Guardian's Keep (Unbound series) by Lori Devoti

Shapeshifers, garms, witches and Norse magic!

Kol Hildr, a shape shifter and a dual being with human and wolf forms can shimmer. He guards the portal at Guardian's Keep, a bar where hellhounds, warlocks, trolls and all sorts of beings cause trouble. Greed and power fuel all sorts of dark events in this magical world. Kelly, a twin witch, has seen the very depths of the evil that lurks behind the portal. When a woman asks for her assistance, Kelly is emboldened in her quest. First, she must come face to face with Kohl. Her twin sister trusts Kohl, but Kelly is not sure whom to trust, especially whether or not to trust the one man who could bring her entire mission to an end. Torn between his duty, indeed his life's purpose as a portal guardian, and this little witch who somehow awakens something in him, he may just be forced to choose what he knows and something all together more unfamilliar. When garm politics force him to choose sides, will he make a choice for love and will his journey to save Kelly make him risk losing everything?

I adore this book. I stayed up til 3:30am the night i started this book. I just could not put it down. It's not just the story but the way this author writes. The energy between Kohl and Kelly is not just said or portrayed but it comes thorugh in the author's very writing style, tone and chice of words. I enjoy the way Lori Devoti builds suspense with an object here that is out of place, a word spoken there, a certain odd alliance. Enjoyed the hint of garm politics with the Council and the rogues. The romance is fun and also the look at Norse mythology that underlies her paranormal world. I studying Medieval Icelandic in school. Lori's Devoti's books reawaken that love and also make it fun with the fictional context she creates from that mythology.

Now...what I really want to know is how a certain blogger's father would deal with a daughter explaining she was dating a garm after the hellhound! Lorie really comes up with some fun mini-challenge topics!

I loved
Lori Devoti's first Nocturne book (and Debiw's 2007 Challenge blog too) so much this book so much that I actually bought some buttons and a messenger
bag that say "Official Hellhound Lover" that I discovered from visiting
went her website at www.loridevoti.com --- I wear my hellhound gear
boldly around town despite the weird looks...or maybe to provoke them
so I can tell others about this great read. Unbound took me
from from werewolf scoffer to hellhound lover. Now, I think I am an Official Garm Lover too!

Garm: Human/wolf shape-shifters. Garms are guardians by nature. Garm serve as guardians to portals, other paranormal beings and worlds. Being a guardian is an essential part of what garm are. Losing their charge, whether a being or a portal, is like losing their purpose for existence. Without such a duty, they become rogue.