While I have fallen in love with various aspects of the Guardian series, there have been two dominant threads plucked in the background, piquing my curiosity and humming along behind the humor, the violence, and the happily-ever-afters of every other book. This ever building anticipation culminates in GUARDIAN DEMON, and Brook makes this last book more than worth the wait. Engrossing action, off the charts romance, GUARDIAN DEMON is one of the most satisfying series finales I've ever read.

Part of this satisfaction is derived from the build up. Brook has crafted a long, sweet road to this final conflict. The battle with Lucifer has always been on an epic scale, spanning millennia and every possible attack from crafty betrayals to full frontal force. This book brings all of those different political fronts to a head, and the lynchpin is once again Michael. Leader of the Guardians, the Alpha hero to end all Alpha heroes, and by this point in the story, battered, broken, and barely hanging on. Michael's vulnerabilities make it believable once the inscrutable, all-powerful shield comes down, when we get to see the raging mass of power and emotion underneath his holy warrior shell. But this chink in his armor does not make him any less alien. Rather, Brook does a fantastic job imagining how the love affair of an immortal, magical being might progress. And the sex scenes, oh my sweet heavens the sex scenes. As interesting as Michael's emotional landscape may be, I must admit even that was overpowered by the reality of a shape-shifting, super-sonic teleporter in bed. For the first time in a thousand years. Michael is everything I could have hoped for, everything I was anticipating, and once I got a taste of him I couldn't get enough.

In fact, my only complaint about this book could be that I was so engrossed in the romance I often lost patience with the "battle for the fate of the world" side of the plot. The action was very well paced, and gave Taylor and Michael's romance both a believable foundation and room to breath, but every time the hero and heroine left the page (or paid attention to anyone other than each other), I was just biding my time, waiting for our smoldering hero to come back. Brook made me laugh out loud, fan myself, devour GUARDIAN DEMON in one sitting, and then wish there were more... It's always hard to say goodbye to a series, but it's also hard to imagine any Guardians book could ever be better than this one.

Full review to follow.

Sexual Content: Sex scenes.