Guardian

Galactic Gladiators, Book 9

By: Anna Hackett

Narrated by: Vivienne Leheny

Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Rescued from alien slavers, former cop Dayna wakes to discover she's host to a powerful alien symbiont, and the only man who can help her is the mysterious and dangerous casino owner, Rillian.

Dayna Caplan has dedicated her life to protecting others...and now that she's no longer a captive at the desert arena of Zaabha, she desperately wants to help find the last of the other human women who were abducted by the Thraxians. But now she has to deal with the intense hunger and powerful new abilities the alien living inside grants her...and the person forcing her to confront her new reality is the cool, enigmatic, and far-too-attractive Rillian. 

Rillian has wheeled and dealed his way to the top of the food chain on the lawless desert world of Carthago. He lets no one close and keeps iron-clad control on his life...which is vital to keeping the lethal power within him in check. But one human woman - tough, stubborn, and fascinating Dayna - works her way under his skin, and he finds himself obsessed with protecting her. But as dead bodies start appearing in his casino as a deadly warning, dangers are closing in on them. 

With their allies, the gladiators from the House of Galen, Rillian and Dayna find themselves fighting for survival on every front. On the hunt to find Zaabha and the lost humans, they will face murderers, slavers, and the deadliest of all challenges...the aliens living within them.

©2018 Anna Hackett (P)2018 Anna Hackett

Really good

BOOK REVIEW,,,,,,,,,,,
Another winner. Love this series !!!! I highly recommend this series and author.

NARRATOR REVIEW......
The narrator did a great job

Rillian

I love how Dana has to be with Rillian, in Rillian's space, in order to work out her own symbiote situation. Dana is a strong, independent woman who challenges untouchable Rillian to maybe change some of his views.

I also love Rillian's development. He's already known as hot and incredibly rich and powerful, but with this story we see even more why we can't get enough.

Story is great on its own, but incredible within the continuation of the larger world with all its good and bad.

Another solid action packed romance book!!

This is my FAV book of the series. I've been waiting for these characters since they were introduced and I was so pleased to finally read about their story. I loved it so much. I'm a big fan and follower of Anna Hackett and i think she has the perfect blend of Action packed story with Romance. This seems to be one of the few books in the Series where we also have a bit of Mystery involved. Lots of fun, lots of love for this pairing.

Vivienne Leheny does such an amazing job narrating. She's given each character their own voice. And there are a lot of characters! Such a fun listen!!

Redundant

Storylines although have some differences, have the same theme; kinda tired of hear women harping about the women still missing, the not so smart decisions, and the women always saving the day with trained and skilled warriors (doesn’t make common sense) like they have done this all of there lives or developed super human strength. Ready for the addition of a male narrator for true male voice; Vivienne’s narration is okay but male voices sound the same from book to book. Will finish the series. Looking forward to Magnus and the Imperator’s story.

Guardian

Rillian and Dayna are two strong people who unfortunately identify with one another due to unforeseen circumstances that happened to them at different times. They have sizzling chemistry that Dayna tries to run from because she is scared of emotional connections. However, Rillian is a persistent, strong, intelligent, alpha male who is not easily deterred and gets what he wants!! Vivienne Leheny’s narration is spot on! Her talent with voices is amazing!

Love it

Love the story and love the narrator. Super fast listen. Vivienne Leheny does an awesome job on each of the characters voices so there was no confusing parts about who was talking.

Sexy Rillian gets his own book- YUMMY!

Galactic Gladiators has a refreshing addition in this book about sexy, mega rich, and lethal Dark Nebula Casino owner Rillian and Dayna- the rescued human who is fighting to regain some semblance of normalcy after being abducted and then captured by a vicious alien witch. The challenges they face are similar yet refreshingly different from the rest of the books in this series. The sparks that fly between these two are explosive - the intimate scenes are over the top (18+ ONLY- no joke!)). A note on the Audible audio version: Vivienne Leheny does an AMAZIMG job on this book- I swear I was transported right to Carthago while listening.

Just right

I love these books. I have read them over and over. They have it all !!!!

Love it!

This is a killer syfy romance series. Alpha aliens? Check. Female who aren't damsels in distress? Check. Great plot? Check! Steamy romance? Check and Check! Guardian takes us out of the arena (for the most part) and shows us the night life of Carthago with a healthy dose of old fashion murder mystery. Paired with Ms. Leheny's talents Guardian is a wonderful audio book. This is a series that is on my 'must read' list because it just gets better with each book.

Fantastic, wonderful, steamy, romantic series

Please keep them coming. It looks like we have at least two more audio books to go. I loved them all. But this one definitely was a BIG favorite of mine. I lo v e all these gladiators and the strong woman who love the them. The. Narrator, Vivienne is fantastic. Strongly recommend.

A fantastic action packed sci-fi romance

Reviewed by SFF Dragon*

The Book

Wow, this fantastic action packed sci-fi romance wasn't what I was expecting at all... and I absolutely loved it..

So, what was I expecting from 'Guardian', the ninth book in the Galactic Gladiators series? An exceptionally good story? well it's certainly that and I expect nothing less from Anna Hackett, one of my all-time favourite authors. Gladiatorial fighting arenas? yep, got two of those. Hot Gladiators? absolutely, and it has those by the bucket-load or maybe I should say the arena full. Ancient Rome moved to a far flung future on a distant planet? now that's what I didn't get, although it is a far flung future on another planet, ancient Rome it's not. What I got instead was a gritty, steamy, humorous, action packed sci-fi romance vaguely reminiscent of ages past in a setting that's a cross between Ancient Rome and modern day Las Vegas, a woman trying hard to overcome the horrors of her captivity and get back into shape so she can rescue other victims, a search for a hidden arena using a map where X would mark the spot, if only that part of the map wasn't missing, and an increasing body count as the enemy tries to gain control of her allies. And that's probably their biggest mistake, because with more than ten years as a New York homicide Detective, catching killers is what our feisty heroine did for a living on Earth. She was good at it and they are going down....

Kidnapped, along with many others, from a space station orbiting Jupiter and taken to the wild and apparently lawless desert planet of Carthago on the outer reaches of the galaxy, Dayna Caplan was forced to live as a slave and fight for her life in the Zaabha Arena by Thraxian slavers. She's managed to escape them twice, been tortured by an evil desert witch who forced a symbiont on her, and then rescued, she is now a resident of the Dark Nebula Casino. She's been there two weeks under the guardianship of it's wealthy owner, Rillian, and that's where this story begins, with Dayna contemplating all she's lost and looking out over the view of the city as it stretches to the desert in the distance, it could be Las Vegas, sadly for her it's Kor Magna... and she can't even pretend... the two suns hanging in the sky are a dead giveaway she's not on Earth and there's no way home...

I was completely hooked and practically living in the story from the very first page and loved every single line of this terrific book. I really couldn't put it down and my emotions ran the gamut, from frustration and grief to joy and satisfaction as I gripped the edge of my seat desperate to find out what happened next. There is enough background in the story to know something, but by no means all, of what went before and it can easily be read as a stand alone, but as new or rather old characters came along, I did find myself wishing I'd read the previous books in this series so I'll be going back to the beginning soon and reading them in order. Then I'll read this one again and I'm certain it's one I'll be reading over and over again. I absolutely loved it, gave it 5 well earned stars wishing I could give it more and added it to my list of books I'd rescue if the house was burning down. This is definitely one of those 'not to be missed' stories that will undoubtedly have a permanent place on my 'read again' list. Since first reading this book in early 2018, I've read the entire series at least four times from beginning to end. I absolutely love it.....


The Audio

I got this terrific story as an ebook when it was first published early in 2018, and was totally hooked. I've read it, and all the other books in the series a few times since, but I now have intermittent problems with my eyes, so, despite being a bit dubious about it, I've turned to audio books to fill my need to re-read my favourites. I tried out audio books a few years ago, but was pretty quickly put off by the seriously bad, even dreadful, narration which turned my wonderful, gritty, action packed adventures with romance into wishy washy, girly girl romances with few, or more frequently none, of the thriller overtones that the majority of my books have. It was so awful that I gave up on them for years. Then, last year, when I was desperate, I listened to the audio for a book by Anna Hackett, one of my all-time favourite authors, discovered a whole new and tremendously good set of narrators and decided to give them a try. Brilliant! It seems that Ms Hackett gets significantly better narrators than some I've listened to and whilst not the absolute best, Vivienne Leheny is pretty near the top of the list of the best I've ever listened to. She seems to understand the all action, gritty nature of both the characters and the story, maintaining the edginess to the very end and I wasn't disappointed in any way, so I got all the other books in the series that are available as audio versions to back up my kindle versions, just so I don't get withdrawal symptoms when I can't read them, and I freely admit I've listened to this one, and all the others, more than once since I got it. I've actually binge listened to the entire Galactic Gladiators series and the follow-on House of Rone books at least twice.... this year! That should give you some idea of how good I think they are. I find I listen a lot more than I read these days and the audio versions also have the added bonus of allowing me to do other things whilst listening. That being said, I get so hooked by the stories that I don't actually do anything else, I just listen and enjoy. And once I start, I can't stop until I've listened to all of them. I can't wait for the next series to start. I was lucky enough to get a free code for this audio book, and as I had already posted an honest review of the ebook several years ago, I decided to update that review with my personal opinion of the audible narration, especially as I've been so disenchanted by audio books in the past.