Peacekeepers

by Kat Sinclair

Combining dark humor, sexy intrigue, and a paranormal gay romance, Peacekeepers urges you to face your daemons, or be consumed by them...

In a desperate attempt to escape his arduous past, Arno, a gifted daemon hunter from Italy, moves to the bright city of San Francisco. At the new and progressive Peacekeeper HQ, he plunges himself into this dangerous and controversial line of work. Fighting pesky Shades, malicious Tricksters, and tempting Tenures is his normal 9 to 5.

However, Arno soon finds that old fears and habits still dog his steps, even from a whole continent away. A larger threat is also brewing within The Golden City, one that jeopardizes the organization, his friends—and even humanity. He’ll have to turn to the unlikeliest of allies to help them, starting with the curious daemon haunting his apartment.

Genres: M M Romance, Romance, Paranormal, Supernatural, LGBT, M M Paranormal

380 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 3, 2021

About the author

Born and raised in Czech Republic, Kat is a chronic overthinker who writes character-driven gay (M/M) stories with just enough spice and angst. Besides falling in love with fictional people, Kat enjoys spending time with animals, gaming, doing DIY projects, and getting stronger in the gym.

More stories can be found under the pen names of RIPLEY SINCLAIR for fantasy, urban fantasy, and straight romance & QUINN SINCLAIR for sapphic W/W romance (coming soon).

To be kept up to date on the latest and future releases, gain access to various sneak peeks, and to read the exclusive bonus chapters, join Kat Sinclair's free Substack Newsletter at: katsinclair.substack.com

Reviews

[Starlah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peacekeepers is a paranormal romance story with dar humor. We're following Arno, a gifted daemon hunter from Italy who recently moved to San Francisco in an attempt to escape his past. At this new and more progressive Peacekeeper HQ, he is immediately thrown into new and ever-present dangers that lurk around California's Bay Area. Especially as a larger threat emerges, threatening the Peacekeeper's organization, Arno's friends, and all of humanity. Arno ends up turning to the unlikeliest of allies to help face this greater threat.

This was a fast and enjoyable read that was very easy to get into. I enjoyed the diversity among the side characters in both race and sexuality and all of that representation, and how action-packed this story was (which really helped with pacing and making this an easy read). Unfortunately, I did still have some issues with this.

Firstly, I'm not a big fan of women writing queer male main characters. Especially when a good portion of the story focuses on the queer male's romance and sex life. There were also a few odd lines throughout the story that didn't sit well with me. There was a part in the story where Arno was outed to his coworkers without his permission and it was brushed aside because his coworkers are majority women and it "made them feel more comfortable working with a man knowing he was gay".

There was another that went "It happened sometimes-women who were simply promiscuous or too in touch with their sexuality turned out to be inhibited by the daemon" (a succubus). I didn't like this as women already get a lot of criticism for expressing their sexuality in any way. I also don't like the idea that any woman who is even a little bit "promiscuous" or "in touch with their sexuality" is by way of a daemon (succubus).

Another one I didn't like was a line that went "I wasn't sure if it was Tourette's or some illegal substance ...". I didn't like this at all either because disabled and neurodivergent people often get a lot of discrimination and this sort of thinking is very harmful to this group of people.

Aside from these few lines, the rest of the writing was good and easy to read. I will also say that I sort of wish the story had a bit more worldbuilding. I found myself asking a lot of questions like, how do the Peacekeepers get their abilities? Where did the daemons come from? Was it magic or science fiction?

Overall, this was still a fun, fast, easy read and I see a lot of potential in the author's writing. I would definitely be interested in another book of theirs that was maybe written from the perspective of a queer female and maybe had a sensitivity read.

[annob [on hiatus] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any story that straddles more than one genre takes a risk. Will it be able to cater to readers of both camps, or leave both sides with expectations not quite met?

I came for the romance and for me this story, though captivating and stunning and wonderfully creative and glorious in parts, wasn't equally enjoyable as a whole.

Loved:
- The setup of the romance, the romance arc itself, the main couple and all their scenes together, especially the memorable first meet scene.
- The episodic exorcism scenes in the first half of the book, very good suspense elements.
- The cover art, a perfect fit for the genre of the book and its characters.

Didn't like:
- The side character heavy parts of the plot and the Evil Boss storyline.
- The many, many smirks. Shy smirks. Resounding smirks. My tolerance of a smirk is about 1-3 per novel. Here there were 36, but felt like hundreds.

If this book was trimmed to half in length and featured a bit more of the romantic pair, I'd be happy to rate it 4.5 to 5 stars. Since this is the author's debut book, and the good parts were great, I really look forward to their future writing.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

To focused on the constant emotions

I enjoyed this storyline, and also enjoyed the many different characters. But with that being said there are a few issues I did have. I wanted more world building. I wanted to understand these hunters and how their abilities came to be? How the demons had gotten there? How they seemed to be a real threat but somehow no one really knew this fact? This is a long drawn out book of the emotions. And I think this could have been amazing if not so focused on arno's emotional issues as well as others characters in this book. I was Over kill in a sense that we really didn't get much else. And that truly sucked. lurke and arno's relationship develops so late in the book, and I truly wanted more of them. We get but a little tease of them honestly, and i was honestly hoping for so much more then what we were given.

[S.M. Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I’m going to start out saying I really enjoyed this book.
It wasn’t my typical genre, but the cover and description wouldn’t leave my mind so I asked the author for an arc, and here we are.
Now without further ado...


So this book started out slow, but something about Arno and his story and, in a way, deadpan narration kept me hooked.
Going into reading this, I did not expect the them of addiction to be so important but it is handled beautifully and with many allusions to the theme through the characters and the daemons.
The spicy bits are HOT, in my opinion, especially toward the end.
I just wish that Lurke and Arno’s relationship played more of a role through the story. I also had hoped for More Lurke, but I do love a good slow burn, so I wasn’t upset about it.
The side characters are impactful and memorable. I loved this aspect about the book, and it made me want to see more of these characters and what was driving them.

My only real technical issues were a couple of spelling/grammar issues (which, I read an ARC, it’s not the final version so I was ok with it), a section that had some weird formatting/ was double wrote, and sometimes the dialogue felt choppy,

Overall though, I enjoyed this read and was screaming about it to my writing group friends. There were parts that really pulled at my heart, parts that had me shocked and parts that really connected me to the story.

[Sadie Forsythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just about the time I started Peacekeepers, I saw a Johannes T. Evans tweet about monster romances. It caught my attention because Monster Romance is exactly what I thought Peacekeepers was going to be (is, of sorts) and I don't know if I'd have recognized Monster Romance as an actual (if unofficial) sub-genre if I'd not seen the tweet at such an opportune moment.

Sure, there are romances that have monsters in them, but had we readers separated them out from other PNRs and named them Monster Romances? Makes sense, honestly, but I don't know that I'd seen the actual name (or maybe just not recently enough to remember). If I'd not seen the tweet and the whole accompanying Monster May Challenge, I wouldn't have had a metaphorical shelf to put Peacekeepers on. But I think I'd have still enjoyed it.

Yes, the book is on the slow side, maybe a little longer than needed to tell it's story. I noticed the odd editing hiccup. There is one out of place non-Arno POV that I found notably jarring, since it's the only one in the book and shows up at 76%. And there is the occasional turn of phrase that makes me think English might not be the author's first language. But these were pretty few and far between. For the most part, this is a slick, easily readable, interesting book.

The romance is a subplot (and I mean SUBplot). It is only a very small part of the larger story and it's mostly based on instinctual attraction. So, it's not overly developed. But it does touch on some heavy subjects and is very sweet. I certainly liked Lurke and Arno.

I thought the alcoholism and addiction aspect of the book was especially well done and I absolutely appreciated how much diversity the cast represents. Plus, look at that cover! All in all, a winner for me.

[St. Furret · Rating 5 out of 5]

English/Spanish review

ENGLISH

The first way I would describe this book would be simply with a WOW, I am speechless.

It's hard for me to believe that this book is the author's debut, it has very few details that I could point to for improvement. What I do have to accept is that the beginning seemed a bit odd, I don't know how to explain it, but I felt somewhat abrupt, something similar to watching a TV series or a movie that had already started and I got to miss some important things, I want to think that this was the intention of the author.

The plot of a society of demon hunting exorcists is something that has been used many times before, but I really liked the twist that was given with respect to the demons themselves, these -egregores- that are formed by the negative emotions of the human mind. I would have liked the author to have further developed the origin or structure of the mineral powders they use to make the sigils, I was left with that question. What are these powders made of? What minerals are they? What is it? It has some history behind? How are they do it or where are they do it?

I really enjoyed the character of Arno, I really, really enjoyed it (from the beginning I already suspected that he was a power bottom =w=). There is this bad habit or cliché in novel authors that their protagonists usually fall into the Mary Sue or Gary Stu category, but at no time did I feel that Arno fell into this, he was a 360 character, very complete, with equally attributes and defects. I loved the fact that he was not the one who saved the day in the end (although I had already been smelling that Flo would have an importance in the end).

There are other characters that I would have loved to develop further, Lurke for example. But I want to think that there will be a second book in the future, if not, I will die of anxiety DX.
The horny scenes is also another thing that surprised me a lot, and I must also accept that I have mixed feelings, a part of me would have liked them to be a little more developed, because some of these were too fleeting that they did not even give me the time to enjoy it, but another part of me also thinks that maybe they would have stolen a lot of prominence from the incredible plot of the story. (cofcofcofcofIwanttoknowwhatisthesizeofLurke'speniscofcofcofcof) Sorry, stupid coronavirus. *sniff*

There are so many more things that I would like to tell and highlight from this fantastic book. The last thing I can say to the author is congratulations, my sincerest congratulations, she really shows that there is talent and she should keep writing because of the potential in her imagination.

AND BEFORE I LEAVE.

Kat.

The Hispanic community is as large as the English speaking, maybe it would be a good idea to consider translating this story into Spanish, I assure you that your readership would increase in a ridiculous way. I have friends who I told about this book and they were very interested, but unfortunately their level of English is not as good as mine.

Greetings from Mexico, the Peacekeepers reached up here ;D.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

ESPAÑOL

La primera manera en la que describiría este libro seria simplemente con un WOW, de un inicio estoy sin palabras.

Me es difícil creer que este libro sea el debut de la autora, tiene muy pocos detalles que podría señalar para mejorar. Lo que si debo aceptar es que el inicio me pareció un poco raro, no se como explicarlo, pero como que lo sentí algo brusco, algo similar a como que me hubieran puesto a ver una serie de tv o una película que ya llevara unos minutos de haber comenzado, quiero pensar que esa fue la intención de la autora.

La trama de una sociedad de exorcistas caza demonios es algo que ya se ha usado muchas veces, pero me gustó mucho ese giro que se le dio con respecto a los demonios en sí, estas egregoras que se forman a partir de las emociones negativas de las personas. Me hubiera gustado que la autora hubiera desarrollado mas el origen o la estructura respecto a los polvos minerales que utilizan para realizar los sigilos, me quedé con esa duda, ¿de qué están hechos esos polvos?, ¿Qué minerales son?, ¿cuál es su historia detrás?, ¿Cómo se realizan o en dónde se realizan?

Disfruté mucho el personaje de Arno, la verdad que lo disfruté. Por desgracia existe esta mala costumbre o cliché en los autores novels que sus protagonistas suelen caer en la categoría de Mary Sue o Gary Stu, pero en ningún momento sentí que Arno cayera en esto, es un personaje 360, muy completo, con atributos y defectos por igual. Me encantó el hecho de que quien al final salva el día no fue él (aunque la verdad ya me las venía oliendo que Flo tendría una importancia en el final).
Hay otros personajes que también me hubiera gustado se desarrollaran más, Lurke por ejemplo. Pero quiero pensar que habrá una segunda entrega en un futuro, si no es así moriré de ansiedad.

Las escenas cachondas también es otra cosa que me sorprendió, y también debo aceptar que tengo sentimientos encontrados, una parte de mi le hubiera gustado que estuvieran un poco mas desarrolladas por que algunas de estas se me hicieron demasiado fugaces que ni siquiera me dieron el tiempo de disfrutarlo, pero otra parte de mí también piensa que a lo mejor le hubieran robado mucho protagonismo a la increíble trama de la historia. (cofcofcofcofcofcofquierosabercualeseltamañodelpenedeLurkecofcofcofcof) Perdón, estúpido coronavirus *sniff*

Hay muchas mas cosas que me gustaría comentar y resaltar de este fantástico libro. Lo último que puedo decir a la autora es Felicidades, muchas, muchas felicidades, de verdad se nota que tiene talento y debería seguir escribiendo porque hay demasiado potencial en su imaginación.

Y ANTES DE TERMINAR. Kat, la comunidad hispana es tan grande como la de habla inglesa, tal vez sería buena idea considerar traducir al español esta historia, te aseguro que tus lectores se incrementarían de manera ridícula. Tengo amigos a los que les platiqué de este libro y estuvieron muy interesados, pero por desgracia su nivel de ingles no es tan bueno como el mío.
Saludos desde México, que hasta acá tuvieron alcance Los Pacificadores.

[Emily Pennington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arno, a talented daemon hunter from Italy, needed a change and moved to San Francisco. Getting used to new people, a new environment and a new job wasn’t going to be easy, but Arno was adaptable and would be fine. The building itself looked new and clean. He met Blanche DuPont, the Executive Peacemaker, who introduced him to the team. She shouted out for Flo, who had not been in the room. Flo was the shy 19-year-old he had seen watching him from the window when he arrived. She had such a clean aura that he could not stop staring when she came into the room. He was concerned that she was the perfect daemon food, her energy promising them an endless source of food! Blanche told her Flo would one day be a great Seer but was not ready yet, which he saw embarrassed the girl. So as she took him up to show him his room, he told her that such strong energy and open aura as she had also means that once she can control and focus it well, she can be a real nightmare for the daemons and a true force to be reckoned with in a few years. Right now, she was still too young.

They talked a little more about how each came into their ability to see daemons. Flo seemed very glad that he joined them. He settled into his job but it didn’t take long to realize a threat may be coming that puts the organization, his new friends, and even humanity in danger. This time, he will need a very unlikely ally to help as he turns to the curious daemon haunting his apartment!

I was completely drawn in with this story! I had not expected I would like it so much after getting a good look at that bookcover! (No, really it sums up the contents quite well if you get a good look at his buddy facing off with him!) The characters, both primary and secondary, are incredibly good and well portrayed to let the reader know what to expect from them. The story line picks up speed as we get into it, and I loved the thrill! Grab your copy and jump right in. You may want to grab a blanket to dive under when it gets a bit intense!

[Asher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing Debut Book!

I really enjoyed reading this book. Arno was a wonderful main character. He was flawed but full of goodness. Main lead Lurke was wonderful as well. I myself do enjoy a not very human ML; if that isn't your cup of tea then you may not enjoy this as much as I did. I do wish that we got a little more from his perspective, but we did get some (all the peacekeepers can read energies, so you can kind of see what he's feeling sometimes). I loved all the side characters and all their diversity. So much representation in this book was wonderful. I truly hope that there's a book two and that this becomes a series. Now, I will say that there are some spelling errors and a couple sentences here and there that I had to reread a couple times to understand. BUT the overall book made up for it. It seriously had everything I love! This book is about human flaws/ mistakes and working hard/ learning to be a better person.
I definitely look forward to more books by Kat Sinclair!

[Juniper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel takes place in a fascinating world, one in which daemons can possess human beings, or just leach off of them as spiritual parasites, and a force of human 'experts,' the peacekeepers, work to contain them, and protect the human population, the majority of whom have no idea what daemons really are or how they work. Interesting enough, before everything proves to be more complicated even than that. Arno, our protagonist and narrator, has a distinctive voice and a strong personality, and his perspective really brings the nuances of his world to life. An engrossing read.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Stephanie W]

'Peacekeepers' was a worthy read. I am almost always drawn to paranormal books. This book is really long, but well written. So much so, it kept my attention the entire time.

Main characters and side characters were thoroughly entertaining. Arno s a demon hunter that works through his fears and repeated habits. When help is needed, allies come from the strangest of places.

Enjoy the humor, sexiness, and fun.

My first from this author and I do recommend as a TBR.

**I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.**

[Bretton Coppedge · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

I can't believe this was a debut because it was amazing! You might doubt that you could fall in love with a demon but Lurke was such a lost soul that you can't help feeling for him. Arno is just as broken, if not more so, and seeing their broken pieces mesh together was beautiful to read.

[Cynthia M Brow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book.

This book pulled me in from the first chapter. The author makes you feel for the people in the story. You want to see them be successful in what they are going through. I truly loved this story.

[SunShiney10 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, that couldve been 5 stars if the love story wasnt almost non-existant. The romance was like 5% of the story... -.-

[Marbea Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very intriguing way to explain so many real life,deep emotional,spiritual,religious,non-religious, lgbtq+ identity, and cohesive working relationship with your community as an authorization organization. All these elements made the book have a connection to humanity and the other side of humanity.

[Steph ☀️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2.75 stars. Started out pretty solid, but as the story went on, it lost momentum in certain areas. Also, Blanche became a bit too much.

[...]

DNF @1% - the writing style isn't for me.

[Shelba · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 90%.

This started slow, picked up maybe 30-40 in, but once we got into the Vanta and Sparrow stuff, it was just too much.

I wanted to read a paranormal romance. This calls itself a paranormal romance. But when the LI is hardly ever around and the MC is spending more time with his coworkers and boss (Laura, Flo, and Blanche)… it’s really not giving me romance. I needed way more Lurke.

And considering Arno and Lurke both have their issues, I really don’t think there was enough room to address that and all the other things going on.

Not to mention Aron’s personality seems to be that he is a gay Peacekeeper with an addiction problem. Nothing more.

There’s weird page breaks every few paragraphs that don’t indicate a scene break. They were rather distracting. Some typos.

There’s a single incident where Flo’s heritage is referred to as “Indian”, versus Native American.

Some “dark humour” that must have gone over my head, because there really isn’t anything that seems like it should read as any kind of humour.

The fact that the climatic moment of this book was where I paused and didn’t pick up again for almost 2 days before struggling through it to try to make it to the end gave me the wake up call I needed. There’s no way in the last 10% of the book that I’m suddenly going to be given a satisfying romance, and our MC is going to develop some personality.

[Storm In A Teacup · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book so so much it is the feeling of despair made with words, Arno helping all those people that have been affected by daemons, as a peacekeeper, this is his calling and as an ex addict who had his own daemon he understands what it means to be controlled and out of control all at once but this book isn't just despair, its also hope, and understanding and how it feels to be vulnerable, meeting Lurke is the moment the hope arrives in this story and throughout I laughed, I smiled and I definitely cried (alot) but its such a beautiful way to look at the world. 100% recommend this book, and i hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

[Danial · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book with many enjoyable parts

This was a long story. It starts off somewhat slowly but picks up the pace a few chapters in. With the exception of 1 chapter, all chapters are told from the same point of view. I enjoyed how most of the leadership roles and fighting roles were taken up by women. I also enjoyed how it was a side character and not the main character that saved the day. There were many enjoyable aspects of this book. I certainly enjoyed the story and would recommend it to others.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Illusode · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars
Secrets, DNFed

I tried, but couldn't finish this. It got too painful with the 'I am male and gay and cop'. Single POV. Um, there are DEMONS!! That are evil? Aren't they?! I don't like where this is going.

So, I had to DNF at 30%.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Deana Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit slow in places but worth sticking it out

This book has an interesting take on demon hunting. It does a good job with addiction issues, but has a few pacing issues and word choice errors that made it a bit hard to get through. Still I am glad I stuck it out.

[ᓚᘏᗢ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[juli✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

would have loved more lurke and arno moments <3 <3 <3

[Michelle]

DNF at 7%. Seriously I couldn't get into the writing at all which is sad because the cover art is gorgeous. Returned incomplete.