Review: I'm sold for the rest of this series!!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 26, 2013
This was my first read from The Awakening series, and I was definitely impressed.  I do so love getting lost in a great shifter paranormal story, and Abby Niles had me completely gone over the sexy angry beast that was Britton Townsend!  The tension (both good and bad) between him and the understandably baffled victim of his anger, Val Calhoun, was thick enough to swipe a jaguar claw through; with an intriguing plot and twists that had my heart racing tossed in the mix, I was hooked!Right off the bat, it was clear that Britton’s anger towards Val was not just some simple office battle of wills. Whereas she disliked his attitude and his flagrant flirting/bedding with women, his reaction was something on a whole new level of bitterness.  Yes, she’d taken his job as head of the SPAC when he’d made a split-second decision that cost him greatly years ago, but she hadn’t gone out of her way to oust him.  So, when the tables were turned and Britton was called back in to help with a high-stakes ransom case, there was all kinds of scowling and growling going on between these two. But they had to shove all of that aside to work the case, especially since it required them to spend several days in close quarters!I loved Niles’ concept of the shifter gene being suppressed or brought to the surface with a simple shot of serum; it was a unique twist, and Britton’s jaguar struggling and clawing against its fate was awesome.  Britton had been forced to spend 20 years without his beast, and at four years into his sentence they were going to bring it back as if nothing happened.  After being torn and left half the man he used to be, he was suddenly getting back the part of him that made him who he was, made him complete.  He was ready to deal with his beast resurfacing and more than ready to have his superhuman abilities back, but neither he nor Val were prepared for the massive shift in his reactions to her presence.As Britton’s shifter side began to settle in and he found himself less and less disgusted by the woman who used to make his skin crawl, the reason behind his dramatic turn-around began to reveal itself.  It was such an awesome plot development and it had my heart racing from the anticipation of what was to come for these two!  Val was understandably confused by Britton’s change of heart, but she softened toward him when she realized he was being genuine for once.  It was a sweet side to counter all of the bitterness they had between them, and I really enjoyed seeing both of them view each other in such a different light.  By that point I was drooling repeatedly over sex-on-legs Britton anyway, and Val’s strength and feisty personality had won me over easily!With all of the pent-up aggression on Britton’s end and sexual tension from both sides, there was bound to be some epic angry sex when the dust settled…and oh, was it ever!  Britton was just as much a beast pleasing his woman as he was in shifter form, and good lord I loved every moment!  But things weren’t going to be easy for them, between figuring out who was behind the kidnapping and facing the fact that Britton’s status as a shifter was still in question.  He and Val dealt with some gut-wrenching blows as they came to grips with their fate, and right up to the end it was uncertain what lay ahead for them.  Theirs was a thrilling love story with all of the passion you’d expect from a paranormal romance and some great twists that make this one to remember, and I can’t wait to grab up the first two books in this series to see what I missed out on!