Guardian's Mate (Shifters Unbound, #9) by Jennifer Ashley

Guardian's Mate (Jennifer Ashley)

SUMMARY

She wasn’t ready to lead...

Chosen as the Guardian of her Montana Shiftertown, wolf Shifter Rae Lyall is facing opposition—for no woman has ever been selected for this powerful position. Still adjusting to the new authority thrust upon her, Rae travels to train with Zander Moncrieff, a Shifter healer, tasked with teaching her about her new role and its responsibilities.

He wasn’t ready to love...

A polar bear Shifter, Zander wears no Collar and follows no rules but his own. Rae finds him arrogant and demanding, yet compelling and intriguing. Zander has no wish to mate but the sassy Guardian is drawing him out of his shell, stirring feelings long suppressed. And when a new threat looms over Rae’s home, she and Zander must race to the rescue, forced closer to danger...and to each other.
 

MY REVIEW

Zander’s story was an unexpected, amusing, extensive adventure!

The book starts with the fact that in the thirteen hundred years since the Guardians’ swords have been forged, a Guardian had never been a female. And yet at the Western Montana Shiftertown, a female named Rae is chosen by the goddess to by a Guardian.

I believe, it is about bloody time!

Some of her fellow shifters are intimidated by her and some don’t believe in her and think she is a fraud. The reality is that she has to go away to learn to be a Guardian, i.e. to learn to use her sword and to be able to send the souls of the dying or dead shifters to the Summerland (their idea of heaven) before an evil Fae can snatch them.

Well, here comes Zander. Zander is a lonely polar bear who everybody believes he is a wacko. Zander is a healer. He can heal shifters when no medicine can help them. Since he has a Goddess gift, he is the best option for trainer.

Perfect team, you may think: Zander can heal the dying shifter and if nothing can be done, Rae can turn him/her into dust and send him/her to Summerland.

The problem is that Zander really likes to be alone. He is not miserable being lonely, he is really happy.

Of course when Zander and Rae are thrown literally together on his boat somewhere in Alaska, he finds out he can be happier and more complete. And we realize we didn’t really know Zander before this book, although we thought we had figured him out.

Here are some things you didn’t know about Zander from his description in the previous books, but you will discover in this book:
He
- has faithful human friends
- knows how to have a good time
- has a very good excuse for being isolated and a loner
- likes women and he has no trouble finding company
- is so darned nice
- And the big surprise: He is not crazy or even half crazy

A big quest is waiting for Zander and Rae. The adventure will start after Rae completes her first assignment and she and her new friends start a drinking spree in a town nearby. The adventure will involve fistfights, bounty hunters, ships chasing, a mystery fog in the sea, exchange of ships in pirate style, a broken sword, new friends you haven’t thought of and naturally true love in the end.

Concluding, I think it is really interesting the fact that shifters in their mid 30s and even early 40s are behaving immaturely as if they are in their early 20s. That happens because until they go through their Transition stage around 30 years old, they are considered cubs and nobody takes them seriously.
Ray is just after her Transition, so I guess she must be a bit over 35, while Zander is a bit more than 150 years old.
As a result she behaves like an inexperienced little girl most of the times, while he behaves like a man who has seen too much and nothing scares him any longer.
Obviously there is this big age difference, but this will not stop the mating bond to be formed.