REAPER'S VOW - Sarah McCarty
Shadow Reapers , Book 2
Berkley Sensation
ISBN: 978-0-425-24770-9
March 2014
Historical Paranormal Romance

Sometime after the American Civil War...

Cole Cameron is close to finding his cousin Adelaide. He thinks she's been kidnapped by Isaiah Jones, and that's all he needs to set off on a grueling search. It's been months, but he knows he's close and he believes he'll find his cousin. What he doesn't believe are the tall tales that Isaiah and some others are shape shifters…men who change into wolves. As the trail gets warmer, the danger becomes imminent and then very real in the form of a wolf attack. Cole knows he is on the losing side when he is saved by another group of wolves. One of them shifts back into Isaiah Jones right before Cole's eyes. Only then does Cole believe that the rumors are true and Isaiah is part of the Shadow Reapers the townfolk talked about.

Isaiah and his fellow Shadow Reapers take Cole to a beautiful and hidden valley where a settlement of Reapers lives. There, Cole reunites with his cousin Addy and learns that she went willingly with Isaiah and is now his "mate", although she is human. As Cole finds his way around the settlement and figures out what to do, he meets Miranda. The petite brunette catches Cole's eye instantly, but he also feels a deep sense of recognition, and his highly developed intuition senses that Miranda is unhappy. Miranda is now a werewolf herself, after a brutal Reaper attack killed her husband. Miranda also has a daughter she needs to protect, who, unlike her, is all human. Cole may be her answer but then again, he is human too... or is he?

REAPER'S VOW is a highly original paranormal romance mostly in its post Civil War setting, but also because of its character development. The second in the Shadow Reapers series, (the first one, REAPER'S JUSTICE, was about Isaiah and Adelaide) is action packed and full of violence, steamy romance and snappy dialogue. Interesting characters are popping out everywhere, including Blade, an Enforcer, who seems to know more about the Reapers and their origins that anyone else. All these elements are part of what makes Sarah McCarty such a great author?her originality is endless, and she knows how to put a story together. There are still more  questions than answers in this novel, although a few are answered and so far, some of them make very little sense, but I have faith that the author will tie them all together eventually?perhaps in the next Reaper novel? I'm looking forward to it.

Astrid Kinn