Review: Artificial Dislike
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 27, 2013
***Received from Entangled Publishing for an honest review***I was incredibly surprised by the balance of romance, suspense, and paranormal in this book. Ms. Niles writes about two shifters--Val, a half-shifter, and Britton, a shifter who's been stripped of his shifter abilities as punishment for twenty years--who have this deep and intense dislike for each other yet are stuck working together to find a missing boy.In the beginning, I wondered how any kind of relationship was possible between Britton and Val due to the constant jabs they made at each other. When they weren't arguing over something stupid, they weren't talking at all. When they weren't talking, they were stewing over how much they couldn't stand each other. When they were ordered to work together, I chuckled at how well that was going to go. When they found out they were stuck in a cabin together, I nearly died laughing as I wondered who would kill who first.I didn't laugh for long though as I watched their relationship change. It didn't happen overnight (thank you, Ms. Niles, for taking your time with this part of the story!) but slowly. As Britton's shifter abilities returned, a short reprieve approved by the High Council so he could work the case, his perspective of and feelings toward Val changed as well. Emotions he'd never felt for Val caught him, and her, off guard. But it made the discovery of how he really felt for her that much sweeter for me to read about.The story isn't without a few twists pertaining to the kidnapped boy, the High Council, and Britton's crime that cost him the loss of his abilities. But the most outstanding and unique twist in this story was how Britton lost his shifter abilities. Not the crime itself or his reasons for going against shifter law, but what was done to him to suppress his shifter abilities and instincts.A superbly written story that Ms. Niles filled with enough suspense, romance, hate, love, forgiveness and reconciliation that kept me reading and hoping for the happily ever after Britton and Val deserved.