Diego Campos has come home to die. The GhostWalker is tired of walking a dark path shaped by countless losses. There has never been a moment of good in his life that wasn’t followed by something bad. But as he makes his way to his family’s homestead in the Appalachian Mountains, his plans are interrupted by a violent ambush that sets his life on a new course.
In between fighting off a small army of assailants, Diego is struck by a beautiful, brutal warrior woman unlike anyone he’s encountered before. Compelled to rescue her, Diego uses his psychic gifts to make Leila’s broken body whole again and save her from certain death. With each new breath she regains her strength, showcasing her humor, intelligence and courage as she reveals the truths of her past and inspires feelings Diego never thought his heart could experience.
After a lifetime alone, in the middle of firefight, Diego has finally found a light to guide him through the darkness—and one brief touch is enough to set them both aflame.
I love this series so much. It’s a true urban fantasy with good guys and bad guys. The men in this series are all lethal. Their units are called the Ghostwalkers and they can do the impossible. Loyal to each other and the military, they defend those who can’t defend themselves. They use incredible physic and physical abilities as they rescue people. The whole idea makes me happy. Then you add the personalities of these men. And I have my favorites. This is Diego’s book. I have loved Diego so much. He has a great sense of humor and protects his brother without question. Having him be a huge part of his brother made Rubin’s book perfect. I was excited for his story. I may have had too high of expectations for Diego’s story. It fell a little flat for me.
The beginning of the story was engaging and action packed. I really drew me into the dark side of Diego. His mother was a highly religious women who saw his physic gifts as demonic. She treated him differently than her other 8 children. It scarred him. The book begins with some of the repercussions of that childhood. When he meets Leila, his reaction is protective. He is a protector. When he’s doing that the voices of the past are silenced. They spend a lot time together alone and there is a huge amount of dialogue. That section of the book had a mixed response for me. I did love that this time cemented their relationship and allowed them to get to know each other. But it also made me feel stuck. Very little to no motion happened. I ended up putting the book down and struggled to pick it back up. That had never happened reading a book in this series.
There is a lot I did enjoy about this book. Other Ghostwalkers arrived to help and I loved seeing so many of them there. There were little bits of their personality on the page that made me happy. The battle was fought in a different way this time. That was interesting. There were some discoveries that we didn’t know about Diego. He had kept his secrets close including one about his family that he had never told Rubin. All of these little pieces made the book enjoyable.
The part that was missing from this book was the motion. There was way too much talking. Yes Diego showed us his skills but most of the rest of the Ghostwalkers were either talking or eating. One of their strengths is their teamwork. The teamwork that did happen was in a room talking and we were told about other parts. Basically the story was happening off the page and we were just told. Maybe that was the price that had to be paid for the long beginning where our couple got to know each other. I don’t know. But it was the reason I kept putting the book down. I wondered a lot about how different this book felt to me than others in the series.
There is trauma that Diego was dealing with from his past. Anyone with abuse and depression should be warned before reading this one. Maybe that is why it felt so different to me. Those are huge topics that can’t be pushed aside. The author does make sure they aren’t swept aside despite Diego’s desire to do so.
I still enjoyed this book overall. I still love this series. This one was just different and I noticed that, wished it wasn’t. I will be waiting for the next one for sure.
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