ARC REVIEW Buried and Shadowed by Alexandra Ivy & Carrie Ann Ryan

A brilliant series by two fantastic storytellers. Buried and Shadowed continues the overall story of the Branded and Unseen shifters after the world epidemic forced to bring the shifters out of hiding and basically into reservation style internment camps. The SAU forcing the cats, the bears and the wolves to live together hoping that they will destroy each other. Instead they join forces to take down the SAU and reveal to the world the truth of the Verona Virus.

Buried is Carrie Ann Ryan's light menage, it's a menage but it doesn't go into graphic erotic detail between the three of them. (If you want that read Ink Enduring, damn!)  Here we have the Ursine Packs Foreseer Oliver, the submissive wolf Mandy and, Gibson the tattoo artist who is on the verge of something massive. Carrie Ann Ryan is brilliant when it comes to building tension, both sexual and conflict. Her narration and dialogue together create a sense of foreboding that ties you up into the story. She emotionally pulls you in so you find yourself holding your breathe or crying out when something happens you totally were not expecting.

Oliver as the foreseer believes he will never be able to claim his mate; his visions take too much out of him, his visions are slowly killing him. Even knowing Gibson and Mandy are both potential mates he tries to keep clear of them. Gibson keeps to himself and because he feels sympathy for his Alpha who takes on the pain of his pack members when he is forced to brand them Gibson feels like he doing his part by tattooing them making the brand their own. As a submissive wolf Mandy never really though her role in the pack was very important, but her ability to soothe and calm comes in handy more than once and once Gibson comes to his true potential he will need her and Oliver more than he ever realized. But the SAU isn't the only threat to them as Oliver's visions lead him to believe something sinister is coming from inside their own walls.

Shadowed is Alexandra Ivy's, my favorite of her's so far. The Unseen are the shifters who managed to escape the round up and containment. Their goal has been to infiltrate and destroy the SAU fromt he inside and reveal all their dirty secrets and lies. Sinclair has managed to do so they are now just waiting on the final piece of the puzzle before they go public. The whole time Sinclair has worked with someone on the inside, someone with the ability to hack into the CDC computers and leak information to the Unseen about the true origins of the Verona Virus. Mira knows Sinclair has been using her from the start, she doesn't have a problem with it she believes in their cause and she is in love with Sinclair. But now so close to the end of it all Mira goes missing and Sinclair won't stop until he finds her. Mira has discovered for more than Sinclair hoped and together they can tear down the SAU and free all the Branded packs.

Overall, this is probably my favorite of the series so far. Shadowed is very intense. Buried is well damn.