Review: 3.5 Stars, I broke down and spent $4.99!!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 11, 2011
I finally broke down and bought Ranger's Folly.  Again I'm not too happy with the price tag for something that is 234 KB (a novella length) but I seem powerless to stop my curiosity about the Lost Shifters...We all know the surface Ranger.  He is the little alpha of his stray shifters pack and has worked hard to keep them safe from the world.  Under his protection though they got captured by slavers and forced into captivity for a year, now they reside with the Feline Shifters and under Mitchell's protection.  We don't really get to know too much about Ranger except that he is young, a bit of an alpha, and was kicked out of his pack for being gay (which also happens to be Chris's pack who is going to marry Cassie).  On the flip Xavier is Riley's twin who didn't die in the family massacre years ago.  Instead he was saved by a good raven... which puts an entirely new spin on all of Stephani's future books... The Ravens don't have to be bad and nasty! It's a great twist, and the fact that Chance and Dulla (Xavier's step siblings) love Xavier so much is weird, yet sweet.  I have a feeling that Chance will get a story soon.The whole plot is about Ranger finding Xavier and `saving' him.  This book was good, but was a bit different .  The good part was that it was all about Xavier and Ranger, in fact we see more of Chance and Dulla then we do of Riley, Collin, Mitchell, or anyone.  The only person who makes more than a brief appearance is Shane and that's because he's the one helping Ranger find where Xavier's hide out is. There is also some sweet `surrender' and romance between Xavier and Ranger.  What I found different was that I didn't feel like Ranger was Ranger.  That's a weird thing to say but I feel like the young Ranger from the earlier books was completely different from the one Mitchell put in command of the extraction unit, and the one `going after his mate'. I missed where this personality shifted, especially since in the last few books he was exactly the same. In a way it did feel like he was an extension of the other dominant males from the first few books.  There were also no steamy scenes until the last chapter, and Ranger was quite... quite pushy, this led to Xavier at times not having much of his own personality.  I got that he was nervous, that he grew up in seclusion, and that he lived for his siblings, but other than that, I didn't really get a good feel for who Xavier actually was, what he wanted or believed in. The reuniting scene between Riley and Xavier could have also lasted longer than a few paragraphs, but again this is all semantics.I read The Lost Shifters because they are easy, quick, steamy, and have great characters.  I think I was expecting Hecht to keep going in the direction she pushed Shane and Trevor's story, but she hasn't.  There aren't bad guys.  Riley and Xavier's stories both had the `demon within' that had to fought, but no capture, no violence, no blood, no enemies.  I know I was in the minority but I adored Shane/Trevor's story.  I loved that Shane had to fight to get him back and that there was a clear purpose.  I feel like these last two books were more of a filler, or push towards a new arc of characters.  If you love the guy meets mate/has a small conflict/ lives happily ever after formula, again you will love this new installment.  I will keep hoping for a little more action and conflict.Hecht is planning on releasing a free novella (I guess an even shorter one) about Cassie and Chris's wedding, which I'm sure is going to be fun and hilarious to read. Enjoy!