Guiding Desire is the newest book by Alexa Piper and I've got to say I can't wait to see more of this new world she has created!
From the blurb:
In a world where Guardians are superpowered humans, Conduits must help them manage their powers to prevent them from self-destroying. Guardians and Conduits live apart from regular humans, royalty in a society run according to rank and AI reasoning.
Orrey grew up thinking he was a regular human, but when Guardian Senlas accidentally touches him, he imprints on Orrey, dashing all notions of a normal life Orrey wanted to dedicate to making the city he loves safer for everyone.
Now, Orrey has to come to terms with the fact that he is a Conduit, and Senlas's, on top of that. The Guardian is kind and caring, yet Orrey's changed status shoves him into a reality he wasn't prepared for. It will have him and Senlas and their found family of a team weather dangers from inside the city walls and from outside them, all while learning to rely on each other.
Jacqueleen the Reading Queen's Review:
"𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓫𝓮𝓬𝓪𝓶𝓮 𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓘 𝓽𝓸𝓾𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓭 𝔂𝓸𝓾. 𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓘 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮 𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓮."
For a book that Alexa Piper freely admits she wrote for funsies, I am so glad that she ended up deciding to release it. And bonus it's going to be a series!!! The world-building in this one was incredibly interesting. In a nutshell: Most "regulars", or everyday humans, live in cities surrounded by giant walls for protection. In addition to this, we have Guardians, who are basically super tall humans whom have innate powers. Then we have Conduits. These are usually petite humans who can act as a, you guessed it, conduit for a Guardian's magic to help them from overloading on power. It's a delicate and quite intimate balance. A Conduit can act for any Guardian they so chose, and some help many. The exception are those Conduits whom have been imprinted upon by a Guardian. Once this extremely rare event occurs, the Conduit becomes theirs and will only help other Guardians in dire emergencies. I hope you could follow all that, but if not it is explained very well in the story.
Orrey is one of those rare Conduits that finds himself being imprinted upon by Senlas. What makes this even more rare is that Orrey was never made aware of his Conduit status. He's lived his whole life believing he's a regular and now this new life has been thrust upon him out of nowhere. He's understandably confused and quite stressed. Senlas is at a loss. He's never dealt with an untrained Conduit who has no formal knowledge of their lifestyle. What he does know is that Orrey is his, and he isn't letting him go. Ever.
I really liked how protective Senlas was of Orrey, yet he knew when it was time to back off. His Conduit has been used to taking care of himself for a long time. There is definitely a learning curve for both of them. It was sweet seeing them navigate their new circumstances together. Both were so worried about doing or saying the wrong thing. It helped that the members of Senlas' team were an absolutely amazing, and hilarious, group of people. I truly hope to see some of them find their matches in the future of the series.
This one doesn't quite end on a cliffhanger, but it does end with more of this story to go. Fuckery is afoot, and the team has no idea who can be trusted. Things are definitely not always as they seem and I look forward to seeing where the plot takes us as this series progresses.
Rating: 5 Stars
Jacquie's Review:
Guiding Desire ends with what I would term as a soft cliffhanger. There's danger, but nothing immediate and it also sets up the next book nicely.
The world-building and character development is rich and detailed. There's a lot to establish.
There's an edge of tension throughout, as things are not as they seem.
Interesting start to a new series
Rating: 4 Stars
Guiding Desire is available to buy in ebook and paperback formats.
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