Hello everyone!
It's time for yet another book review and, yes, you guessed it, I turned to my usual go-to for whenever I feel as though I need a good, solid romance story with a happily ever after that doesn't come at the price of me tearing my hair out at either the hero or heroine being completely ridiculous by not just TALKING things through.
I mean, what's the price of talk nowadays? Millions of dollars?
You'd think so by how certain authors will add unnecessary complications into a fictional relationship simply for the sake of a complication itself.
Anyway.
Serenity Woods does NOT do that, I'm happy to report, although I do have to admit I ran into one of her books that didn't quite mesh up with what I'd been expecting ... but it's not tonight's subject, I promise.
No, no, tonight's subject is one of those I actually devoured fairly easily.
It's titled Wild Heart.
It's the first in a trilogy of books about Big Cat Tor, which is basically a village in Dartmoor that houses shifters, aka men who turn into big cats because ... well, because they can?
I don't think the origins or whatever have ever been explained in the book, but really, sometimes it's better not to get bogged down by all the whys and just enjoy the story, after all.
And as this is the story about the eldest of three brothers, here's what happens:
pediatrician Caiden Tyler has pretty much spent most of his adult life working and making sure his hospital has the funds it needs, but equally he doesn't see the appeal of one night stands or short relationships anymore. He wants to settle down and start a family, and it doesn't help that his parents are all a go for this suggestion, too, probably because he's got two other brothers, Jamie and Theo, who they have to match up later.
Anyway, his mother suggests that he might want to try Match my Mail, an online dating service, where she'd pretty much already set his profile and whatnot, and here I am giggling but trying to decide whether or not to be horrified since I know if MY mother would have done the same thing I'd have probably ended up with a mummy.
Of course things change when Caiden actually applies and then meets Liv.
Liv is a journalist who wants to publish books, specifically cookbooks, more than anything else, but she's researching the online dating scheme for an article and she and Caiden match up.
As soon as they get to talking, first through mail and then through phone, both of them get a little zing.
And then they meet of course.
It seems to at least be lust at first sight, although Caiden's inner jaguar seems to believe Liv is his mate, one way or the other.
Side note, the little tidbits about what the jaguar seems to be doing inside Caiden's mind are HILARIOUS.
Anyway, Caiden and Liv start going pretty steady, consumating the relationship where she actually calls the jaguar out much to Caiden's disbelief and surprise, and he ends up telling her about himself at a very early point, feeling like maybe this could be it.
See, he'd had a bad breakup prior to Liv, when the woman walked out on him after he told her about his shifter side, so naturally he's suspicious of any other relationship now.
But all seems to be going pretty well, so well that he invites her to Big Cat Tor over Christmas to meet the family - where he also means to claim her in front of them in that ritual thing the shifters do.
Oh also, yes, only the males seem to be shifters. The females, aka the women, they're there to make sure they stay in line, among other things.
This is where things get a little tricky, as Liv never told Caiden about being a journalist, and his family kind of does a background check on her so it all comes out, and even though she swears up and down she's not doing this to expose the shifters to the world, Caiden feels a little bit off-kilter and says he needs some time before anything else happens.
Especially as he already resents his jaguar for ruining his previous relationship (or so he feels).
However, the bond between these two is impossible to resist and they end up reconciling, and Caiden does in fact bring Liv to Dartmoor to perform the ceremony where she's marked by a paw print tattoo and the two share a slightly different bonding experience that night when consumating their relationship, where the bond settles into place.
Six months later, Liv is a cookbook writer, pregnant and expecting their first cub, and it's time for Caiden's brothers to get in on this relationship/marriage game!
The end.
This was a fun, easy read with a little extra supernatural thrown in for good measure, and I need to get my hands on the other two books ASAP, because I'm super curious about how Caiden's brothers do with this whole matchmaking thing and how they find their partners. Plus, Big Cat Tor seems to be an idyllic enough place and I want to read more about it!
And I mean. Big cats running around. What other excuse does anyone need?
xx
*image not mine
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