Seth by Lisa Carlisle
Highland Gargoyles, #4
Paranormal Romance
Released: December 2, 2016
Self-Published

Reviewed by Sheena

Seth, wolf shifter and beta of his island’s pack, had his life planned out. He’d mate with the alpha’s daughter and eventually they’d rule the pack with her. When she chooses another shifter as her mate, his pride his is wounded and future with the pack is threatened. Lost and betrayed, he sets off to find his destiny – or die trying.

Hailey, a park ranger in the Scottish Highlands, is on a mission to save wolves – including the one she rescues from a watery grave. When she treats the wolf’s injury, she’s in for the surprise of her life.

What’s a wolf .”to do when his heart interferes with his pride?

Favorite Quote:  “I never loved her, well, not like I love you.”  “And how is that?”  He raised her hand and kissed it.  “Passionately.  Ardently. Completely”

Nothing happened in this story. And that is no spoiler. Literally nothing happened.  Seth left his home and his pack behind after being spurned by his intended mate.  Not one to live life a cuckold, he takes to the seas swimming, and swimming until he is gravely injured.  Luckily he is rescued by Hailey and her brother who haul him to safety and tend to his wounds, found in wolf form, they naturally cage him until they can reintroduce him to the wild.  Only, he shifts into his human form, glorious and naked- and is quite the surprise to Hailey who  is instantly attracted to him. They spend a couple of days together, have sex, he realizes she is his true mate, he leaves after her father and brother are horrible to him, is injured again, saved again by Hailey and hello HEA.

That’s it folks. Not much to tease or expound upon, but I’ll do my best…

Hailey is a lovely young woman and environmentalist who is dedicated to preserving echo systems with a special interest in studying and relocating wolves to friendly areas where they can thrive.  It was sweet to read about her studies and professional love for nature. It felt genuine and was one of the better aspects of the novel.

Overall, Seth, the novel is a very simplistic paranormal romance story, absolutely ordinary and underdeveloped. It was short for a novel- a good thing, because if it were any longer, it would’ve needed infinitely more fine tuning. If you don’t take it too seriously and ignore the plot points that stick out like sore thumb, then I suppose you will get through this just fine.  The trouble is by doing so, you normalize empty novels and that is not a trend I want any part of.  Some issues I had included how “oh wow, that’s cool” Hailey was when she learned Seth was a shifter.  I believe she took way too much in stride, especially since shifters were practically unknown to humans aside from some whispered rumors.  Even after Seth made it clear he was uncomfortable with the idea of being “studied” I was quite put off by the way Hailey pushed him and would get indignant when he didn’t blabber to her all of his former pack secrets.   Conversely, Seth was very patient and understanding when it came to giving in to Hailey’s fervent curiosity, giving her as much of himself as he could, always conscious of her feelings- ah, but isn’t that the way of a bonded shifter.  They also become ravenous when it comes to mating. But that too is to be expected:

Holy crap, he’s some kind of golden god.

Seth undressed before Hailey as she waited on her bed, captivated by his movement…

Seth’s touch unglued her, his tanned chest was all hard planes and dark shadows.  his abs contoured with two tantalizing rows of molded flesh that she wanted to lick and savor.

The low growl he emitted sounded more animal that human, sending a wave of new desire between her legs and spurring her to continue.  How she wanted to discover all the ways she could excite him.

She circled thee mushroom head with her tongue before taking it in her mouth.  A throaty growl escaped him, thrilling her in an unexpected way…he pumped his hips in time with her movements.

“Hailey, stop…you have me so excited that I’ll explode at any second.  And I want to do so much more with you.”

Their romance was sweet enough.  The time they spent sharing and learning about one another’s pasts was well written and adequately tender.  I liked Seth and Hailey, I only wish they had more of an actual story, so that I could have liked that too.
It was all just a little too, eh.  I can’t really recommend a book where nothing happens, I’m not on board with Boy-meets-girl-has-sex-leaves-kinda-comes-back-and-HEA-because-why-not.  Even as a short story, there just isn’t enough here.

Grade: D

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