Review: Great addition to the series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 24, 2013
PJV Quickie: Impulse delivered exactly what I expect from the awesome writing duo that is Moira Rogers:  great characters, fast-paced action, hot, hot sex, and fabulous world-building.ReviewJulio Mendoza is a very alpha wolf. He’s been through an extremely traumatic experience, and is spending more time trying to take care of others than himself.  He’s dealing with the after-affects of torture, and fighting to keep dirty shifter politics from affecting the shifters he considers to be under his care. His psychic healer decides he needs a vacation to avoid self-destruction.Sera is one of the last remaining coyote shifters and as beta as they come – her drive to please the other shifters no matter how much it might hurt herself is overpowering.  She left her abusive ex husband and came to New Orleans for protection, but when it appears he’s followed her to the Crescent City, the best plan of action appears to be sending her along with Julio on his vacation.Of course, the vacation doesn’t turn out to be very relaxing, and life on the road has a few surprises in store for Julio and Sera._____________________I am a huge fan of Moira Rogers, and of all their books, the Southern Arcana series is probably my favorite. Julio and Sera both appear at first to be pretty straight-forward characters, but as you read you uncover new layers and nuances, and understand why they are perfect for each other, even as they both fight the attraction.  Moira Rogers has a way of writing that shows the complexity of the characters while highlighting important world-building elements instead of using the dreaded ‘info dump’:"None of it would matter if her ex was back in town. Josh could corner her and drown her in shapeshifter magic, and everything she wanted would fade away under the purest driving need of all.The coyotes had a few generations left, at most, and desperation pulsed in her blood. She didn’t need to love Josh. She didn’t even need to like him. The instinctive parts of her would always submit to him, because nothing was more important to the coyote than the survival of their species.He’d take her. She’d let  him. Together, they’d recreate the worst nightmares of her family’s past.Shooting him would be a lot less painful, for both of them."I really liked these two together: Sera is submissive but wants to help, not just sit back and let others do the work for her, and Julio has to fight his nature to take over and protect her.  The conflict between Sera’s want to be with Julio and her responsibility to carry on the coyote line was so much deeper than I expected.The political changes that have been brewing throughout the series are still in play, and it was very interesting to be able to visit other places and see how things work outside of New York and New Orleans.  As a resident of a city known for public bribes and ‘kick-backs’, I found the distrust by the other shifters very interesting and true-to-life.And I have to mention the magical gadgets – So. Freakin. Cool.  I love the stuff Moira Rogers comes up with!I would not recommend as a stand-alone as there are a lot of recurring characters whose back-story might make it hard to follow.  I would recommend, however, grabbing this series and starting from the beginning (Crux) – you won’t be disappointed.Recommendations:If you like shapeshifters, political intrigue, hot sex scenes, action, and cool magical gadgets, I highly recommend this series.