Review: Nice Maya Banks short story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 16, 2010
To make it very clear: this is a short story.  Very short.  It also doesn't have any sex scenes and character development is shallow at best, with the exception of the heroine, Heather.Heather is the human mate to two wolf shapeshifters; when buying supplies, Heather, friend and shapeshifter Niko and her mates' father are ambushed by hunters.  To make a short story shorter, Heather is blamed by her mates who think she was responsible for the attack which ended in their father's death.  She's gravely injured, yet they turn their back on her and leave her to die.  She's rescued by a hunter (a good one this time) who tries to nurse her back to life.What follows is standard typical romance stuff and would be spoilers, if that's possible.  What makes this story very good for me is more about what's left out.  This isn't erotica, despite the steamy books Banks usually writes.  I don't know if it could even be called a romance, since there's not a lot of romancing going on.  It's more of a love story; characters torn apart because of a misunderstanding and brought back together not because of hot sex, but rather love and the ability to forgive.  I didn't particularly like the mates and if it were me, they'd have been kicked back to the pack and I'd have run off with Niko.This isn't a perfect story; things get wrapped up far too soon and because of the length and that fact that nearly all of the narrative focuses on Heather, her mates get the short end of the stick in terms of character development.  They go from feeling betrayed to wallowing in grief because of what they did in a very, very short amount of time.  There are only really five characters and no explanations at all of things like the pack and how Heather came to be with them.Still, this is a nice, sweet story that can be read in an hour.  Think of it as an appetizer for one of Banks' other books.