Review: To Woo A Warrior

by Jane Cousins
Rating: 4/5

It was common knowledge that Hadleigh Valhalla was a complete failure when it came to men. Too blood thirsty. Too tall at 6.6ft and without a coy bone in her too voluptuous body. If there had been a ‘fun, flirty and feminine’ test she would have failed it hands down. Thankfully she was much more suited to her role as an Enforcer, protecting her magically enhanced eccentric extended family on a daily basis from all kinds of nasties. It was a job she loved, much preferring to be out there beheading the baddies than dating any day of the week … much less stressful. Except now there’s a new threat in town. Great Aunt Alma, the family match maker has returned to the fold and set her sights squarely on all the singletons. Hadleigh will do anything she has to in order to avoid Alma’s matchmaking manoeuvres even if that means signing on as the newest member of the hit reality TV show ‘Paranormal Exterminators.’ Vaughn, Captain of the Goddess Maat’s elite warriors has a mission, to find and annihilate any and all magical beings that threaten to tilt the scales of justice into chaos. A paranormal reality TV show provides the perfect cover. But there’s trouble on set. Their only female cast member has gone missing and they need a replacement fast. Enter Hadleigh Valhalla, the most luscious thing on two legs he’s seen in a century. From the moment he sets eyes on her he’s determined to make her his. There’s only one problem, Hadleigh insists she has a strict no dating policy. Claiming she’d rather be fighting than flirting. A series of mishaps means it’s a race against time for Vaughn and Hadleigh to discover just who is targeting the show and stop them before someone gets seriously hurt or dead. While doing so Vaughn intends to teach Hadleigh to break all the rules and prove to her she is just as much woman as she is warrior.

To Woo A Warrior is the first book in Cousings’ Southern Sanctuary series. This is the second series by Cousins and set in Queensland, Australia.

Hadleigh is a warrior who’s been convinced her whole life she’s too tall and fat for men to be interested. So she focused on her joy in life which is protecting the Sanctuary for para-kind she lives in. She’s a deadly warrior and skilled with weapons. Somehow her inability to see her own attractiveness works here. I mean it’s obvious that she’s gorgeous in an Amazonian kind of way, and that because of her brothers teasing and some bad experiences with men she feels awkward and dumpy. And Hadleigh does listen when told that she’s beautiful, she’s just afraid to believe in cases it’s a cruel trick.

Un/Fortunately for Great Aunt Alma the family matchmaker is back in town. And she’s picking the job up again with a vengeance. She likes to meddle. And her meddling for Hadleigh is a doozy. She finds out that her ‘favourite’ reality show Para-X has lost a crew member and sends Hadleigh in to be the replacement, until the end of the season. Of matchmaking meddlers this is the subtlest and craziest, this kind of subtlety makes Marguerite of the Argeneau’s look like someone who organises speed dating events.

Hadleigh gets the job. The Para-X team are Xavier, a mortal and the Maat’s seven seekers of justice. Most importantly Vaughn, is there. He is instantly attracted to Hadleigh for both her warrior spirit and her statuesque beauty.

I liked that Vaughn was in love with Hadleigh for her good qualities and not for her looks which were overlooked. I liked that Hadleigh and Vaughn had a very natural progression to their relationship.

My nitpick is this, the entire subplot with Xavier was both obvious and boring. And if you’re going to set a family base in Queensland, somewhere unique compared to the many, many books in America why send your main character to the US anyway? I mean if you can’t make Australia interesting you aren’t even trying.

I also wondered why when told her cousin has some potentially dangerous magical type marking her, Hadleigh ignores it. If someone told me that a person I love had bee marked as someone’s territory I’d at least send them a text:

Hey, you’ve been marked by a potential stalker, k thx bi.

It’s not that hard is it?

Apart from that I liked the book and can’t wait for the next “To Trap a Temptress”, although I hope that all of the cousins don’t end up with one of Maat’s warriors, that would end up being repetitive.

Currently Listening: The Story of Us – Taylor Swift