Diablo Lake: Protected

by Lauren Dane

October 10, 2016 · Carina Press

Buy →

B+

More Info →

View Book Info Page

I wrote in my review of Diablo Lake: Moonstruck that the first book in this series read like a pilot episode of a series: there was a lot of story to set up, a whole lot of plot and world building to accomplish, plus a romance.

Diablo Lake: Protected, book two in the series, picks up a little bit after book one ended, and boy howdy gosh darn golly, all that building and setup in book one paid off. I so enjoyed reading this book. It was exactly what I needed at exactly the right time. So many tiny moments in the story were soothing and comforting, and the larger moments were incredibly inspiring. I was having such a good time reading, I read the first chapter of this book aloud in one of the recent Live Screams.

So, should you read book one? Yeah, it’s probably best, since what’s happening now started in book one, and some of the conflict hinges on secrets that are hinted at in the first book and slowly unraveling in the second. But the good news is, reading both shouldn’t be arduous or difficult, as the characters are fun to read about and the world is weirdly entertaining (as in, they’re really weird and it’s really entertaining).

And the writing is fun, too. It’s told in a sort of verbal style, as if someone is telling you this story, and the sentence structure is very informal – more like the way people speak instead of the way people write. It took me about two pages to get used to it, and then I really enjoyed – like I was being told a story by the story. And I highlighted so many paragraphs and passages in this book, writing this review was dangerous as I found myself re-reading instead of writing.

Summary: my least favorite part! But it’s important! So here goes! Diablo Lake, Tennesse, is a hidden town populated by shifters, witches, and other magical creatures, all situated on land that itself holds magic. That magic is fed by the creatures who live there, who in turn feed magic to the earth, and that cycle keeps them safe and hidden from the rest of the world – except the cycle is breaking down because of abuse of power on the part of one of two rival werewolf families in town.

Aimee Benton is a witch, one of the green/healing/empathetic variety. She’s a rural social worker who has mostly magical clients, and her family is one of the oldest and most respected in Diablo Lake. She’s the best friend of the heroine in book 1, Katie Faith, and they spend a lot of time together in this book – which is a good thing. Mac Pembry is a former soldier and second son to Darrell, the current Pembry Patron (like being the alpha) and the current mayor of Diablo Lake. There’s a whole lot of power consolidated in Darrell, and it’s increasingly corrupted by a series of his own bad decisions, plus those of his wife, Scarlett, who is out of control physically and emotionally, and of his older son, the heir presumptive (and complete jackass) Dwayne. That corrupted power is starting to affect the magic of Diablo Lake, and in this story, the balance starts to shift away from the Pembry pack because everyone else, including the witches, the other shifters, and the rival werewolf clan, the Dooleys, are tired of being intimidated and feeling helpless. The cost of Darrell’s incompetence is getting too high for everyone to put on a brave face and pretend everything is fine any longer.

So there’s big and bigger conflicts between Mac and Aimee, who are instantly attracted to each other, and have that deep, undeniable recognition of one another. And this is where I was surprised by how much I liked this story. I really, really dislike insta-love. It’s among my least favorite things, though I’m more tolerant of it in paranormals because sometimes that comes with the world building. In this case, though, the instal-love isn’t so much love as recognition: “this person fits. I’m safe with this person.” Mac and Aimee’s magic is complementary, and he need someone he can trust because he can’t confide in many people within his family. Mac knows he’s going to have to challenge his brother to take the heir’s position, known in this world as being the pack’s “Prime,” and he is going to have to fight to correct the imbalance of power in his family, even though he doesn’t want to. He needs solace and safety, and Aimee provides that. Aimee is really into Mac, and is also driven to heal the problems around her, or at least ease them a little. Both of them want to heal the damaged magic of the town, and the paths they have to take to do so are arduous and painful. They need each other on an elemental level, even though some of the choices they have to make put their respective families and clans at odds. Nasty, angry odds. So the insta-recognition and the relatively low level of conflict between them worked for me because at nearly every opportunity, Aimee and Mac are honest with each other, and careful of one another’s feelings, loyalties, and responsibilities. They communicate openly about the problems they are dealing with, problems that multiply as the story continues.

One aspect I loved about this world and the plot of this book is that it’s essentially a rumination on power and authority – specifically power based on fear and intimidation contrasted with authority based on diplomacy, care, strength, and compromise. The politics of the town and the politics of pack and witch rules added some painfully familiar meaning to the contrasting methods of authority, too. The social rules of the town, the pack rules of the werewolves, and the political process of elections and town councils are mixed with equal importance in the conflicts that face the characters. There are gender roles and expectations, most of which are upended. Darrell underestimates Aimee several times because she challenges him in ways he doesn’t expect or respect, but finds himself in trouble when he realizes that everyone else around him does respect Aimee, and deeply, because of who and what she is.

There were a few things that bugged me, mostly in what wasn’t shown on the page after a great deal of build-up. Several times Mac has to tell Dwayne to shut up before Mac beats his ass. Mac beating Dwayne’s ass has a number of meanings – it’s challenging Dwayne for the Prime position, it’s forcing Dwayne’s submission when Dwayne hasn’t had to be submissive to anyone but his father, the pack Patron, and it’s delivering a righteous assing to someone who is long overdue for said righteous assing. Until Mac returns to Diablo Lake after years in the military, no one has threatened Dwayne in any way. Mac’s threat shuts Dwayne up on repeated and separate occasions, too. So the remnants of any authority Dwayne had as Prime are ripped away with each conversation.

Like Diablo Lake: Moonstruck, this story also wraps up very quickly. There is enough resolution for the major plot contained in the story that the ending is mostly satisfying, but the larger issues of pack politics and pack rivalry, and restoring balance to the magic of the town and the creatures within it, will have to be resolved in a different book. Mac and Aimee have their happy, but there isn’t a full ending. The larger issues of the world still loom over them all, and I want to know what will happen next.

And speaking of Aimee and happy, her friendship and the connections between the women of the town and the different magical families are the heart of the story. Aimee and Katie Faith’s friendship is also the foundation on which the rivalry of the two packs must evolve. Katie Faith is married to Jace Dooley, Patron of the Dooley pack, and Aimee is her best friend, and the girlfriend/partner of Mac Pembry, Prime of the Pembry pack. Basically, the rivalry has to change because Katie Faith and Aimee’s friendship and love for each other is too strong to break over rivalries and hostilities that have nothing to do with any of them, and everything to do with their parents and members of the older generation. Jace and Mac have to put aside differences that they’ve been raised with, a toxic history that they can’t erase, because it’s important to their respective partners, and it’s important for the future of Diablo Lake. And putting all that aside isn’t easy, partially because neither of them know exactly why the hostility exists in the first place, and also because other pack members constantly antagonize their rivals, causing fights, insults, and painful rumors to come between the Dooley and Pembry packs, and therefore between Jace and Mac, who want to find a way to keep the peace because of Katie Faith and Aimee.

The relationships and connections between the women in Diablo Lake are one of the major reasons why more people individually have the courage to refuse to do things the way they’ve always been done, and to demand that things change in Diablo Lake immediately. Instead of a society of women enforcing a set of rules designed to keep hostility beneath the surface, encoded in language and gesture instead of discussed outright, in Diablo Lake, it’s the men, specifically the Pembrys, who want the status quo to remain intact. The women, specifically the witches, are the ones who organize, fight back, and demand change.

I don’t think I can communicate how much I found this story inspiring and comforting, not without spoiling some major plot points and ruining the joy of discovering the intricate connections between the characters. I wish there had been a little bit more, but like I said after I reviewed Moonstruck, I am still 2000% here for the sequel.