Archer's Lady: Bloodhounds: Bloodhounds Series, Book 3 [Kindle Edition]

Grace has made a new life for herself in the Old West border town of Crystal Springs. She left her disreputable ways behind, reinventing herself as a school teacher --a lady. But her town is now under attack by vampires and it's barely holding on. They need help if they're going to survive. That's where Archer comes in.

Archer is a Bloodhound, a shape shifting supernatural, sent in by his Guild to clean-up the vampire problem. He's rough around the edges, but strong. And he's determined to save the town from the vampire threat.

Archer sees past the facade Grace hides behind. He senses a little something of himself in her, I think. Someone trying to rebuild themselves in the wake of past sins. The two them find solace in each other, a simple honesty neither has ever had with anyone else. It grows into more as they work together to figure out why the vampires have targeted the town and then to defeat them.

This is a bit of a departure from my usual fare in that it's set in an alternative Old West and it has some steampunk elements. But I found that I liked it anyway. I think Archer is the biggest draw. He's powerful and gruff, yet gentle and yearning in ways that even he never expected. He's very sexy and that made the love scenes go from hot to muy caliente. The sexy times were plentiful and highly enjoyable, but I thought they really helped build the relationship between Archer and Grace, and never threatened to overwhelm the story.

This is book three in the Bloodhounds series, and I can tell you as a new reader, it worked well as a standalone. There were a few things, especially toward the end, which seemed to reference earlier stories, but I never felt lost. The world building was accessible and I felt like it was built seamlessly into the story without any obvious info dumps.

I liked it. And I would read from this series again.

When Bloodhound Archer arrives in a frontier town - in response to a plea to the Guild for aid in fighting vampires who have been decimating the population - Archer finds the town's school teacher struggling between her need to flee and her duty to the beleaguered townspeople who need every able bodied person in the fight to survive. And even though Archer 'sees' way too much of what Grace has hidden behind a respectable facade, with his acceptance, Grace just may discover that she's more like that noble person she's been pretending to be than she ever thought possible.

Archer's Lady was my favorite of the Bloodhounds so far. There was a lot that I liked about the book, I liked that Archer's new moon time ends up being more than just a time of heightened sexual need, here we see that it is also a time when the Hound becomes very protective of his mate and I really liked the way that Archer cared for his lady. I also I really liked the new wrinkle supporting character Diana added to the world, giving a little twist to the formula of the series that should really stir things up in the next book. I also thought that the real reason that the Guild sent Archer in particular to help save the town added depth to the story.

So, I really liked this latest addition to Rogers' series which I already liked for the combination of steampunkish elements added to the sexy paranormal romance. And I was hoping that the next book would be Diana's book with the vamp guy from the previous books, but while it definitely is her book, I am guessing that since the working title is Diana's Wolf, her hero is probably not a vamp.

My thoughts:
This might be my favorite Bloodhounds story yet. I have fallen for all the Bloodhounds and was thrilled that Archer got his own story - and of course that he finds the perfect girl for him was inevitable.
My favorite thing about this story is that so many of the characters are re-building themselves in their small border town. It was fun to see people being valued for what they were offering instead of being judged by the baggage they brought with them. Perhaps that feeling comes from living in a small town as well as being a firm believer in second chances.
Archer is a great character. He is strong and brave, rough and tough but also has that almost hidden desire to be more than what he is. He has a sordid past that he doesn't want to share.
Grace is running: from the past, from herself. But Grace can't run from Crystal Springs where she has found acceptance and a chance to be someone she feels good about being.
They find each other - and together hope to save the town and maybe themselves at the same time.
It's a fabulous story filled with characters that you instantly love, living in a town being consumed by fear, vampires and their ghouls, fighting to not just survive but thrive. Don't miss this one!