Unhidden

The Gatekeeper Chronicles, Book 1

By: Dina M. Given

Narrated by: Cate Strey

Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

It's not always easy to differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys, especially when a trained killer may be falling in love with her evil hunter. Emma Hayes, a former military Special Forces operative turned mercenary for hire, finds her tightly controlled world turned upside down when she becomes the target of attacks by powerful supernatural creatures. Emma must use every skill in her arsenal to stay alive as she tries to solve the mystery of why she has been targeted.

Her list of enemies keeps growing - from Zane Shayde, an evil Mage, to a secret branch of the US government - and she doesn't know if there is anyone left she can trust. To complicate matters further, Emma is inexplicably drawn to Zane in a way she does not quite understand, even knowing her life is forfeit if captured.

Who is he, and why does he have this effect on her? How can she fight someone who calls to her body and soul? Emma is left haunted by questions, doubts, and fears as to why she has been targeted, when they will come for her next, and how she will possibly survive against an enemy she doesn't understand.

©2014 Dina Given (P)2015 Dina Given

A fantastic action-packed debut novel!

I did not know this was Dina Given's debut novel until after I listened to this audiobook. This is a fantastic debut - I was surprised to find that out! This was a good start to an urban fantasy series featuring lots of different kinds of creatures, mages and magically gifted humans. At least I think they are humans - I wasn't really clear on Emma's abilities (and neither was she, for good reason). Ms. Givens did a really good job with her world building, particularly regarding the development of all the different creatures. I would say there was more world building than character development, and I think that is because our main character, Emma, was suffering from amnesia and doesn't remember anything other than the last 10 years, the time period after she was in a coma from what she believes was a car accident. So because Emma has a memory issue, we don't get a whole lot of her back story in this book. I think that will be rectified as Emma's memory comes back in future books. I liked Emma as a character; she was a strong female lead and I don't think she got on my nerves at all in this book. That always makes me happy because there seems to be a prevalence of wishy washy female leads in books today and sometimes you just wanna shake the spit outta em. Not Emma - she was a kickass heroine who was loyal and had a big heart.

This book had tons of action, mystery and a touch of romance. I absolutely loved Zane - and you will like him if you like those darkly troubled and conflicted male love interests, the ones you just wanna get your hands on and fix all their problems. I hope Emma finds a way to fix Zane - and I have a feeling she will fight for him. I hope so, I can't wait to read about it. I also liked a number of the secondary characters, particularly Eddie.

The book doesn't not end with a cliffhanger per se, but its an open ending so that you can tell the story is not over. We still have more mysteries to figure out, memories to uncover, and problems to solve. I am looking forward to the rest of the series, so I hope Ms. Given writes fast. As I sit here and think about it, the writing style reminded me of Devon Monk's Magic series - the pacing and detail of the story was similar. I have a feeling that this series will build and build to the big bang finale, which is how I felt