Tag Archives: Paranormal romance

What a Wolf Dares

Book Review of What a Wolf Dares (Lux Catena #2), by Amy Pennza

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I received an audible credit for a copy of Amy Pennza‘s What a Wolf Dares.

Description from Goodreads:

What happens when the species’ most notorious womanizer meets the woman of his dreams?

As a werewolf Alpha’s daughter, Sophie Gregory was raised to understand she has two important purposes in life–to be wed and bred. When she fails at the first, she wants nothing to do with the second, even if it means spending the rest of her life alone. After fleeing a disastrous arranged marriage, she seeks shelter with a neighboring pack. There’s just one problem. Her new pack is home to the handsome, roguish Remy Arsenault: serial dater and notorious womanizer. Remy makes her laugh…and her heart pound. She’s not looking for commitment, but she might just be up for a fling. That’s all Remy is offering, anyway, right?

Remy has a reputation for being a player, but in truth, he’s ready to settle down. Too bad that’s the very last thing Sophie is interested in. He will do anything to win the heart of the woman who makes his head spin with lust–including seducing her with the most delicious sex imaginable. Sophie wants a fling. But what if he’s ready for so much more? To convince her he’s serious this time, he might just have to pull off a small miracle. 

Review:

I thought this was a perfectly adequate shifter-finds-his mate story. I didn’t think there was anything to make it stand out and shine, but nor was there anything that made me grit my teeth and hate it. 

I thought the writing was perfectly readable (or listenable, in my case) and I liked both of the main characters. I did think the villains were cartoonish in how vile they were and the person who came to the rescue in the end, wasn’t really redeemed in my eyes for waiting 20+ years to step in. I don’t believe they could have been oblivious. So, I didn’t really find their sudden backbone and moral compass believable. 

All in all, a good middle of the road book. Sophie James did a good job with it too. It was easy to listen to. And the fact that I hadn’t read book one didn’t prevent me from enjoying this one.

nox

Book Review of NoX, by Adrienne Wilder

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Cover of Nox, by Adrienne Wilder

I borrowed the audio version of Nox, by Adrienne Wilder through Hoopla.

Description from Goodreads:

A nude man invades Luca Suarez’s home and protects him from creatures who cannot exist. Creatures hunting him. 

The stranger can’t tell Luca why. He can’t even tell Luca his name. He remembers nothing until the moment he sees Luca. The only hint Luca has to the stranger’s identity is a tattoo on his wrist: “N o X”. 

Nox doesn’t know who he is, but he’s sure of three things, his memory loss is temporary, the monsters chasing Luca are called Anubis, and his Alpha, Koda, sent Nox to protect him. There’s just one problem…. Koda is Luca’s brother who was murdered five years ago. 

With each passing hour, Nox fills in the pieces painting an impossible truth. And with each passing hour, both men find themselves inexplicably attracted to each other. Something Luca is willing to embrace because he has nothing left to lose. And one Nox can’t let happen because it could get Luca killed.

Review:

Objectively, I can say this book has flaws. It drags at times. There are several scenes I thought funny, but I also thought weren’t really needed. And the villain was disappointing; both in the sense of his motive being boring and his defeat anti-climatically easy. It felt rushed. However, subjectively, I enjoyed it enough for a 5 star rating. (The narrator, Kirt Graves, may have contributed to this. He did a great job.) At the end of the day that’s what matters. I liked both Nox and Luca and I thought the Anubis an interesting shifter style. Reece and the colonel stole the show for me though. I loved their banter.

Review In a Badger Way, by Shelly Laurenston

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I borrowed a copy of Shelly Laurenston‘s In a Badger Way from the local library.

Description from Goodreads:

Petite, kind, brilliant, and young, Stevie is nothing like the usual women bodyguard Shen Li is interested in. Even more surprising, the youngest of the lethal, ball-busting, and beautiful MacKilligan sisters is terrified of bears. But she’s not terrified of pandas. She loves pandas. 

Which means that whether Shen wants her to or not, she simply won’t stop cuddling him. He isn’t some stuffed Giant Panda, ya know! He is a Giant Panda shifter. He deserves respect and personal space. Something that little hybrid is completely ignoring.

But Stevie has a way of finding trouble. Like going undercover to take down a scientist experimenting on other shifters. For what, Shen doesn’t want to know, but they’d better find out. And fast. Stevie might be the least violent of the honey badger sisters, but she’s the most dangerous to Shen’s peace of mind. Because she has absolutely no idea how much trouble they’re in . . . or just how damn adorable she is.

Review:

This was really just horrible: juvenile, stupid and basically plotless. I could give it credit for being grammatically sound and edited, but I had to force myself to finish it. So, I’m not going to encourage this puerile idiocy. There were far too many jokes about farting on people, dog shits and releasing anal glands. I want to ask if the author thinks her audience is 12; but the book has lots of good reviews. So, someone somewhere likes it. Just not me. 

I admit I got the occasional chuckle, and I suspect a lot of what made me grit my teeth at the ludicrously over the top antics of this group was probably also meant to be funny. But I just wanted to ask if no one in Laurenston’s professional life is able to reign her in just a little bit. The petite woman doesn’t just shift into a large tiger/honey badger. No, she shifts into a TWO TON animal. No one is just smart or talented, everyone is a GENIUS or a PRODIGY. Stevie doesn’t just have anxiety, she has a crippling phobia of a certain sort of shifter (that doesn’t even make sense in context). There is no spark between the H & h. She just decides they are together and he spends the whole book saying they’re not, until they have sex and then he stops and they’re together. 

I love a bit of humor in my PNR. I abhor a slapstick collection of too-dramatic-to-believe schticks. AND THAT’S ALL THIS BOOK IS.