Review: Still funny, with character growth and development
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 14, 2014
In my review of Baehrly Breathing, the first in the Goldie Locke series, I said, “Golden Sunshine Locke, or Goldie Locke as she is better known, is my new favorite “Just For Fun” literary character!” And I can still say that Goldie is a favorite that I am happy to have found and embraced. And the fun is still there in the second book, Baehrly Bitten: Goldie Locke and the Were Bears #2. But life is changing for Goldie, and she is growing into her character, and into her life. A life that is getting tougher, and more intense in this second volume.In the first book, we met Goldie, a sassy, funny, five-foot nothing who, despite absolutely hating it, is “cute.” Blonde, blue-eyed, and just plain adorable, looking like she is nineteen, at most. Instead, she is a smart, savvy woman with two PhD’s and a law degree, specializing in being the “most dreaded Magical environmental lawyers of all time.” What she really is doing is rescuing those rare and endangered creatures that need her help. Which means she has a houseful of creatures, including a baby dragon, a tiny, pink mastedon, and various other magical creatures. Her house is definitely getting to small for everyone – including the two guys who she is working with. And who both want her. Sound suspiciously like a triangle, but it doesn’t feel like that at all, so if you are like me, don’t let it bother you. It all works itself out fairly quickly. But Goldie needs all the help she can get, and vampires are on the loose, murdering and kidnapping. And these aren’t the “sparkly” vampires that are so common in literature today. These are more like what I would consider vampires to really be like – nasty, mindless, bags of bones, parasites of the lowest order, skulking in the dark.In Breathing, Goldie’s ex, Kodi, one of the three werebear Baehr brothers, was forced to bite Goldie in order to save her life. Now, Goldie is fighting her internal bear as it fights for dominance and fights to mate with Kodi – something that Goldie most definitely does not want. In order to be able sleep as the bear fights her, throwing her magic around and destroying everything around her, Goldie has her mother bind the bear within her mind. And that is only the first of Goldie’s troubles.This is, as I said, a deeper novel than the last. Goldie is still funny and snarky, but this volume went deeper, a bit darker than the last, allowing Goldie to grow and develop as a character. I started out loving this from the start because it was so light and funny. Now, I like it even more for the character development and the darker nature, while still hanging onto Goldie’s true personality. She is growing, and changing, but she is still immensely likable. Bruised and damaged as she is in this volume, I don’t get the feeling that she is turning dark or losing who she is in her soul.Overall? I just downloaded the next book, Baehrly Alive. Yes, I am totally hooked. The bad part, of course, is that when I am done it will be “wait for the next one” time . . . (saaaaddddd!)