Author: Shelly Laurenston
Series: Pride #9
Release Date: March 25, 2014
My Rating: 3 Stars
That’s where Vic Barinov comes in—or his house does. Vic can’t step outside without coming back to find Livy devouring his honey stash and getting the TV remote sticky. It gets his animal instincts all riled up. But he’ll have to woo her at high speed: all hell is breaking loose, and Livy is leading the charge…
I hate to say it because I really loved the rest of this series, but this book wasn't Ms. Laurenston's best. As a reader, I begin to set certain benchmarks for authors when I've read several of their books. I don't begrudge authors that step out of the box, I actually applaud them... if they do it well. My benchmarks for the Pride series are hilarious antics, beloved characters, and erotic play to boot. What I got with Bite Me was more of cameo reel for past characters and a very twisty plot that was dragged out. I didn't get enough of the main couple and the plot was thinned out too much among too many characters. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing from past characters but, in this instance I was bombarded with so many of them I couldn't remember who most of them were, and I didn't get to spend enough time with them to remember why I loved them. I know I loved them because I love every single one Shelly Laurenston's characters. It was more like a family reunion on speed than anything else. Having said that, the parts with Vic and Livy were simply awesome.
Livy is a cut throat, no holds barred, honey badger who never fit into her family. So when her estranged father passes away suddenly, her feelings don't reflect accordingly. She never got along with him, and her feelings in general, even toward her closest friend, don't showcase appropriately in the first place. Vic Barinov is on the same wavelength. He is an easy to love, awkward, bear/tiger shifter. They both have an achilles heel for honey, and on more than one occasion Vic has found Livy hunkering in his cupboards, stealing his honey. It is painfully obvious that Vic has a soft spot for Livy, but he doesn't know what to do about it. While their love affair is slow progressing through the book, they must still team up when a shifter killer hits too close to home, and has friends in the upper echelons of the shifter world helping hide him. They pull all their resources to find the killer and with a blend of danger and hilarity this journey will be no small feat.
I feel that Bite Me was more mystery laden than the previous books. With that mystery the author felt the need to pull in several older characters and it kept the book off center for me. The time with Vic and Livy was few and far between. BUT when it was their turn center stage I loved every minute of it. I love that they are awkward and unsettling with everyone except each other. They just get each other, and it made their gradual progression to love that much sweeter. While, I loved them as a couple and even their friend chemistry together, I felt like I would get invested in them only to be thrown into another character two seconds later. It was almost never the same characters either. I think you could cut out half of the scenes without the major characters in them and the integrity of this book would stay intact. In this book I just wish the author would have narrowed the scope of the world a little bit. I still liked Bite Me, but it just wasn't up to par with its predecessors.
Happy Reading!
*ARC received by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
Links to Buy:
Connect with Shelly:
No comments:
Post a Comment