Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Call of the Raven BLG2.12.2013

 
















http://www.amazon.com/Call-Raven-Union-Series-ebook/dp/B00B3VYDG2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363288699&sr=8-2&keywords=shawn+reilly
by: Shawn Reilly


This first book of the Union Series was a very pleasant surprise to me because this is not a genre I usually read, but I cannot wait for Volume Two.  I enjoyed the way Ms. Reilly writes and I am impressed this is her debut novel.  Bravo Shawn!

Elle Ison is a (rather pathetic) lost soul.  Brought up by her Grandmother, she never learned her self worth.  She became entwined in an abusive, co-dependent relationship, she needed a home and security and he needed a maid and punching bag.  That all changed the day she saved a dirty little girl, named Mary, from a man trying to abduct her after Elle's group reading to children at the central library in a southern Indiana community.

That evening, after an especially brutal beating because she bought a newly relaeased book about ani-shifts, she finds the dirty girl standing in her apartment.  The beatings become increasingly severe so she decides to leave.  Mary is, once again, in danger by intruders that set fire to her apartment.  Her mother has been gone for some time.  She cannot get over the unexplained disappearance of Mary's father, Grant, the love of her life, so she drinks. 

Mary runs to Elle for protection and they begin a journey of discovery as they come under the protection of a band of animal shifters, the Lake's.  They are the spoiled tiger, Kennedy...the handsome young falcon, Nixon, brought to the estate from a horrific abusive father...and the brothers, handsome and strong, Ari the Labrador dog and guardian to his brother Asher, leader of the Union, the grey wolf, brave, confused and unable to love...until they met Elle.  Their mentor, Grant, comes from beyond as the grey wolf  gives Asher the strength to learn to love as they begin the fight of their life to save future leaders and the Union.