Duality

Guardians of the Light #1

by Renee Wildes

Love will give them strength—or prove to be their fatal flaw.

Guardians of the Light, Book 1

Dara Khan Androcles is really in over her head this time. From childhood she’s been forced to hide her half-dragon mage fighting skills behind a public persona as a healer. Now, with a traitor and his demon threatening the throne of Safehold, Dara has no choice but to turn reluctant warrior—and seek help.

She strikes a bargain with runaway Elven prince Loren ta Cedric and his sentient, pain-in-the-butt war mare, Hani’ena. Loren’s not only too handsome for Dara’s own good, the powerful empath can see right through to the pain that drives her.

Loren can’t help but feel Dara’s every hurt, physical and emotional. Though his need for her drives him half mad, he must stay his course to see justice done for his people. Even if it means swearing a Life Debt to the distracting mortal.

That vow, made in the heat of their parallel quests, carries more power than either of them guessed. The power to bond the unlikely pair as Life Mates. The power to lay bare the fears and desires that could bind them to a single purpose—or tear them apart.

All the while a demon awaits, ready to destroy all that they hold dear.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Fantasy Romance, Paranormal, Dragons, Magic, Fae

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 21, 2008

About the author

Renee Wildes is an award-winning WI writer. She grew up reading fantasy authors Terry Brooks and Mercedes Lackey and is a huge Joseph Campbell fan, so the minute she discovered romance novels it became inevitable that she would combine it all and write fantasy romance. Renee is a history buff, from ancient Greece (esp. Sparta)through Dark Ages (esp. Celt & Viking) to medieval times.

As a Navy brat and a cop’s kid, she gravitated to protector/guardian heroes and heroines. She’s had horses her whole life, so became the only vet tech in a family of nurses. It all comes together in her sci fi, paranormal & fantasy romance books for Champagne Book Group – fantasy, action, romance, heroics and lots of critters!

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just want to say that I've read a lot of romance novels. To keep it brief, I fell in love with reading, and to save money, my mom decided that in middle school, when I went through books like teenage boys go through food, she would let me read her four boxes of Harlequin romance novels. Needless to say, I'm pretty good at discerning crap from not crap.

When my husband (who works with Renee) bought me this book, I was a little nervous. I'm very fickle with my book list, and really enjoy a good book, but it was a romance set in a fantasy world. Renee, let me say I'm sorry I was ever nervous.

While there are the hallmarks of a romance novel(ie: lush lips, flowing hair, hot and moist... well, you get the picture) Duality features a very detailed world, clever characters, and a plot line that makes you pretty damn happy. When looking at the book, remember, summaries on the back aren't your friend - and that reading the first chapter is always a better judge of a book.

Thanks again, Renee, for writing a brilliant romance novel. Now where is the second part? :)

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://ebookaddict2.blogspot.com/
Renee has given us a story of deep and abiding love. This was an edge of your seat book at its very best. If the second book was already out, I would already be reading it. Duality is a book that you do not want to miss out on.

http://www.ecatarom ance.com/ ?p=608
Duality,by Renee Wildes, is the best fantasy story that I have ever read! This story has it all: Heart stopping adventure, True evil versus good, Love, Handsome Fae, and a gorgeous dragon. What more could a reader desire? This fabulous story is to die for!


http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/Book...
Duality is a stunning read with glorious mental vistas. Loren as the valiant warrior who loves his lady in spite of her differences brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. This book has the best of everything in
the romance genre, and I highly recommend it. It is a keeper!

These are the reviews that have come in so far about my fantasy romance from Samhain entitled DUALITY.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

DUALITY, Book One in the Guardians of Light series by Renee Wildes, is a fast-paced fix for Lord of the Rings fans who are missing a regular dose of elves, dwarves, and other such otherworldly creatures. Into this mix of clashing worlds the author introduces Dara, a half-dragon mage who must go in search of who she really is and learn the true extent of her powers before a demon overwhelms the currently fragile coexistence of elves, men, and dwarves. Accompanying her is an elven prince who has family issues of his own to resolve before either of them can acknowledge the powerful attraction between those who have risked all to save each other’s life. The world-building is creative and thorough, although there are quite a few characters, including sentient war mares, to keep track of. This book is spicy not just for the sexual interplay but also for the violence. The author pulls no punches in portraying the risks and dangers each character faces. A good read for the fan of epic adventure.

[Blodeuedd Finland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh this was a silly light fantasy romance. Do not expect any world building. It starts off in a country and then suddenly there are lots of more things. Like it took a 1 day to walk to the elves and I was all, whaat? Cos wasn't they fairytales? Or wait, just, never mind. The world building lacked

But if you want a little romance about a woman who has nothing and meets a cute guy, who then turns out to be a prince, and whose family are assholes to her (well not all). And then we find out she was more than just a silly little peasant. And she is an awesome healer too btw, and everyone loves her. And then they live happily ever after.

Oh and there is a bad guy, but to not worry, it takes 80% of the book, one week, for all nations to meet him in battle. And then it's over in 10 pages and there is this loooooooooooooooooong blah blah blah where they find happiness.

But hey, it was ok, I just think it could have been fleshed out more.

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very similar to Tairen Soul series by C. L. Wilson.

I enjoyed the magic in this book. A mixture of dragons, elementals, demons and the fey. An exciting mix which was well integrated by a compelling story (without the information dump).

The one negative I would comment about is the main characters omnipotence towards the end of the book. It can become boring when a character is immune or immortal and always wins. Furthermore, I was hoping the series would continue with these characters however it will not. Sadly, I will not be continuing this series due to this.

[Nichole ~Bookaholic~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars....while I really did enjoy this book all the "Thou, hast, canst, wouldst" drove me crazy..if it were not for that I could give it 4 stars because quite frankly the story could be told just fine without it.

[Stacy Sabala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review- Duality by Renee Wildes

In this first book of the Guardians of light series, Dara is a healer and a warrior. She has to dress as a man when she enters the battlefield to heal. Jalad had attacked the land while the king is away. She attempts to heal the only father she ever knew but his injuries are too great. She is asked to relieve his pain instead, then saves the mighty warrior that came to their aid. She defends him from the enemy, then takes him to her cabin to heal. Fate continues as she learns the Queen has fled to her family. Loren heads to find Moira and Dara is supposed to travel meeting up with him. Unfortunately the plan doesn’t go as thought. Dara falls into enemy hands. Jalad knows what she is and is determined to break her. Dara would rather die. Loren refuses to let her. His oath is binding and his connection to her runs deep. There is more to her than anyone knows. The truth about her mother is shocking and she unlocks the past in order to help defeat the demon helping Jalad.
Loren’s people must join forces with humans and others to defeat the darkness that is trying to take over. Loren has to step in and lead the ways he never thought her would. Everyone’s lives depend on it.
This book had an interesting storyline. I love the powers Dara had, yet she was a mystery. She knows nothing about her heritage or her mother. So w2hen the author reveals the information, Dara’s reaction is believable. It was an interesting twist. She has to accept a lot pretty quickly under the circumstances. Loren is also from a strong family heritage. He is surprised to be placed in the situations he finds himself. His relationships with Dara are surprising. He didn’t expect her which makes it fun to read. Dara is the same way. She doesn’t trust her feelings, nor does she think she is worthy of any feelings he may have toward her. It’s fun to watch them muck up a bit. I found it a pretty exciting read with some twists and turns. I give it a 4 out of 5.

[D.V. Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Guardian’s Heart
Guardians of Light, Book One
Renee Wilder
Fantasy/Romance

Renee Wilder has created fantasy kingdoms with familiar elements in a fresh story. Elves, Mages, humans are struggling to co-exist. Each has their own agenda until one of the kingdoms comes under siege by a demon inhabiting a human host.

Main Characters
Dara Kahn Androcles, warrior/healer
Loren ta Cedric, Elf, and Warrior of the Light

A Guardians Heart is my favorite kind of book. Fantasy with romance. A strong female character and the male, who not only isn’t afraid of her strength but encourages her to the full potential.
Action packed from the start.

Dara’s only family is no longer. His dying request is for Dara to save another. She finds Loren with what should be a mortal wound, not knowing he can heal himself. This reveals to Loren she is much more than appears.

Attraction is evident from the start, but each has their own duty and must part. With his sentient war-mare, Loren reluctantly leaves Dara to fulfill his mission, assisting in the securing of King Hengist’s kingdom.
Dara, in turn, must stay to assist and heal her fellow countrymen.

Weakened from her healing magic, she is captured and enslaved. Taken to the demon-possessed leader of her people, who wants to use her, Dara fights back. Unable to break her to his will, she is sentenced to death.

When Dara and Loren are reunited, love and passion seal their fate to each other. Moments of tears mingle with laughter, in an almost poetic style of writing. The main characters, as well as secondary characters, are deep and complex.

A Guardian’s Heart is full length without a cliffhanger. I plan to read the entire series. Good work Renee.

[Lexie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the cover to this e-book/print book (its avail in either form). Its very pretty and is relevant to the story itself (I know such a novel idea!). The author kindly offered up the e-book for me to read and review (loves to Renee!) and before anyone says anything--there's plenty of the evil happening in this story to fulfill my love of dark things.

In fact I kind of loved to hate the evil despot of this novel, but I'm jumping ahead of myself.

The novel begins with a battle and takes off from there. In this land where women are forbidden to heal, to learn to fight for themselves--Dara is both. Through the grace of her adoptive father Rufus she's learned to be deadly with blades and through her adoptive mother's teaching she learned the healing arts. Her meeting with Loren is a fated thing and causes her a certain amount of trouble, but really not anymore then she would have gotten in by herself.

She doesn't really like to follow rules honestly.

This is a pretty standard fantasy--elves, demons, healers, magic--on the surface, but its full of wit, appropriately despotic evil doers and a relationship between Loren and Dara that felt very real. I found it rather amusing that Loren is all gung-ho about being Bonded while Dara is more resistant since she isn't exactly certain life-bonding yourself to a person you just met a couple days before is a really smart idea. For what its worth Loren's war-mare Hani'ena agrees with Dara.

Jalad, the despot I keep mentioning, is a horrible, twisted and dark-souled person. Well 'person' is a loose term for him really. I'm not certain that a human being could be as...evil as he is by themselves. I hated him, but man did he keep me interested to see what he came up with next!

My only problem with the book was that there's a lot of 'apostrophes' and stilted formal speech patterns throughout. While the apostrophes do serve to break up the speaker's dialect and give a sense of difference, they distracted me and had me concentrating too long on deciphering the words. The stilted formal speech was mostly when it came to Loren and his kind, or if Dara was feeling especially ornery. It threw off my flow of reading more often then not.

[Wyrdness · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly decent, but not particularly complicated Fantasy Romance. The entire story (improbably) happens within a week (or maybe two) and so it relies on the strangers to eternal soulmates insta-love cliche, but I still quite liked how things worked out (even if it was utterly predictable).

The characters of Dara and Loren were pretty okay (when they weren't beating themselves up over stupid perceived flaws) and only strayed a little in to Mary Sue territory. I think my favourite character overall is probably Lorelei, or maybe First. My least favourite characters all seemed to get what was coming to them in some form or another, which was quite satisfying.

I recommend this to anyone who just wants to switch their brain off for a few hours and indulge themselves in some light entertainment, or to those who are in need of a "palate cleanser" between meatier fantasy epics. Not every book can be 1000+ pages long and take a week or more to read after all, and for that I say thank goodness!

[Yllo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay on the plus side, the world building isn't bad. The lore is more than decent, the magic is nice, the characters are not the reason of my complaint.

I wanted to enjoy this book, dinnit!

I stalled and finally completely gave up, feeling bad for spending money on a book I'll never manage to read even if I want to.

The dialogues very awkward in their needlessly weird phrasing.

I just wished to get to read an interracial romance with a nice male elf when I found it in the listopia. Too bad this story doesn't make it work for me.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A guilty pleasure that satisfyingly fed my imagination. Duality starts off by dragging you into a bloody coup. Dara is a mystery, and is loyal to her people. She's also a fighter--fearing no one. She will protect and heal all who cross her path, even a stranger.

Her gifts lead to those who need her and that is how she finds Loren. A visitor to her world who had come to help the king, becoming gravely injured.

The chemistry between Dara and Loren was instant. I enjoyed journeying with them as they fought the enemy while their romance bloomed.

The author has painted a world of adventure and fantasy that immediately pulls you in, and doesn't let go. In fact, I stayed up to 3 in the morning finishing it.
I am definitely a fan!

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Hvn't read a good fantasy romance for some time n this 1 really hit the spot. A strong feisty heroine who has to learn to discover her heritage n the powers behind it. The hero is just as yummy; a prince of the elves who becomes the reluctant heir. Live mates; spirit horses. dragon queens: this book has it all. The writing style was good n the story was great. Gonna get the rest of the series asap!

[Iris · Rating 1 out of 5]

The description of the book was nice and really interesting, but then when you actually start to read it, you find out that the author uses old English. At that moment i found out that i can't stand to read it, maybe because i'm not used to it since i'm English isn't my mother's tongue. That's why i dropped it, i tried but just couldn't. Too bad cause the story seemed to be interesting

[Jacquelyn Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book, I would read a little of it and put it down for later.
A fantasy romance, good vs evil all roled up into one.
In this book, Dara is suffering from the loss of her family, while Loren, seeking only justice and freedon and does not expect a life debt to get out of control.

I recommrnd this book to anyone who want to believe in magic.

[Krita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a pleasant surprise. It's been a long time since fantasy interested me but this book captured me from the beginning. It isn't the best written nor does it have the best characters but it had a good balance of all.

Re read Nov 11 2017 funny but I didn't remember this book at all but I have the exact same review :)

[Kayleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

What started out as a bit convoluted turned into a really great read. The action was fast paced with a well developed fantasy world. The characters are realistic, with vulnerabilities, but manage to stay away from being "whiny". The romance was natural, sweet, and passionate. A truly enjoyable book.

[Emiilia HelloBookLovers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like this book. I am glad this book was free for my Amazon Kindle. I only give this book 2 stars because the beginning was pretty good, then the book got slow through the middle of the book. I have nothing else to say, only that I forced myself to read it. =(

[Lacy♪ ♫Movements of a Demigod ♪ ♫ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this book free on Kindle and I was pleasantly suprised by it. I found it to be very entertaining and I love the action in it. The language was a little bit of a turnoff, but easy to get past. It reminded me of Lord of the Rings and I just had to get the next book to see if it was as good.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is terrible but it's a good story. Her dialects are all over the place though and I had to stop myself from constantly rewriting the dialogue. Good characters, decent world- building. A bit long but worth reading. A nice kindle freebie surprise.

[Jess O. (From Jess to You) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out my review and two teasers here: http://frommetoyouvideophoto.blogspot.com/2013/01/feasted-on-guardians-of-light-series.html

[Denise Agnew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Renee Wildes gives lovers of fantasy romance a great start to a genuinely intriguing series. I liked the wide variety of characters, the attention to detail and the way Renee drew me straight into this fascinating world.

[Sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good story, slow paced and boring at times but purposefully moving forward to a satisfying ending. I like this book, don't think I will read it again. Though I need not do so, for I will most likely remain in my memory for a long time.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eh, couldn't even get into this book at all and it is my normal genre....just didn't like the "language" of the book or the characters. At least it was free.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a free kindle edition - it was okay - some interesting concepts and a good way to introduce to a new writer.

[Narnies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda like a grown up Gena Showalter meets fairytale. Dreamy!

[Sarah Louise]

Free on amazon

[Lindsay]

Amazon Freebie 12/16/2012

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is a great book to read

[Elb4966 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing is disjointed; and Characters know things they should not know and behave in contradicting ways.