EDGE OF PASSION (Cloak Warriors #1)
TINA FOLSOM
Published: March 7, 2012
Paranormal Romance
Novel, ebook
Supplied by Author for an honest review
Able to render themselves invisible, immortal Cloak Warriors like Aiden
have been protecting humans from the dark power of the Demons of Fear for
centuries. But the demons might soon have a powerful tool in their hands to
seduce humans to the dark side. And the person to provide them with this elixir
is the human scientist Leila. Unbeknownst to her, the drug she’s developing to
cure Alzheimer’s Disease has the unexpected side effect of weakening the mind’s
resistance to the influence of demons.
The Council of Cloak Warriors is divided, some of them believing the
only safe way to eradicate this threat is to eliminate its inventor; others are
bent on protecting the human scientist. Aiden is a loyal Cloak Warrior who
accepts the assignment to protect her, despite his own beliefs that humans
can’t be trusted. However, when her life is endangered, his beliefs shift, and
he’s drawn into a battle whose participants are unknown: is he fighting the
demons or his fellow Cloak Warriors?
Forbidden desire flares between Aiden and Leila as they are forced to
rely on the only people they can trust: each other. And even if he can save her
and defeat their enemies, a union between them might be the most dangerous
undertaking of all.
RATINGS and REVIEWS
Bitten's She-Wolf Pack's Ratings and Reviews
Kris’ Ratings:
Review: 2 – A Small Howl
Sexual: 2 - Steamy
This was a quick read about demons trying to take over the world and
the guardians who are here to protect us. I liked Leila, but there really
wasn't much to her. She's the brilliant scientist who only focuses on her
research and her parents. I had a hard
time even liking Aiden. He's the
Guardian sent to protect her, but he's immature, temperamental, and a poor
friend. At one point, his very best friend in the world for over 200 years
disappears, and he almost immediately assumes that the guy has become a
traitor. What?!? I just struggled to
even want her to hook up with him. The
plot moved quickly, and the other characters were interesting.
Ollie’s Ratings:
Review: 3 – One Good Howl
Sexual: 3 – HOT!
Cloak Warrior is the first
book in a new series by Tina Folsom who is famous for her Scanguard Vampire and
Venice Vampyr series. I'm a big fan of Tina's and was really looking forward to
reading this one.
The story focuses on Aiden a cloak warrior set to protect humans from
the forces of evil and Leila, a brilliant researcher on the verge of
discovering a drug that may cure Alzheimer's Disease. Unfortunately the drug
may inadvertently allow humans to open channels in their mind to be more
susceptible to being controlled by the forces of evil. As with a lot of stories
dealing with demonic forces they want to control the world and the more chaos,
fear, and destruction the more negative energy they feed off and strengthen.
However, Aiden is assigned to protect Leila from the forces of evil and needs
to destroy the research to ensure it never falls into the wrong hands.
Now the story started strong, but somehow as the story progressed it
seemed to lose its steam for me. I found at times I couldn't really connect to
the main characters. It could have been that I didn't get know the characters
in terms of their morals, and their values. Although some aspects of their
character were mentioned it didn't seem it was demonstrated. It reminds me what
I heard a writer say "don't just tell me what is happening but show
me" and I just felt in the book I was being told about scenes and didn't
really feel the scenes. It felt at times the characters were going through the
motions but the emotional content wasn't strong. The concept of the book was
good and really wanted to like this latest book from Tina, but I felt it was
lacking the suspense, action and romance to pull me in and engross me.
CarolDee Ratings:
Review: 3 – One Good Howl
Sexual: 3 – HOT!
*Sigh*
I had such higher hopes for Edge
of Passion, but it just didn't happen for me :(
I fell in love with Tina Folsom's Scanguard series primarily because of
originality and likeable characters.
Unfortunately, Edge of Passion didn't give me the same feeling of
reading something fresh and new. There
seemed to be too many clichés that are found in the Paranormal romance
genre. I know I've complained of the
same thing before, but it just becomes tiresome when you feel like you're
reading the same book with slightly different details.
The love interest between Aiden and Leila never peaked my
interest. I enjoyed Aiden's character,
but Leila drove me insane. I'm not going
to lie and say I know anything about pharmaceutical research but if Leila was
truly being selfless in her search for a cure for the Alzheimer’s that was
destroying her parents why not be open and share her research with other
medical professionals? It seems to me
that twenty doctors working on a project would go quicker than one. Okay, so maybe that was a bit of a ramble,
but it was just a huge hole in the plot for me. And I don't feel like the ‘Cloak Warriors'
were ever explained in full detail.
Where did they get their magic?
Why did the start fighting the Demons of Fear? Were they mandated by
God? BAH, there were just so many little things that ate at me. The redeeming qualities were mainly the
secondary characters. I really enjoyed
Aiden's fellow warriors especially the womanizing Manus. What can I say I have a soft spot for bad
boys *grin*
Despite everything Edge of Passions was a fun and easy read. I would
absolutely recommend it to people looking to fill the downtime between a new
Midnight Breed or Dark Hunter installment.
Laurie
(BittenByParanormalRomance) Ratings:
Review: 4 – A Pack Howl
Sexual: 2 - Steamy
Edge of Passion is a new
series by Tina Folsom, I really liked the story and I’m looking forward to
reading and learning more of these warriors and their world as the series
continues.
Tina is known for her very steamy romance stories, while this one gets
steamy it’s nothing like her other books and I think that’s what I loved most
because I felt like I got to know the hero and heroine as they worked together,
even though they did get very predictable and annoying at times with their back
and forth business LOL.
I really liked how Tina added passion in Leila’s Alzheimer’s work. I
hope one day there will truly be a cure for this disease in the real world.
I recommend this to PNR readers.
Artemis’ Ratings:
Review: 3 – One Good Howl
Sexual: 2 – Steamy
I’m on the fence with this one.
It’s one of those stores that were lukewarm. None of the characters ever ignited the pages
for me, even though they were likeable enough.
However, the heroine got on my last never and just about made the TSTL
List even though she was a brilliant scientist!
Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure what this Cloak Warrior and Demon of Fear
world/feud consisted of until halfway through the book and everything finally
clicked into place. It grew to be quite
aggravating.
I’m not giving up on this new series yet – if for one reason alone. Zoltan.
I love that name!
Rev Riot Gyrl's Ratings:
Review: 3 - One Good Howl
Sexy: 2 - Steamy
I will say I really admire Ms. Folsom from breaking away
from her highly successful vampire series to start another and she doesn’t
disappoint either.
The Cloak Warriors are a highly secret group who are here on
earth to protect humans from the Demons of Fear. The more humans give into
them, the more powerful they become and thus, the harder the job Cloak Warriors
have with protecting precious mortals.
The world building is excellent and if this series is going
to be anything like Ms. Folsom’s Scanguard’s
Vampires series then each book will focus on a different warrior. Her first
pick was the brooding yet very handsome Aiden, who falls for sexy researcher,
Leila.
As a very well paid and dedicated scientist, Leila is hard
at work trying to find a cure for Alzheimer’s but the Demons want the cure as
well because it could easily allow humans to do their bidding much easier than
without it.
Aiden is sent to protect Leila and the sparks start to fly.
First, let me say that this was an enjoyable story with
solid characters and very well-evolved and developed secondary characters. Ms.
Folsom doesn’t do slapdash as her fan base is well aware.
However, the reason why this book only got one good howl
from me is because I couldn’t connect with Aiden and Leila as a couple. I
adored Aiden but I wasn’t crazy about Leila as a character and thus, this
somewhat dampened the story for me.
There is also the whole schizophrenic feel of their
relationship which makes no sense. One moment, they are passionate about one
another and the next, they are fighting like cats and dogs. In ordinary
circumstances, this might be okay, but both of them are in danger throughout
the entire novel and if there isn’t any trust, there can’t be a cohesive
relationship. Without a cohesive relationship, it is hard to buy these two are
supposed to be destined for one another because in reality, it just seems like
the hot guy is settling for the hot girl as opposed to “destiny”. It’s obvious
there is something special about their coupling but to me, it didn’t have that
spark and thus this is how it turned out for me.
First novels in a series are tough and the Cloak Warriors
are interesting enough I would definitely continue with the series. However, I
suspect this will be more mainstream and less erotic per se. There is much more
action and heroics than lovemaking but the novel felt balanced and overall well
written.
This sounds pretty good. Thanks for the review.
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