Review: Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) by Tina Folsom

Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) by Tina Folsom
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: 

Heat rating:    

NEW YORK TIMES & USA TODAY Bestselling Author Tina Folsom presents:

Able to render themselves invisible, immortal Stealth Guardians like Aiden have been protecting humans from the dark power of the Demons of Fear for centuries. But the demons might soon have a powerful tool in their hands to seduce humans to the dark side. The person to provide them with this elixir is the human scientist Leila. Unbeknownst to her, the drug she's developing to cure Alzheimer's Disease has the unexpected side effect of weakening the mind's resistance to the influence of demons.

As Aiden accepts the assignment to protect Leila, forbidden desire flares between them, and they are forced to rely on the only people they can trust: each other. But even if he can save her from the demons, a union between them might be the most dangerous undertaking of all.

PLEASE NOTE: Lover Uncloaked was previously published under the title Edge of Passion.

* I listened to this as an audiobook.

I think there is something about audiobooks that makes me a combination of a captive audience so I finish the dang thing and making the characters particularly annoying and all their bad character traits are more visibly highlighted. I listened to this book over many mornings and afternoons while driving to various destinations where I didn't need the GPS and it was great to have an audiobook to pass the time on an otherwise boring drive. That said, the book itself left very much to be desired.

Let's start with the heroine, Leila. What an annoying piece of baggage. I think that Ms Folsom tried to make her very intelligent and skeptical as a scientist but instead she just came across as self-centered and hypocritical with a huge dose of liar added in. I can't abide by liars and any character, male or female where lying seems to be a major plot point just turns me off. On top of that, for a supposedly intelligent person, Leila just came across as stupid. Every time she opened her mouth, she annoyed the crap out of me and I wanted to slap her silly. I don't think I have ever hated a heroine more than I hate her, though I can think of one other that comes close. She was a liar too.

Aiden was not much better though I think Ms Folsom tried to make him into a brooding, tortured hero but he just came across as emotionally stunted to me and wallowing in self pity. That said, he was a lot less annoying than Leila. Plus Aiden has a potty mouth, and I did like his potty mouth very much. I also loved the way he said "baby" when he was referring to Leila. The narrator managed to make that "baby" sound super sexy. That narrator can call me "baby" anytime! ;-)

To me, the best parts of the book were the interactions between all the Stealth Guardians, either in pairs or as a group. They were the most interesting to read. It kinda got really interesting at about the 80% mark when there was a lot more involvement of the Stealth Guardians and they were featured a lot more, plus I loved the sound of all those growly male voices as narrated by the narrator (I really should look up the narrator and find out who he is. I like his voice). The last 20% of the book turned it from a 2 star read to a 2.5 star read for me. I'm feeling generous right now so I'm rounding up to 3. :-)

I'm glad that there isn't a second book to this series because then I don't have to wonder about whether I'd put myself through the torture of reading the next book in the series. I'm afraid the next heroine is going to be as irritating as Leila! Don't get me wrong though, I like Tina Folsom's work. I've read a couple of books in her Scanguard Vampires series and enjoyed them. Those were fairly solid reads for me.

I still haven't made up my mind about audiobooks yet. I like that they are a good way to entertain myself and pass time while I am driving, but so far, of the two that I've listened to, they have not been spectacular. I don't know if it's the book, the audio or me. Maybe I just need to pick a book that I know is a stunning 5 star read and listen to that instead and see how that works in audio to make a decision about the audio aspect of the book. All that said though, I loved the voice of this narrator for the men. His portrayal of Aiden was super sexy. I loved how Aiden sounded. The female voice was not great but it's hard for a guy to do a female voice well.

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About the author

Tina Folsom is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author. She's always been self-published and has found tremendous success with her paranormal series, Scanguards Vampires, Venice Vampyr, and Out of Olympus, selling more than 2 million copies of her 50 titles (which includes titles in German, French, and Spanish) in almost 4 years.

Tina writes about hot alpha heroes, bad boys, and kick-ass heroines. Fast-paced plots and steamy scenes are her specialty. She loves vampires and the concept of immortality, and now also writes contemporary romance and has launched the Eternal Bachelors Club series.

Tina is a one-women-enterprise. She writes constantly and translates her own books into German, her native language. Her books are available in e-book format, as paperbacks, as audio books, and in foreign languages.

Tina Folsom was born in Germany and has been living in English speaking countries for over 25 years, the last 13 of them in San Francisco, where she's married to an American. Tina has always been a bit of a globe trotter: after living in Lausanne, Switzerland, she briefly worked on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, then lived a year in Munich, before moving to London. There, she became an accountant. But after 8 years she decided to move overseas.

In New York she studied drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts then moved to Los Angeles a year later to pursue studies in screenwriting. In 2008 she wrote her first romance. She now has 18 novels in English and dozens in other languages.

Author links: Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads - Email - Newsletter


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