Game Over by Taylor Keating (Guardian #1)
Paranormal Romance
November 2, 2010
Paperback, 416 Pages
Tor

Blurb: Video game designer River Weston is ready to sell her soul to smooth out the glitches in her latest project. When she unwittingly taps into a parallel dimension via cutting-edge technology, a Dark Lord is quick to take her up on her inadvertent offer. Trapped in the world she thought she’d created for her game, River finds herself in a very real alternate dimension that she must escape from before her soul can be used to unleash evil–upon this dimension and many others.

River’s only ally is the sexy and mysterious Chase Hawkins.  A prisoner of the Dark Lord, Hawk is a man adrift —literally. His body safe at home under the watchful care of the Guardians’ scientists, his astral-traveling spirit has been enslaved by his people’s worst enemy, the Dark Lord. Clinging desperately to his sense of self, Hawk is determined to turn the tables on his captor before the connection to his body is lost.  When the beautiful, achingly familiar River enters the picture, he vows he will do everything he can to save her from her bleak fate.

Drawn together with an inescapable force, Hawk and River must wrest her soul from the Dark Lord’s grasp before it’s too late.

I usually write my own summaries for the books I review, but this one has so many facets and rules to it, I probably would have wrote three pages just on the summary. Game Over is the first book in the Guardian series by the writing team of Catherine Verge and Paula Fox. Not only is this book about River trapped in her own virtual reality game, but it is also the struggle between the Fae and Guardians protecting the world from the Dark Lord and all of the evil beasts that roam the streets. It is about River, realizing she is definitely not human. And it is about the aftermath of the Great War that devastated the world. Fae in this world spread life and Guardians, their protectors bring a specialization for technology. They live in other worlds, having a special ability to transport.

I think this is a really fun premise for a book, but not executed as well as it could have been. While River lies unconscious at her gaming headquarters, the majority of the book is her in the virtual world trying to escape and learning who she can trust. In essence, she unknowingly sells her soul to the dark lord, and in turn, he starts to hunt her. Hawk, whose mind has been imprisoned by The Dark Lord has been thrust into the game with her, and once he learns she is half Fae, since he is a Guardian, he must protect her. Once trust is achieved, a relationship develops as well. Hawk knows Guardians are not suppose to enter into relationships with those they protect, but his heart has another course for him.

Many rules are set up and this is an intricate world. I wish we would have had more explanation for a couple of things. First, what exactly happened during this Great War that decimated the world’s population. Also, I am still uncertain about the awareness of the supernatural beings to the normal human. We are told a secret governmental study is leaked, and so some believe these creatures exist, while others are still skeptical. Yet they attack people on the street. I also think we really missed out on a lot of Hawk’s back story. We learn his wife and daughter have died, but we don’t get to know a lot about him. I enjoyed him as the hero – he was tough, sexy, and has a nice sense of humor, but we don’t get to know him that well. There is a set-up for a second book, so hopefully we will dive more into his character and the world he is from. While I felt at times we are bombarded with information, there is still a great deal I wish was explained more.

There is also a big supporting character, Nick who is River’s co-worker and occasional bed buddy. He plays a very big role in this book. I loved his ambiguous nature, and the battle between being pressured from the evil baddies and questioning his loyalty to River. He would get jealous watching the interactions between Hawk and River on screen, yet you never felt he really wanted to be exclusive with her. He is a cool character that adds much to this story.

Like I mentioned, this is a nice, different premise. The action never stalls and eventually (they make you wait awhile) the romance becomes very steamy indeed. I will definitely be reading the second book with hopes that more of the world is revealed and explained.

Rating: C

Recent Reviews
BookingIt – D
Joyfully Reviewed – Recommended
Goodreads

This series includes:
Game Over
Mind Games – June 2011
Book 3 – TBA

Author’s website.