bookshelves: net-galley, autumn-2013, published-2012, recreational-drugs, e-book, families, teh-demon-booze, slit-yer-wrists-gloomy

Uncorrected proof ARC from Random House. Many thanks.

Opening: Most men in my family make widows of their wives and orphans of their children.

Charlie Crosby's descent into drugs and alcohol following his daughter's death is painful to read, however this tragic story is beautifully rendered.

Not having read Harding's Pulitzer winning novel Tinkers, I have to rely on others to tell me that Enon is set in the same town.  The writing is wonderful and one of the best examples of first person narrative I've run across, usually it is such a confining mode.

A quick read at only 256 pages.

Crossposted: Goodreads, NetGalley, Anobii, LibraryThing

While driving on a deserted highway in Nevada, Claudia Hunter spots a miserable heap of fur at the side of the road. Taking pity on the creature, she pulls over to investigate and finds a large dog that looks like it has been dragged behind a car for miles. Unwilling to put the dog down, Claudia ends up transporting it to the nearest vet, only to discover that what she thought was a dog is actually a Wyr and the crime is much more insidious then extreme animal abuse.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this one as much as the previous novella in the series, True Colors. However, Natural Evil was a pretty good read.

Claudia is an emotionally distant ex-soldier and she kicks some pretty serious ass throughout this story. I loved having her paired with Luis, the hero, who is young, energetic, and rather optimistic. The ending, despite not being a traditional happily-ever-after, was really appropriate for the main characters but it left me hoping that these two will be revisited in a future book. My only real compliant is that Luis wasn't as fleshed out as Claudia, which might've been due to of how much page time he spends in his dog form.

All in all, this was a fun short story and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good short paranormal romance.

Charles is struggling with how brutal his role as Bram's axe-man is, now that people know werewolves exist. Anna, noticing disturbing changes in Charles' state of mind, brings her concern to Bram who harshly brushes her off. Unfortunately, everyone seems to think that Anna is bitching because she can't handle what Charles does anymore. After Bram finally recognizes that Charles is struggling, he decides to send Charles and Anna out to solve a spree of serial murders. Bram and Anna both hope that giving Charles this opportunity to help people rather than act as an executioner will help him overcome whatever he's struggling with.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this one as much as others in the series, but it was still a great addition. My main problem stemmed from the fact that too much time had passed in Anna and Charles' world. In second book, Hunting Ground, Anna was still struggling with her place in Charles' life and with her past. At the end of the second book, there were still a lot of emotional issues that Anna needed to overcome and I looked forward to watching her do that in future books. However, as Fair Game opens, it looks like Anna has solved all those issues. Suddenly she's confident enough to not only face-off with Bram (the alpha) but to argue with him while he's in a rage. I was thrown by this because it's a huge difference from Anna in the first two books. In Hunting Ground she couldn't even sit in a room with alpha wolves, but now she can stand her ground against one of the most powerful ones out there? This huge leap in Anna's progress really made it feel like I somehow missed a short story or novel before this book that would explain where this new confidence came from.

Aside from the sudden change in Anna's mental state, I really loved the storyline here. Seeing her and Charles' relationship flipped from what it was in previous books, with Anna acting as the rock and Charles the emotionally unstable one, was really great. I loved the feeling of equality and balance it added to their relationship. The side-characters were also intriguing here, especially in regards to the ending. Seriously, that ending was pretty bad-ass and I can't wait to see what Briggs does with the fall-out from it in future books.

Jane and Gabriel have just moved in with each other and are in the process of planning their wedding. Since it's Jane's upcoming wedding, you know things are going to go wrong before she can walk down the aisle. The trouble starts when Jane turns a teenager she used to babysit into a vampire to save his life. Suddenly, Jane finds herself saddled with a vampire childe she never wanted. Things only get worse when Jane's dead grandmother starts haunting her and someone starts trying to kill Gabriel.

I'll admit I went into Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbors reluctantly since I thought Jane's story had been wrapped-up nicely at the end of the third book. My main concern was that Jane and Gabriel wouldn't be able to hold my attention without their usual relationship drama and, sadly, I was right. I spent the majority of the story bored and had a hard time finishing the book. The writing was still great and there were quite a few funny moments, but the story just didn't hold my attention.

Jane and Gabriel's interactions fell really flat, which was due to Gabriel never having been really fleshed out in the other novels. So having so much of him in the story caused it to drag because he was very one dimensional. In contrast to just how much Gabriel we get, we get very little Dick and Andrea. I have to say that I really missed their presence since they were always great in the other books.

Despite my issues with this addition to the series, I'll still continue to read the spin off books starring other characters. However, I won't be reading any other Jane books if they come out. I think her story is done.

Crush is an ex-cop who, after a party, wakes up naked with Marcella Malone. Crush wants nothing more than to just forget the whole incident and return to his stable life. Unfortunately, he can't shake Marcella off, as no matter where he goes she seems to pop-up. Much to Crush's frustration she also seems to get her jollies by embarrassing him.

I was really looking forward to Bear Meets Girl, but it didn't live up to expectations. In fact, I think this was probably my least favorite Laurenston book yet. Crush bored me, which was sad since I typically really enjoy Laurenston's bear-shifters. It felt like Laurenston went a little too far aiming for an up-tight hero and just gave us a bland one. I enjoyed Marcella's character a lot more. She goes out of her way to torment Crush every chance she gets, which made for some pretty funny moments. However, the attraction between her and Crush was non-existent until near the very end and even then it felt kind of...tacked on. The way Laurenston ended the book didn't help with that feeling either. The story ends abruptly and left me wondering if my e-book somehow didn't download all of the book.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this one unless you're a die-hard fan of the series.