Night Unbound (Immortal Guardians, #5)

by Dianne Duvall

Dianne Duvall's Immortal Guardians protect humanity from unspeakable horrors--but their hearts are as fragile as any mortal's. . .

For centuries, Lisette d'Alençon has been a warrior against the dark. She fights alongside her brothers and comrades. But when the dreams start coming, she can't bear to confess them to the Immortal Guardians' command. Dreams of a dark-haired man with soft eyes and brutal wounds, a man her heart aches for--and a man she knows has been declared a traitor.

Zach is an exile, a loner. He won't defend himself against false accusations or grovel to those who should have faith in him. But he'll damn sure defend the woman who kept him sane against a plague of super-vamps that seems to have appeared from nowhere. The Guardians will blame him, and that will make Lisette suspect, too. With life, death and eternity on the line, who can they really trust?

• ISBN13: 9781420129809
• Publish Date: 2 September 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 25 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Zebra Books
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

Zach is an immortal and perhaps as old as Seth; the two are cousins of sort. From his perch on the roof, he has become quite smitten with Lisette. Despite his age, he has led a very solitary existence and his brief interactions with her in the previous novel has him feeling protective. While his feelings reek of insta-love, and she suffers from insta-attraction, I easily swallowed the pill. Why? These feelings are very new to Zach. He isn’t even sure how to label them. As for Lisette, can you blame her? Zach is dreamy, can fly and the way he looks at her. Oh yeah. *melt me* The romance delivers heat and moments that will make you sigh and moments that made me giggle.

When the Immortal Guardians are betrayed, Seth blames Zach and in his typical hotheaded fashion, he acts first and leaves Zach at the mercy of the Others. Zach is being tortured; Lisette is having strange dreams and new amped up vampires appear in the streets again putting the Guardians in danger. When Zack escapes the Others, Lisette nurses him back to health defying Seth’s orders, and it added to the suspense. We get a lot of team interaction and spend time with Seth as we see our faithful leader struggle to keep his team safe and unearth a spy within their midst. The banter between Seth and Zach was both touching and hilarious.

The plot was fast-paced, with intense battles, moving moments within the Guardian team and an intense threat. I devoured Night Unbound as Duvall kept me dangling from one thread to the next. The romance was heavy on the sexy-time between climatic scenes, reveals, and battles all of which left me breathless. We spent a lot of time with the team, and I enjoyed their comradery.

Copy provided by author and full review can be found at Caffeinated.This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[EBookObsessed]

This has become one of my go to books when I just need something to read between books or when I don't have time to start a new one and just need to read.

Things are heating up in North Carolina. The Immortal Guardians thought the threat to them was once again just the vampires who they must protect the humans from. They thought the military threat was over after they killed everyone who had knowledge of the drug used, but someone has once again gained possession of the one drug that can effect a Guardian. They are also turning military trained men into vampires. For the first time in centuries, the Immortal Guardians are in real danger, and the biggest question is — who turned on them and created this new army? Seth is certain the only one with the information and enough power to do it would be Zach.

Zach has been hanging around the Immortal Guardians for more than just the lollipops being offered by Ami. Lisette d’Alençon has caught his attention and the longer he watches her, the more he desires the type of relationship he sees the other Guardians enjoying. Zach is an outcast among his own people and he knows that Seth would kill Zach if he found out how often Zach spends watching his Guardians.

Always being an outcast, Zach can’t imagine that Lisette would return his interest, but Lisette’s own fantasies about Zach have been increasing the longer she catches him watching her. Lisette is also aware of Seth’s dislike of Zach and knows that she risks alienating her boss and her fellow Immortal Guardians if she starts a relationship with Zach, but after centuries alone, she too would do anything to once again feel loved.

But secrets always have a cost and eventually someone always finds out. Can Zach and Lisette live with the consequences that a forbidden relationship will bring to their lives?

THOUGHTS:
I love the Immortal Guardians! Zach and Lisette are now my second favorite characters just after Bastian and Melanie. I re-read this story after I finished. I just didn’t want to let them go. It was just one of those stories. Even just writing this review, I want to pick it up again to read.

Zach is another of my tortured heroes. Literally tortured by his own people and it is his desire to be with Lisette that gives him the power to escape. He always seems unwanted and the fact that Lisette is attracted to him just floors him. He is not even used to someone willingly touching him and his strong reaction to just holding Lisette is heartbreaking.

We, of course, love Lisette so it is wonderful to see her find happiness with Zach and funny to see her brothers’ reaction to the new man in her life, especially when Richart pops in at a very inopportune time. Yikes.

Now you would think that since Zach and Seth are alike, we would finally get detailed answers on what Seth is (because we know he is more than just an Immortal Guardian) and Zach has wings so it goes to follow that if Seth is like Zach, he would have wings, etc., etc., and of course, Zach would tell all to Lisette, so…ummm, nothing. What?? Clever author that she is, Dianne has worked in the whys and wherefores that Lisette can’t be told anything since any telepath amongst them, including her brother, would be able to read the information in her head, and it is too dangerous for anyone to have that information. Dammit! It all made sense in the storyline not to tell Lisette and she agreed that it was too dangerous to give her too much information. So we get Nothing! Well played, Ms. Duvall. Well played!

If you haven’t yet, you really need to try the Immortal Guardians. It is a great series with great characters. Even vampire Cliff who has been helping Melanie learn about the virus affect humans is being allowed to go outside and help. Unless they can find a cure/drug to suppress the madness, which would really change the series, I am going to be so upset when we lose Cliff.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.