In The Girl, the first book in the Sanctum series by Madhuri Blaylock, Wyatt and Ryker seem like two ordinary - albeit stunningly attractive - New York teens but they are really Sanctum warriors, descendants from a group of ten families blessed with angelic powers, whose duties consist of keeping the magical and the human world separate.

Wyatt is the straight-laced one, following the rules even as they grow more extreme and rigid against other “lesser” magical creatures such as werewolves and fairies. Ryker is the bad-boy of their duo. Together they make a pretty good team, but in the end it's Wyatt, not Ryker, who finds himself unable to follow the Sanctum-wide order to kill Dev, an angel-demon hybrid. Now at odds with the Sanctum, Wyatt and Ryker have to find out what's so special about Dev and why does the Sanctum want her dead so badly. Told from multiple points of view and featuring a gorgeous cover by Michelle Mason Holmberg, The Girl is perfect for anyone who loves the Mortal Instruments series and is looking for some more sexy action.

The Girl is a fantastic read that went by super fast and is perfect for fans of angel and demon clashes. Of course, there are breaks between the fighting and action for heady sips of banter and romance. What more could a reader ask for? I did wish that the writing was a little tighter and there were some minor characters who I felt were beginning to dominate the story a little too much. But with its shocking cliff-hanger ending that just might get in the way of true love, I’m sure fans of Madhuri Blaylock will be clamoring for book two.

In The Sanctum Book 1: The Girl by Madhuri Blaylock, readers are introduced to a world in which a lot more goes on than normal human beings would know. An organization called the Sanctum keeps the balance between magicals (which includes vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, the whole lot) and non-magicals. When two class A warriors, Ryker and Wyatt, find a mysterious girl that they are commanded to kill because she is supposed to be an evil hybrid creature, that balance or the illusion of that balance starts to disappear. Wyatt, who was the perfect Sanctum warrior up to the moment he laid eyes on the girl, suddenly starts to break all rules. He, Ryker, and the girl soon learn that there is more to what happened in her life and that the Sanctum is close to a revolution.

So much happens in this book that it is hard to put it all in a short summary - and this is such a very, very good thing. So many books I've read recently felt short and superficial. The characters in Madhuri Blaylock's novel, however, are well written and unique, and the story is just fantastic. I couldn't stop reading because the book describes our world, but with a few magical elements added to it. It's a world full of mysteries and many of them will hopefully be explored in more depth in the following books. There is a lot of potential in those characters and the world that has been created around them.

This is not just a fantasy book for young adults but for all people who have a love for mysterious creatures who might roam our planet without us knowing about them. And another great point: the vampires in the story don't feel like the hundredth version of dumb, glittering vampires who have nothing better to do than glitter and fall in love. I just loved every page of the story!