Dee's Book Blog

How To Run With A Naked Werewolf
Author: Molly Harper
Series: #3 in the Naked Werewolf series

Review Copy Provided by Publisher via Edelweiss

Description:
Down, Boy

Anna Moder has just witnessed a shooting, seen her car pulverized, and rescued a wounded stranger only to discover he’s really a werewolf. And by her recent standards, things are actually looking up. Lycanthropes don’t faze Anna. Doctoring a wolf pack outside Grundy, Alaska, is the closest thing to home life she’s known in years. But hitching a ride to Anchorage with long-absent pack member Caleb Graham that’s a risk. Part of her itches to whack his nose with a newspaper. The rest is trying unsuccessfully to keep her own paws off every delicious inch of him.

The problem is, Caleb employs his lupine tracking abilities as a notquite-legal bounty hunter, and Anna is suspicious of both him and his profession. On the run from her past, with old problems closing in, she’d like to stay far, far away from anybody with connections to the law. Caleb, however, seems determined to keep her close. Are his intentions noble, or is he working a more predatory angle?
Anna’s been dreaming of returning to a semi-normal life, but now she’s experiencing a strange new urge . . . to join Caleb in running with the wolves.

Review:
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a huge Molly Harper fan. So when I was on her website (ok, I admit, stalking her website), and saw that there was a new Naked Werewolf book coming out, I was doing a happy dance. And after reading it, i can say that the wait was worth it. Better yet, if you haven’t discovered the pleasure that is reading a Molly Harper, you can actually read this book (even if its the 3rd in the series), without reading the previous 2, because the main characters are only loosely mentioned in the previous books (in fact, it took me about 1/3 of the book to put 2 and 2 together on who they were – and I still got 5 😉 ).

I liked the whole on the run from something storyline that was used, because it is one of my more favorite tropes to be used. Especially if you add the werewolf twist into the story. I will say that while reading I noticed the typical Molly snark, there aren’t any specific quotes that are sticking out in my mind, like previous books (in fact, just tonight, I used one from another book by her). And once again I felt like I was transported to Alaska and the adventures there. (I credit the author with my sudden desire to freeze my butt off there – which is what the cover made me do – bare legs and boots)

I gave How to Run with a Naked Werewolf 4 stars and like always, look forward to reading what Molly comes up with next. I’d recommend this for anyone who likes quirky PNR, or smexy PNR because it hit my buttons on both accounts.

Amazon Purchase Links:
(Kindle) (Paperback)

I Know You’re There
Author: Susan Allison-Dean

Review Copy Provided by Author

Description:
Jill Bradley is a 24-year-old nurse whose life is going great; she’s established herself in her new career, and she’s looking forward to getting engaged to her high school sweet heart. When life’s tide changes and she is bombarded by tragedy, loss, and betrayal all at once, she can no longer cope. In a moment of despair, she books a trip to a Caribbean island in an effort to escape her problems. She finds respite and romance, but her problems have also packed their own suitcase.

Helen Bradley is Jill’s mother. Like many mothers of her time, she has dedicated her life to her life to her family. Despite her best efforts, however, she hasn’t always been able to be the type of mother she wished she could be. She has a secret she was hoping would just go away, but it won’t. If she doesn’t share it with her daughter, Jill, it might bring Jill more harm.

I Know You’re There is a mother-daughter journey, celebrating the highs and delving in to the lows of family life. Can the power of love heal all things?

Review:
I think if I had read the description that was on goodreads or amazon rather than just the back of the book, I might have been less surprised by the story and possibly enjoyed it more. However, the description on the back of the book was limited to the accident that occurs in Jill’s life, and so I was expecting more reprecussions from that and to have more of a mystery draw out about it – rather than a women’s lit, coping with life, dealing with tragedy that I got. I was also coming off the high of another book that I really loved and so while, this one might have worked for me normally, it just couldn’t compare to previous reads.

The author did have a good writing style and I can’t really find anything word with it, stylistically…it was just that the story line didn’t work for me. Ultimately, in such a short novel (only about 240 pages), I thought that the author tried to cram too much into the story. It just felt like the storyline was superficial and lacked development. Overall I gave I Know You’re There 2 stars.

A Love Worth Biting For
Author: Roxy Mews
Series: #1 in the Clan Hybrids series

Review Copy Provided by Author

Description:
Who’s afraid of the big bad hybrid?

Amber Paulson’s wolf has chosen a mate for her, but Amber is not amused with its pick. Jake Meyers might look amazing in a wet T-shirt and have the cheekbones and strong jaw that artists drool over. Too bad he is missing a pulse.

Jake is a vampire, well, mostly. Then a tall, curvy redhead pops up on his radar and something awakens in him. Even though he tries to stay away, Amber gets under his skin, and his vampire/werewolf heritage starts to become more bark and less bite. For the first time, he feels the call of the moon, and he knows it’s all because of Amber Paulson.

Amber’s trying to stay away, and Jake’s trying to not turn furry. They both fail miserably—and with a lot of sweaty and enjoyable property destruction.

By giving in to her mating call, Amber finds out more than she ever wanted to know about herself, her family, and the rogue wolf who took so much from her so long ago. As her past comes back to bite her, she’ll have to decide what she’s willing to give up for her mate. Her home? Her pack? Her…heartbeat?

Review:
It always makes me nervous to read/review a book by a person that I know and by know, I mean, we’ve been Goodreads friends since long before Roxy Mews was even a person. In fact, I even had the book for a good month before I even read it, due to my nervousness…but I had to take that plunge and i’m so glad I did. My initial thought was, I love the whole hybrid werewolf/vampire theme in the book. There are lots of paranormal/UF type books out there, but I couldn’t think of any books that used a more of a hybrid theme.

I loved the tension between the vampires and werewolved, it was kind of nice to see a book where they don’t miraculously get along (since that seems to be a common trope in PNR, especially where there is a diverse range of characters). But at the same time, it felt like it was set in a real world, not a completely made up paranormal realm. Almost like the author sat outside on a college campus, just observing what was going on. The first “meeting” between Amber and Jake was awesome (and if I understood something the author mentioned, it was inspired in part by her first meeting with her future husband).

I did feel that the conflict between the werewolves and the vampires was played down a bit, and needed more, but I kind of hope that is just because it was book 1 in a series (or at least it had better be)…and that the conflict will be explored a bit more.

Overall I gave A Love Worth Biting For 3.5 stars but rounding up to 4 and can’t wait to see what she writes in the future.

Unsound
Author: Toby Neal

Review Copy Provided by Author via Sisterhood of the Traveling Book on Goodreads

Description:
Only a volcano can cure some things.

Dr. Caprice Wilson, police psychologist, has spent her life unraveling the mysteries of the human mind—only to find herself in a deep crisis. Caprice prescribes herself a walkabout and goes hiking on Maui—but the solitary retreat she has in mind does not go as planned. Caprice faces an enemy she never knew she had and wrestles with questions of hope, identity, loss, and the nature of psychopathy in a cat-and-mouse game with survival at stake.

Review:
From the description, this book should have been right up my alley – the police psychologist as a main character caught my eye as did the comparison of a suspenseful story. Unfortunately, it just didn’t quite work for me. While I could tell that the author knew her stuff when it came to the psychological aspects, I just really didn’t like Caprice. I guess that I would have hoped, her being a mental health professional, that she could identify when she had issues (I know that might be too much to hope for but since she diagnoses people with issues, a girl can hope she could realize/admit her own).

But on top of that, the whole mystery/suspense angle just fizzled out for me. While I didn’t see the whole reveal of the evil person was coming, when it was revealed, I was just underwhelmed. I just didn’t really feel like they were well-developed as a character and then the whole suspense part was summed up relatively quickly…the tension building just wasn’t there. Ultimately, I think I’d probably only give Unsound 2 stars, because it just didn’t work for me, but maybe it will for other readers.