I read this after reading nearly all the other Shifters Unbound series and I recommend you read at least one of the full-length novels before you read this one as the importance of the sword to the Shifters isn’t exactly emphasized in this novella. However, it is also a good start to the series itself, taking place hundreds of years before the rest of the novels, when the Fae had yet to fully abandon our world. As with all of Jennifer Ashley’s stories, this is a romance. A hard romance between a Feline Shifter – Niall – and a Fae woman – Alanna – and how they came to forge the Sword of the Guardian, and more especially, why.Personally, it was a nice, but very short read, though I felt it could have been a little more drama surrounding the Fae/Shifter hatred those two should be experiencing. And it was really too short to like or dislike the main protagonists and it obviously wasn’t deeply involved. However, for a short fluffy explanation piece, it was well done. 3 stars. This story is about the forging of the sword of the Guardian, how Alanna, a Faerie princess, and a wildcat shifter, Niall, make the sword together. As a prequel, I have mixed feelings on how well a job it did on ‘setting the stage’ for the series so to speak. There were 2 major things that needed to be addressed that are talked about in the books: The History of shifters and the Fae and about the sword of the Guardian.The history of the shifters and fae given is brief, and vague. You learn why the fae created shifters, a mention of how and a few sentences on the shifter-fae war. That’s it. For the most part you’re told about Alanna’s brother and how life’s been in Faerie since then. Character development is decent for the length—it’s essentially a cliff-notes version. The story opens with Alanna coming to Niall to forge a sword for the Fae (which he initially refuses, rightly). You’re not told why at first, and Niall only obliges because he is blackmailed into making it as ransom to get his children back. He’s under the impression that the sword is being forged to enslave shifters again, and it’s clear that Alanna is up to something, you’re just not sure what and against who as both Niall and readers are kept in the dark about the spells Alanna puts on it as he works. Alanna’s brother wants to enslave the souls of those who fell in the shifter-fae war--which begs the question as to why the souls still linger so long after the war ended. You can only guess that some sort of curse prevented their souls from automatically going to the Summerland (their version of heaven) upon their deaths—but you’re not exactly told that.You learn nothing about Guardians, there isn’t one in this story (which is understandable since you can’t have a guardian without a sword) but there’s no explanation about the sword’s tie to the goddess or to the wielder. Again, I understand it’s a prequel (a mini one at that, since it’s less than 40 pages!) but I when I was finished reading it I still had 80% of my questions unanswered—majorly disappointing. Honestly, it’s just too short! It’d actually be more beneficial for a reader to read this AFTER book 1 or even book 2 versus reading it to see if they’d like the series—in that sense it does a HORRIBLE job of portraying what readers get from each book in this series! For someone who has read any portion of the series you miss nothing by not having read this, but for a newcomer this would absolutely turn them off the series, which is tragic since it’s fantastic!! It’s fine for a 15 minute read, but don’t use it as a guide on whether or not to try the series! Trust me, you’ll be glad you chanced it.*It might be petty and picky, but I cannot understand how difficult it is to match the models on the cover to those described (in this instance Alanna), that's why there's photoshop.
What do You think about Shifter Made (2011)?
Great short!This is a prequel to the series explaining how the guardian's swords were crafted.
—nhinkle
Real cute short story about the source of Guardians and the sword.
—Emilyyy
It was nice as these short stories go.
—moonie6271
