boeklogboek: Shelly Laurenston

The first book in the Pride series.
This book contains two full length novels, Christmas Pride and Shaw’s Tail, published in 2007 and on September 25, 2009.
Genre: paranormal romance
Cover: nice

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Christmas Pride

NYPD cop Desiree “Dez” MacDermot knows she’s changed a lot since she palled around with her childhood buddy, Mace. But it’s fair to say that Mace has changed even more. It isn’t just those too sexy gold eyes, or the six-four, built-like-a-Navy Seal body. It’s something in the way he sniffs her neck and purrs, making her entire body tingle…

Mace Llewellyn is back in New York city, after 14 years in the navy, and he is ready to start his new life. With his best friend Smitty (who is a wolf shifter, while he is a big bad lion and the only breeding male of the Llewellyn clan) he will start a private investigating business for shifters. But first he will have to find the girl he has been dreaming of all this time, the girl who moved away when they were both 14, Desiree MacDermot. He doesn’t know that his sister Missy warned Dez away from him, as being not good enough for her only brother.
So when he finally gets home, he is awaited at the airport by one of his sisters´ males, Brendon Shaw. One of her other men, Petrov, was killed last night and not in shifter style but with a bullet to the back of his head. And the police is in the house, investigating. So Mace gets lucky, as the cop in question is his very own sweetheart, who is very happy to see him again. She was happy already as she finally can harass Missy Llewellyn in her own home, and perhaps even throw her in the backseat of her car on suspicion of murder. And now she can needle her with Mace as well! But alas, Missy has called the big guns, and Dez is called of the investigation.

Mace doesn’t let time get away from him, and immediately asks Dez to go out with him that night. Of course, falling in bed together would be better, but he will take what he can get at the moment. And he is relentless, not taking no for an answer. The next few days, he keeps showing up at her place, or where she is working. He will even tolerate the fact that she is a K9 cop, who lives with two large Rottweilers she clearly loves. Dez doesn’t understand why her dogs are so deadly afraid of Mace though, they are well trained police dogs, and usually fiercely protective of her. So she confronts Mace with the facts, and he shows her his lion self. Welcome to shifter world, Dez.

Although Dez is of the investigation, she is invited over the a club by someone who was in love with Petrov, and she wants Dez to find out who killed her lover. Another enemy of Missy, but Dez knows Missy did not do it.

I loved Dez, she is a great heroine. She never did forget Mace in all those years, and having him back in her life feels good. And she even deals with all the surprises he keeps throwing at her, the fact that he is a shifter, that there are lots more shifters around, and the he is in love with her and has always been. He just won’t take no, and keeps pushing her to stay in his life, and to be together. But Dez deals so well with everything she encounters, even a pack of hyena´s, rogue lions and wolves.
And Mace is arrogant and a real alpha male. He is used to getting what he wants, and now he wants Dez, but Dez is not a pushover and she won’t pamper to him. They are great together.

8 stars.

Shaw’s Tail

Meanwhile, for Tennessean Ronnie Lee Reed, New York City is the place where any girl – even one who runs with a Pack – can redefine herself. First order of business: find a mate, settle down, and stop using men for sex. Even big, gorgeous lion shifter men like Brendon Shaw. But she needn’t worry, because now that Brendon’s set his sights on her, the predator in him is ready to pounce and never let go …

In the previous book, Brendon Shaw was mortally wounded, and the Smith Pack took him to a shifter hospital. It is Christmas Eve, and no one of his Pride wants to stay with him, even though he has the Fever. So Ronnie Lee Reed gets saddled with the job, thanks to her best friend and alpha female. She really doesn’t want to, she wants to party with her pack, but she also feels sorry for the lion, being totally alone. He needs someone to take care of him.
And when two armed humans invade his room, she takes care of everything, and takes him to her aunt’s home on Long Island, instead of to her hotel room. And being under the influence of the Fever, Brendon is really out of his mind. But when he wakes up, and is sane again, he knows that he has found his mate, and he will have the she-wolf. If only he knew her name …

To his surprise, the moment he steps foot in his hotel, he smells her. Her whole pack is staying here, and he has no trouble searching her out. But when Ronnie Lee tries to escape his notice, he gets furious. How dare she walk out on him, does she really believes he does not recognize her? Brendon takes her to his own suite at the topfloor, and is willing to pretend he still has a bit of the fever to get her to stay. But his younger brother might ruin everything for him.

There is not really much of a plot in this book. Brendon goes after Ronnie Lee, and she does not want him to. She is ready to find herself a nice wolf and settle down, and not have meaningless sex with strangers anymore. But she also is very much attracted to Brendon. And so she tries to run, and he chases her and catches her. Lion meets wolf, and falls hard.
Lots of love scenes, lots of humor and bantering, and Ronnie Lee certainly is not a meek female, she knows how to take care of herself.

It was fun to read, but after that I realized that the story in this book is almost non existing. I liked meeting the families, and their interaction is very much fun.

7 stars.