Review: One of the worst shifter novellas I've read
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 01 29, 2012
I read the other reviews and thought maybe those reviewers were just people who weren't able to suspend disbelief for the typical shifter plot device of the mate connection.  I don't usually mind when two strangers meet, and there is a spark that ignites immediate lust and even protective feelings, and they get intimate before they are even introduced, etc.  The sample of this book made me think that this would be one of those, and although the single girl moved into her new apartment in a new state that day, and then let a big, hunky man into her apartment without checking that he was really a detective, and then had lusty unprotected sex with him right away, I was good with all that.  I can suspend disbelief and go with the flow, usually.  What turned me off and made me despise both the characters was the hero's lack of feelings outside of lust and ownership, and the heroine's lack of personality.  Basically, my only feelings towards these characters were of dislike (hero) and disgust (heroine).Synopsis with SPOILERS: After the first lusty encounter, during which he marked her without her knowledge, which could have been OK is handled correctly, the werecoyote just told the human woman, in whose apartment he was, and who he didn't know the first thing about other than that she was unmarried and apparently his mate, that she was "his" and that she would obey him.  The girl barely balked at that, and when she protested even a little, he didn't explain or feel anything for her, he just got angry and scared her more, threatening her physically.  He asked for an extra key, and she gave him her only one, then he left her with instructions not to leave her apartment because a killer would be after her if she did.  Nevermind he interrupted her dinner when he barged in and basically raped her, and he's a shifter so surely he knew there was no food in her new apartment.  Then when she went out to the nearest market for chips and a sandwich, he was waiting for her and actually drew her blood in his ire that she had disobeyed him!  By the way, this human woman (who never did get a physical description or any background whatsoever) accepted the existence of werewolves without any question, much less complaint, because she saw his fangs and claws come out.  I kept thinking "Stockholm Syndrome, much?"  It gets worse when he kidnaps her and takes her to his compound, where she gets to know the other coyote women, I guess, though there is not really any description of anything or anyone.  She is worried that he doesn't love her... but there has been absolutely nothing between them but sex from the reader's perspective.  And he continues to be a cold fish with no feelings or sympathies.  There is little explanation of this other than that he is "enforcer".  In the end, the predictable happens:  He's off chasing the bad guy, who has come to the compound and kidnaps her and ties her up to have his way with her.  The "hero" rushes back and saves the day, and has realized that he loves her, and she's pregnant with his pups.  HEA.  But I wasn't happy about it.  I still think she has Stockholm Syndrome.Waste of time, and even $.99 was too high for this novella.