SENTINEL (Shadowborn Rebellion #2) by Cyndi Friberg

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date July 18, 2020

Determined to spend some time alone with the feisty human he wants as his mate, Salvo Xett invites Natalie Marino to Ghost City. He’s afraid she will find the abject poverty shocking after the relative luxury of the other villages, but he must know her reaction before he claims her. Ghost City is his home. His mate must be able to see beyond the scorched ruins to the forgotten people desperately needing their help.

No sooner do Salvo and Natalie arrive in Ghost City than they are asked to rescue a kidnapped child. Their investigation takes them on an inadvertent tour through the seediest parts of town. Natalie is horrified yet filled with compassion and determination. Her intense attraction to Salvo might have brought her to Ghost City, but a burning need to help the “urbanites” convinces her to stay. Pleased by her reaction to the conflict, Salvo is even more convinced that he has found his soulmate and will stop at nothing to claim her as his own.

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REVIEW: SENTINEL is the second instalment in Cyndi Friberg’s adult SHADOWBORN REBELLION erotic, sci-fi fantasy series- a spin off from the author’s Outcast series, which in turn is a spin-off from Battle born, which is a spin-off from the Shadow Assassins series ;). This is Sentinel Sarronti Salvo Xett, and human chef Natalie Marino’s story line. SENTINEL can be read as a stand alone but I recommend reading the series in order for backstory and cohesion as there is a continuing premise throughout, and each additional story builds upon the one before.

SOME BACKGROUND: The humanoid aliens known as Rodytes needed a home and settled on two uninhabited planets but to their shock a race of elf-like creatures, known as the Sarronti, live underground away from the light. Without any available mates, the male only Rodytes sent teams of Outcasts to kidnap or persuade any and all human females from Earth in an attempt to repopulate and find mates for their struggling males but procreation came at a price including the need for genetically matched DNA, a mutual metamorphosis, and magical intervention. A test for compatibility is filed and there may be as many as five males matched to a single female DNA. Thirty percent of the females returned back to Earth, and the struggling males begin vying for the female’s affections. Outcasts are battle born-their mothers were Bilarrian prisoners forced to breed, with their Rodyte captors, in the hopes of restoring magic to the Rodyte people. To complicate matters, the planet they now inhabit hides a secret deep beneath the planet’s surface, an elven like being known as the Sarronti, who must live underground to avoid exposure to the sun’s damaging rays.

Told from several third person perspectives including Salvo and Natalie, SENTINEL follows several paths including the building relationship between Sentinel Salvo Xett, and human chef Natalie Marino, and the murderous attack in Ghost City. Ghost City is a city of mutants whose exposure to the sun’s dangerous rays has created an above world of creatures never to be accepted by ‘normal’ society (think Total Recall and the mutant inhabitants of Mars). On the hunt for a missing child, Natalie and Salvo will begin an investigation into a murder for hire where ‘weapons of unknown origin’ have wreaked havoc on their intended victims in an effort to confuse the people investigating the crime. A plot to kidnap Sarronti General Malik’s mate Kara, along with imprisonment of a powerful sorcerer by Sarronti rebels finds Salvo and Malik on the offensive when Natalie and Kara are used as bait to determine who is responsible for the prelude to war. What ensues is the quick building romance and relationship between Natalie and Salvo, as our couple work behind the scenes in an effort to prevent further damage.

The relationship between Natalie and Salvo is one of immediate attraction. Salvo has wanted our heroine from the first time they met but Salvo believed that Natalie was attracted to someone else. In an effort to ‘get to know’ our heroine, Salvo invites Natalie to Ghost City wherein our couple will soon discover their mutual attraction leads to a bonding as mates. The $ex scenes are passionate and intimate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

SENTINEL is a story of betrayal and vengeance; power and control; discrimination and rebellion. A ‘Total Recall’ esque world of mutants and orphans rejected by ‘normal’ society, SENTINEL reveals the heart breaking and painful discrimination, and segregation of those Sarronti mutated by radiation. The premise is intriguing and sensitive; the romance is fated and spicy; the characters are colorful, energetic, powerful but tragic. Saying that, the abrupt ending is a little disconcerting-a happily ever after –for now type scenario wherein nothing has yet to be revealed, divulged or clarified. And the cover…speechless~

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one SLAYER

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy