This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by Gloriamarie. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Paranormal Romance category.

Here is Gloriamarie's review:

First of all, I have to say that I really love the paranormal genre. Give me werebeasts, phoenixes, dragons, etc, I am ready to read.

Secondly, this is the third book in a series and I found I did not need to know what had happened in the previous volumes to make sense of this story. I consider it a standalone, which is in its favor. The series is called Horsemen because it is about four warriors who remind people of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Our hero is Famine because he hates it so very much. In order the books are: Possessed by a Warrior, Possessed by an Immortal, Possessed by a Wolf, and Possessed by the Fallen.

Thirdly, I am always a sucker for the second chance trope.

While this may be the third volume in the series, we are quickly drawn into the world-building we may have missed because we are reading out of order. As I so often do. The heroine and hero have a Past. They were very much in love until Lexie discovered that her lover, Faran, is a werewolf, capable of mauling a man to death.

In the present, the Princess Amelie of Marcari is in love with and engaged to the Prince of Vidon. Marcari employs an army of vampires. Vidon hates the supernatural and employs an army of vampire slayers. The Prince and Princess intend to end the age-old enmity and usher in a new age of peace and quiet.

Lexie is a photographer hired to take pictures of the engagement party and the priceless wedding ring. Electronic security was turned off and the top removed from the case for her convenience, so we know right off the bat the ring is gonna get stolen and Lexie blamed.

The action starts right away with gunshots shattering the huge windows in the ballroom. A gigantic wolf, wounded, leaps through one of the openings and all the guards think it’s a threat, but Lexie recognizes her former lover, and orders the guard away. She also talks to Faran as if he were a dog. Sit. Stay. It made me chuckle because, course, Faran is an alpha hero and since when do they get ordered to sit and stay?

Did I mention that Lexie’s best friend is Chloe Anderson who herself is engaged to Sam Ralston, a vampire, and one of Princess Amelie’s personal bodyguards? No? Well, now I have. Sam announces to his princess that the Knights of Vidon, aka the vampire slayers, had attacked the vampire soldiers who had accompanied Amelie to Vidon. The Captain of the Knights said that the order had been given “too soon.” I mention this detail because no one but Lexie picked up on it. That bothered me because I think the Prince of Vidon, Kyle, Amelie, Princess of Marcari; and Sam ought to be be asking the question “What do you mean by too soon?” but no one does. Odd that.

Another detail that struck me as odd was that as Lexie packs up her equipment, Kyle’s brother, Prince Leo, bestirs himself to roll up an extension cord and hand it to Lexie, along with some seemingly pointless conversation.

A third detail that struck me as odd is that no one is paying attention to that priceless wedding ring in its case with the top off and the alarms turned off. So those are chapters one and two, and the reader has been informed of almost everything that is at stake, including the UST between Lexie and Faran, undiminished though she left him years ago.

Concatenations ensue. The mystery is not as simple as it appears. There are the machinations of kings and a prince. There are secret passages. There is poison. There is a ring of power. There are vampires and Light Fey in the backstory, and of course, that means the Dark Fey are present now. Questions arise and are unanswered, presumably to whet one’s appetite for the next volume but at the same time, the questions work very much into the fabric of this story. This story is not sacrificed to build interest in the next.

I found it a page turner. It’s well written with none of those egregious errors of grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, or spelling that infuriates me.

Definitely going to have to read the other three books in the series. Think I’ll start with the first volume.