Bane of Her Desire by Kira Shayde
Paranormal Erotic Novella
Released June 16, 2014
LooseID

Review by Sheena

Blurb: When Holly Ainran’s brother goes AWOL from an elite military force in New Tanzania, she confronts Commander Bane Ojore, a rare gray lion shifter.  Sparks ignite, but Holly finds a challenge in taming this brooding, hostile beast. 

Bane does not expect the daughter of a high-ranking Parliamentary executive to be a smart, code-breaking expert, adamant about abolishing the lion caste hierarchy and ending the lion-hyena conflict. Nor would he expect such a stunning lioness to fall for him. 

But Bane’s job is to find the traitors supplying weapons to the hyenas and all signs point to Holly’s brother. Holly won’t give up on her brother though…or Bane. As their passion escalates, so do the risks, the danger, and ultimately, their love.

Cripes! Give a girl some lube before you ram me to hilt why don’t cha?  I had to stop reading a few pages in and see what the hell was I missing.  Who the hell are these shifters and what exactly is going on?  I felt like I had been thrust into this world with  no warning no Vaseline.  Just Pow! You-are on-the-Sarangeti-and-you-are-reading-about-shifters-one-is-missing-there-is-a-creepy-best-friend-oh but-never-mind-who-he-is-or-why-now-Holly-is-sexy-and-Bane-is-an-alpha-male-(allegedly)-GO!  *Cue head spins* The heroine was cookie cutter. I didn’t really connect with her, didn’t cheer her on (big red flag).  The hero was interesting at first and their attraction instant.  Now insta-lust/attraction doesn’t really bother me, but a half hearted attempt at world building will have my eyebrow twitching and nerves frayed in no time.

This novella was all over the place, which says a lot about it as a novella 98 pages to put together a cohesive albeit brief but satisfying little tale and Bane of my existence Desire! Desire! Bane of Her Desire– excuse me…just does not get there for me.  Brilliant, beautiful and un-mated lioness Holly, stirs with desire for dominant, bold and dangerous gray lion shifter Commander Bane.  In zero to 60 seconds he is sniffing her arousal and talking himself out of seducing her.  She is naturally smitten but guess what, the gal has got spunk and isn’t going to be his little play thing. *yawn*.  Spoiler alert. He fucks her after all.

I am irritated.  There are several elements in this story that should work.  There is a really interesting caste system among the shifters that could have easily taken the place of one of the more ill-conceived sub-plots.  There is the threat of the local Hyena pack which really could have been more thrilling as the parts the author included I found very good!  But too much did not work.  It is a pet peeve when character,  especially primary characters, are set up to be a certain way and they immediately (with no growth or reason)  behave in complete contrast to their description.  If Bane is a career military Alpha Elite commander- rude and bossy, he is NOT in the next breath chasing Holly to her car, mewling apologies for his douchey behavior!  A career military Alpha Elite commander OWNS his shit and rules his domain with his cock and balls! Middle finger to the sky- he does what he wants right!?   I mean sure the woman who shall be “HIS” will break through that exterior but not in the first meeting!   Novella or not, I immediately thought Bane was a fraud with his swift change from Alpha badass to-to-to-gee golly would you like to go to the ice cream parlor boy next door behavior.  No Alpha Elite commander is behaving like that in the span of a day!

And Holly! Holly is not a dominant in her pack.  She has a super brain and skill but she should have instinctively had issues bucking against Bane.  A non dominant alpha lion flouts her attitude and turns her back and flank to a dangerous Alpha male commander!

No. way.

It just didn’t jive man….

There is mystery, there is sex and there is the most non Alpha- alpha I have encountered in a while.  There is a caste system and there is an overprotective father.   The elements were there and I suspect as a full length I would have had the space to understand and like the premise and plot and If there was any question, the novella delivered with the sexy times.

“Just relax.  Let me explore you.”  He fingered her opening slowly, gently, and after a moment, she let out a long deep moan.

“Yeah, girl, enjoy this,” he murmured in encouragement.  He leaned over and licked her delicious pussy, dipping his finger ina nd out of her back door, already slick from her flowing juices.

Her scream became a ferocious growl as the orgasm ripped through her body.

Okay.  Alright. I understand this is a novella and readers need to be ushered through the story at a brisk pace but every page counts in a novella, you can’t phone it in!  I felt as if I were being shoulder bumped and shoved in the back through every page.  Reading this like the author just kept pushing me, I kept wanting to dig my heels in and figure out what the hell was going on but no- the story plowed on…

Perhaps if this were a serial I would make allowances for some of my pain points, but I have read too many novellas of late that left me so eager and satisfied and Bane of Her Desire  unfortunately did not.  Plagued with faulty character consistency and just too much too fast and too confusing I believe this has been my last trip to New Tanzania with this shifter pack.

 Grade: C-

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