Temptation Rising by A.C. Arthur (The Shadow Shifters #1)
Paranormal Romance
March 27, 2012
St. Martin’s

Reviewed by Mandi

For the past two years, Kalina Harper has been dreaming about a terrifying night she lived through. Caught in an alley in Washington, DC with a man about to do her harm, a huge cat comes to her rescue, killing the man and allowing Kalina to run free. Thinking a huge cat saving her is bizarre, she has tried to live her life not thinking about that night. Working for the Metropolitan Police Department, she is currently deep undercover working with the DEA to bring down a man who is suspected of being involved with South American drug lords. Kalina is undercover as an accountant as a prestigous law firm. One of the partners, Roman Reynolds is the man Kalina is trying to investigate. Little does she know, Roman is the very man that saved her in the alley two years ago.

Roman is a jaguar shapeshifter, and the head of his faction. It is his goal to keep his shifters safe, and secret from the public. There have been a string of vicious murders recently, and Roman along with his partner and fellow shapeshifter Nick, know that Rogue shifters are involved. Rogues don’t want to live peacefully with humans, they want their cruel, violent side to come through, with no one governing them.There is a bill of rights that shifters are suppose to live by, but the ruling council lives deep in the South American jungle. Living in a busy city is a much different matter. Roman’s parents were killed trying to create a government for shifters to live by, and Roman hasn’t forgotten that it was rogues that did it.

Besides investigating Roman, Kalina gets dragged into this shifter world when the Rogues continue to hunt her. Roman knows there is something special about Kalina, and can barely contain his shifter side when she is around. Unknown to him, she doesn’t want to become involved with him, since he is the lead suspect on her case. But when the rogues become very interested in Kalina, Roman knows he can’t let her out of his sight.

Temptation Rising is the first book in A.C Arthur’s Shadow Shifters series. I was in the mood for a very alpha, “you are my mate get out of my way,” book and this one delivered pretty well. Roman is wealthy, attractive, and lethal. When he picks up Kalina’s scent in his office, he knows she is the woman he saved in the alley two years ago. And he knows he must have her. There is lots of growly times and hard kisses. So while Roman was over the top aggressive and sexy, Kalina made me more frustrated.

I had two main problems with Kalina. First, she becomes physically involved with her lead suspect in her undercover case. Now, I get that Roman is a shifter, and once he has his eyes set on her, there is no stopping him. But I still think it was not a professional move on her part to make. But worse, I couldn’t handle how she constantly brushed off Roman and others attempts to keep her safe. She always wanted to do it on her own. For me, she crossed the confidence line and went into annoying mode with this. She starts receiving pictures of the night she got attacked in that alley. Weird men try to kidnap her. She knows two years ago a giant cat saved her life. Obviously, these are not ordinary events. And I think she should have been more open to receiving help from people. Of course, you could argue, Roman is her suspect, so maybe it is wrong to accept help from him. But once she started a relationship with him (no matter how many times she denies it to herself) all bets are off.

I also wish the bad guys would have had more of a presence in this book. I liked that they are evil, and it looks like we will see more of them in book two, but I could have used some more pages with them.

Nick and a few other shifters are set up well to get books, and I look forward to Nick’s book next. Hopefully I’ll like his heroine a little bit more.

Rating: C+

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