Shadow Keepers Books In Order

Publication Order of The Shadow Keepers Books

About the Shadow Keepers Series:

Julie Kenner is a female author who has made a name for herself by writing a various amount of novels, almost all of which deal with some form of paranormal (or supernatural) romance. For the most part, her novels have been well-received by many readers—a fact evident in that most of her novels are NY Times bestsellers. These include her Kate Connor: Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series, her urban fantasy-slash-paranormal romance The Blood Lily Chronicles, and her take on the superhero genre with the Protectors series.

On occasion, she writes more in the erotica genre, and for those novels she uses a shortened version of her name: “J. Kenner”. So far these only include the books in her Stark trilogy (Release Me, Claim Me, and Complete Me), and its novella companion Take Me. The trilogy has been hailed as one as good as the 50 Shades of Grey series, though with less BDS&M and more plain old erotica as well as less general publicity.

She also uses another pseudonym, “J.K. Beck”, for her novels that fall a bit more in the middle ground—more particularly, for her series, The Shadow Keepers.

There are six novels in The Shadow Keepers series: When Blood Calls (2010), When Pleasure Rules (2010), When Wicked Craves (2010), When Passion Lies (2011), When Darkness Hungers (2012), and When Temptation Burns (2012).

There’s also a novella—Midnight (2011)—that takes place chronologically between When Wicked Craves and When Passion Lies.

A CAST TO BITE FOR

The Shadow Keepers series is a bit unique in its use of characters. For each book there is a new pair of main characters, a new pair of romantic interests—with the sole exception being the novella, Midnight, which has the same pair as book #4, When Passion Lies. The main things that unifies all the characters is the constant setting of Los Angeles and the presence of the Shadow Alliance, and alliance between vampires, werewolves, and other mythological creatures.

When Blood Calls starts off the series, and introduces the pair of Sara Constantine and Lucius Dragos. Sara is a lawyer who, at the beginning of the novel, gets a promotion. She’s incredibly excited about it and to get started on her new case—until she learns that her promotion means that now she’ll be defending vampires and werewolves, and her new case is to defend a man that she had a steamy night with just a few days ago.

Lucius, her new defendant, is determined to prove his innocence to Sara—even if it means making the largest sacrifice he’s ever made…

When Pleasure Rules is book #2 and moves on to a new pair of main characters. Innocents are being brutally murdered, and each death fuels the stirrings of an age-old feud between werewolves and vampires exploding into an all-out war.

Lissa Monroe is a succubus, a female creature who seduces men in order to feed on their souls. She agrees to do some undercover work for the Shadow Alliance in order to keep the vampire-werewolf war from breaking out. Her mission is to figure out the mind of the leader of the werewolves, Vincent Rand. Together they must find a way to patch together the crumbling alliance and keep more innocents from paying the price.

Book #3, When Wicked Craves, introduces the new female protagonist, Petra Lang. Petra suffers from a strange curse that dooms anyone she touches and unleashes demons—even when she has no intention to. Even though she can’t control it, she’s sentenced to death by the Shadow Alliance—only to be rescued by a vampire named Nicholas Montegue.

Now both fugitives, they feel an increasing longing for each other, a longing they can never fulfill because of Petra’s curse…

Midnight is the novella that takes place between the third and fourth books, although it does share the same romantic pair as When Passion Lies.

Carissa de Soranzo is determined to rescue her brother from his kidnapper, the nobleman Baloch de Fioro, who’s also a werewolf and he plans on turning her brother into one too at the next full moon. Carissa hires a famous werewolf hunter, Tiberius, to help her. What Carissa doesn’t know is that Tiberius is also a vampire—a secret that he becomes tempted to reveal as they find themselves falling unexpectedly in love…

When Passion Lies picks up where Midnight left off, and continues with the story of Carissa and Tiberius.

When Darkness Hungers throws Alexis Martin and Serge into the plot. Alexis is an FBI agent that, unlike her colleagues, is well aware that vampires exist, because a vampire killed her sister. At the beginning of the book she gets a new assignment for a series of strange homicides that she thinks is being caused by a group of rogue vampires—a group that quite possibly even includes the one who killed her sister.

To make things sweeter, she even has a sexy stranger helping her out—Serge. What Alexis isn’t aware of is that Serge is actually a vampire, a secret that could quite possibly tear them apart before their relationship even has a chance to grow…

When Temptation Burns is the sixth and final book in The Shadow Keepers series. Ryan Doyle is a half-human, half-demon and, as an agent of the Preternatural Enforcement Coalition, he determined to have justice. He’s investigating a series of murders that are being done by a rebellious group bent on revealing the existence of everyone—vampires, werewolves, demons, etc.—to humans.

Andy Tarrent is a (human) reporter tracking a case of, what she thinks are, conspiracy theorists. Instead she stumbles upon Ryan Doyle, an enigma of a man. In addition to their blatant dance of seduction, Andy can tell that Ryan knows more about the murders than he’s letting on—although, does she really want to know?…

REVIEWS & RECEPTION

The outer shells of The Shadow Keepers series can appear deterringly smutty for many readers, and it would be wrong of me to say that the more lustful sections aren’t important or enjoyable to read. Some people just might not like that sort of thing in their readings—period.

The universe that Kenner/Beck creates for The Shadow Keepers is satisfactorily complex, although the biggest hints to its complexities don’t begin to tie largely into the overall plot until about book #3, When Wicked Craves, and for some, that can be an annoyance.

Nonetheless, the universe that Kenner/Beck creates is by no means close to the “greats” or the classics—but it also isn’t meant to be. The Shadow Keepers presents a fun, sexy kind of adult escapist fiction that is enjoyable both for its more smutty parts and the trickles and smashes of violence and intrigue scattered throughout each of the books.