Released: August 28, 2012
Paranormal Romance
Brava
Reviewed by May
A pair of paranormal romance novellas, each around 150 pages long and each features a wolf shifter, finding true love, and of course trouble with humans. For me the reading experience was very uneven – I adored the one story and merely tolerated the other.
Like a Wolf With a Bone by Shelly Laurenston
“Are you talking about condoms?”
Lord, he looked absolutely mortified.
“Yeah. Condoms.”
“It’s ok to mention them. We are about to have sex.”
“Yeah, but… you’re a virgin.”
“Hopefully not for much longer.” Then she grinned, showing her teeth. It made him laugh and she watched him relax a little.
“I just don’t want to scare you –“
“Because you have a bag full of condoms?”
“I do not have a bag full of condoms. Just a few.”
This is the story of a sweet little she wolf named Darla Lewis who finds herself out in the woods, hunted by human males, and saved by a lone male wolf – the much feared Eggie Smith. Eggie is a part of an elite shifter military group and is known as one of the deadliest guys around – one that everyone whispers, warns, and generally makes efforts to avoid.
Eggie thought about going over there, introducing himself the way men do when they see a pretty woman they’d like to meet. But then he remembered who he was. He was Eggie Ray Smith, trained killer. What would a girl like her do with a wolf like him? Would she want him to be chatty? Buy her flowers? Kill a herd of elk?
Around Darla though, Eggie is totally different. He’s instantly smitten by her, driven to protect her, and Darla sees past the killing skills to the man behind all the myths. In short, she falls for him too.
Eggie didn’t understand all that arguing. Honestly, he didn’t argue with people. He never had to. He either stared until the ones arguing with him went away or he killed them. There was never an in-between, so what was the point of arguing?
This story was fantastically executed. I’ve not read most of this author’s work, but I was in no way lost or needing to have read any of her books to follow along. The novella stays beautifully focused on Darla and Eggie, and we get to see how this couple came to be. Not only that, but both of these main characters are incredibly likeable, and Laurenston artfully blends her signature humor with emotional depth and a downright sweet story.
Darla the pastry chef and Eggie the killer somehow wonderfully worked together, and were an absolute delight to read about. The length was absolutely perfect, and it made me want to test out a few more of her books.
Grade: A
Wed or Dead Cynthia Eden
Gage Ryder is alpha of the pack of wolf shifters living in and around Las Vegas, and he has a problem. Hunters have been trying to capture, kill, and generally take down his people. He already knows the woman he’s so drawn to, the woman he just married is a hunter that was assigned to kill him.
“Hello, wife,” Gage murmured, and finally – finally – the wild thud of her heartbeat quieted, because it stopped for a few seconds. “You’re mine, now. Forever.” The words held a hard edge that she’d never heard before in his voice.
Kayla is crazy in lust for her new husband Gage, but he’s one of the monsters she hunts. She has to follow through and do the right thing – but what will the right thing be – and is he really the monster? I had a really hard time believing this set up, as well as the suspense plot that took over this novella.
I really liked Eden’s writing style, she was able to make me flip the pages wondering what could happen next. The problem is that I couldn’t get into the characters and ultimately I was unsatisfied with the story. Our characters already went through all the get to know you and court you stuff. They’re married in the first scene. So we don’t have a strong developing romance, and we don’t get much romance anyhow because they’re too busy stopping a psycho and saving themselves as well.
Overall, my problem is that it felt like a prequel. It felt like the set-up of how the alpha and his mate came to be, and as a story it did not satisfy.
Grade: C
Recent Reviews:
Paranormal Haven – 4/5
All Things Urban Fantasy – 3/5
Goodreads
I’m so glad you enjoyed Eggie’s story. I don’t usually care for shorter length stories but for Shelly Laurenston, her writing is awesome whether it’s a full length novel or not. I definitely recommend checking out the other books in the series!
Darla and Eggie ROCKED!!! I wasn’t too impressed with Eden’s story. You’re right, it felt rushed and like I missed something along the way.
Thanks for the review. I have only read one Shelly Laurenston book, and enjoyed it. Never read Cynthia Eden so far as I remember. Sorry that one did not work out for you.
If you haven’t tried Shelly before, you are in for a treat. Her books are hot and hilarious and the characters are over the top. I love both of her shifter series as well as the dragon shifters that she writes as GA Aiken.