their love!

You know, the first time that I read this book. I absolutely loved it and while I still love this book, I was able to see a lot of the flaws in this book as well.

The story goes like this, Caine is out for blood. He’s out for the blood of Pagan, which is the guy that he thinks killed his brother, Colin (you know, Colin from Castles). He’s looking high and low to find this bastard but isn’t having any luck but because his brother is dead, Caine will not give up. To try to drag Pagan out of hiding, Caine starts posing as Pagan to try to earn his wrath and have him come looking for him to dare try to pose as the great and Almighty Pagan. You get where I’m going with this right? Instead of drawing out Pagan, he draws out Jade, who turns the tables on him and poses as this helpless girl who hires Caine to…MURDER HER and Caine being the gentleman that he is, is stunned.

This book is packed with JG’s wit and her humor that you’ll remember from her other books. Garwood has a gift of writing those witty books with charming characters that will stay with you long after you’ve put the book down and this one isn’t an exception. Caine and Jade were enjoyable characters that made the story heartwarming.

Before becoming totally obsessive about Colin, Caine was my favorite hero from this series. The way that he loved Jade was so frickin’ great to me. The singleminded way that he just barreled over her with his love was just too sweet for words. Especially since he was this big hunter guy from the war office. He did dangerous work and yet he was confident (okay arrogant) that Jade would get over herself and love him back. He didn’t shy away from his feelings once he knew what they were and the singlemindedness with which he kept after her (even when she ran away) had me laughing and sighing at the same time. He was one of those good, protective heroes that I just want to eat up!

Jade on the other hand sometimes got on my nerves. I mean, I knew that she had issues about people leaving her and so she always left before they could leave her but still, it was like, you’ve finally got something good and someone who loves you enough to keep coming after you, don’t you think it’s time to stop running? And then the lies she kept up even after having known Caine for a while, it was like, did you really have to wait until the last possible moment to tell him everything? But aside from those things, I liked her. What I didn’t buy was how Jade was portrayed as this strong and capable girl and then once her and Caine are together, Caine kind of just runs all over her and takes her for granted and…she lets him. I mean, I’m thinking, yeah right. She had this big ass plan when she first came to Caine and she was supposed to save him and she kept trying to save him and she’s such this strong woman and yet when she starts her little thing with Caine, all of a sudden she’s this meek little woman in the background? Yeah right. The Jade that I had come to know by then would have ripped Caine’s head off but she didn’t. I just didn’ t buy it but even that wasn’t enough to ruin this story for me. Because Jade was a strong heroine who was a survivor and well, she did alright with Caine in the end.

The overall story was filled with a lot of political stuff that only JG could keep me interested in. She has a gift with words that few can rival and I just eat all of her stuff up. This book was a great addition to a great series and I definitely recommend it to everyone to read.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

This book is available from Pocket. You can buy it here.

Related Posts