Review: A fun, intriguing, and emotional story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 12, 2010
I've read many books from Stormy Glenn. While hardly literary masterpieces, I hold them to an admittedly lower standard than I do other novels. They're fun and sexy and are very light, but entertaining, reads. While I normally rate her books between three and four stars, I gave this one a five star review because it did evoke some heartfelt emotions.Ryce and Saul are mated werewolves. They're deeply in love with each other. The only blemish on their relationship is that Saul heads into town every Friday night to seemingly "sow his oats". This slowly eats away at Ryce, and their relationship is gradually going down the tubes, even though Ryce is still hopelessly in love with Saul.When Ryce's frustration reaches epic proportions, he decides to head into town too to see if he can have some fun. There, he runs into Cary and recognizes Cary as his mate. Cary is a tri-omega, a werewolf assigned two mates to help keep them grounded. Once claimed by one mate though, a tri-omega must be claimed by the other in the near future, or die. Even after claimed by both, they must be continually claimed every few days or they whither away. Ryce knows a bit about tri-omegas. He knows that fate doesn't assign a tri-omega two mates without those two mates being assigned to each other. Since he and Saul are mates, Saul must also be Cary's mate, so Ryce goes and claims Cary. When Saul comes home though and finds Cary and Ryce asleep together, he's heartbroken and feels betrayed, even though he knows he's been putting Ryce through the same thing. Cary leaves Ryce asleep in the bed and comes downstairs to meet Saul, but the drunken heartbroken Saul is so jealous and angry, he sends Cary away.The is one of the better stories of the series. There's a lot of emotional angst. We have Cary feeling the elation of discovering his two mates and finally being mated, only to be thrown out by Saul and knowing that he'll die soon without them. We have Ryce who cannot abide by Saul's cheating excursions into town anymore, but still is madly in love with him. We have Saul feeling great self-shame over what he does every week and the fact that it hurts Ryce so much. And then we have the growing realization that whatever it is that Saul does every week, it's not cheating, it's forced upon him, and he must keep his mouth shut and let everyone think he's a scumbag for their own protection.There's some nicely heartfelt scenes in the story that surprise. Such as an argument between Saul and Ryce that turns into lovemaking, but during the lovemaking, it becomes apparent to Ryce that this is Saul's goodbye. Another piece of dialog that tugs the heart is a conversation with Micah, another tri-omega that can sense emotions. While everyone is sure Saul is cheating, Micah informs them that whatever Saul is doing, he's not cheating. Micah can feel Saul's love for Ryce, and it almost fully consumes every other emotion and is the driving force behind Saul. These touches at heartfelt romance to the story, elevating it above just normal erotica.It's a pretty complex tale that is sexy, romantic, exciting, and intriguing. It's one of Ms. Glenn's better stories in the series. I normally wouldn't give a five-star review to light tales like this, but since it does rise above the others, I passed on an extra star to it.