Furry, Fluffy, and Wild

Celia Kyle, Nina Pierce, Tina Holland

Publisher:
Liquid Silver Books

Release Date:
September 15, 2008

Genres:
Anthology
Paranormal Romance
Shape Shifter

ISBN:
eBook
9781595784803

Bookmark Rating:

Reviewed by
Yosha

Review Posted:
September 2008

 ~WERE’S WHAT? by Celia Kyle~ 

Lyla is a fluffy girl, running away from the pack’s omega.  She does what every woman does – wishes she’d gone to the gym more and promises she’ll do just that, as soon as she gets away from this guy.  Lyle wants nothing to do with Carl the omega, but the pack’s Alpha just doesn’t care what Lyla wants.  So, she’s running for her freedom.  Literally. 

After breaking a heel and a sweat, she runs right into Michael.  He’s a very big, very human man, who is not a shape shifter, though he is definitely an Alpha.  He learned about the world of shape shifters when he landed in the middle of a war between werepumas and werejaguars.  He’s had quite enough of all those weres. 

But when Lyla runs into him, he’s hooked.  No way is he going to let her go, despite his very best intentions. 

WERE’S WHAT? is a hot story and a lot of fun to read.  In fact, it’s the best out of the three stories in this anthology.  I could put myself in the mind of either Lyla or Michael and identify with their feelings.  Michael was fed up with all the were problems around him, but when his body came alive for Lyla, it just didn’t matter.  Though not the body ideal, Lyla knew she deserved more than the omega.  She’d go it alone, if that was the only option.  Then Michael stepped into her path and into her life. 

Together they have to fight off a lot of challenges, not the least of which was their notions about what they wanted and what they could have with the other.  There’s lots of sparring, lots of loving and lots of fur along the way. 

~BLUE MOON RISING by Nina Pierce~ 

When Jayda Kynslan heads off to the bar, she wants to have a beer and get laid.  This is not your ordinary bar and Jayda is not the usual girl out for a good time.  She is a veterinarian and a woman who doesn’t know her own deepest secrets.  She’s a polymorphic shifter, the stuff of legends.  Two men try to claim her – Chief of Police Cole Takoda and head of the cougar council, Kurt Hansley.  One of them is good and one is very bad.  And the war is brewing between their groups.  The battle for supremacy is littered with the bodies of shapeshifters, killed to destabilize the community during the time of the blue moon. 

Jayda is an interesting woman.  She’s not only in a nontraditional career, she really has no idea who or what she is.  She was orphaned and grew up knowing nothing about shapeshifters.  She has to learn her own nature in the middle of crisis.  She has to fight to stand on her own two feet when one of the men tries to use her to take over the whole society.   Her man, her mate, has to risk the position he is good at to try to keep Jayda safe. 

My only quibble with this story is that the final showdown between good and evil is a little predictable.  However, it fits so well with Jayda’s character that it makes perfect sense. 

~BEAUTY IS A BEAST by Tina Holland~ 

In  SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 13025, Nizhoni of Mojave Earth Clan has gone on a vision quest to find her spirit guide.  She is rescued by a man, who finds her sick, alone and in danger.   She becomes a wolf in her spirit form, and then bites the man who rescued her.  When she realizes what she’s done, she runs away in shame.  

Michael of the Air Clan has searched for the woman he calls Beauty; the one who turned him into a creature of the moon. When he finds her living among the Mojave, he believes he can finally claim her. There's only one problem. She's already married.  

Together Nizhoni and Michael must battle her former lover and husband, the Yee Naaldlooshi, or feared skin-walker.  No one is safe from his possession. 

The premise of this story fascinated me, combining elements of ghost lore, shape shifting and tribal culture.  And I liked the characters.  Michael had the ability to be both strong and empathetic.  Nizhoni loved with all her heart, once she got over her fear, and she was willing to sacrifice herself for the good of others.  Nizhoni’s father showed the strength and wisdom  needed to raise a child and lead a tribe.    

The problem was that from the beginning, I felt like I’d been dropped into the middle of a story and I had to scramble to try to catch up.  There were lots of different life forms and lots of bad guys and good guys.  I kept finding myself asking why this and why that?  At least once, I dropped out of the story because I got busy trying to fill in the gap.   

I can’t figure out if it needed more explanation at the beginning or fewer characters.  I know that it needed to be streamlined, so that the romance between Nizhoni and Michael could really take center stage.

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