Both werebear Detective Kalan Murdoch and his mate Elana is stressed out and frustrated. With work interfering, their home life is suffering and they can’t seem to find a way to juggle all the responsibilities of home and work. When their home is broken into, Kalan and Elana have to work together to bring down the group responsible and to help save a friend. But will their journey be enough to save what connection they’ve lost?

This romance is hot, passionate, emotionally gripping and oh so sweet as Kalan and Elana strive to reconnect as life continuously interferes. The chemistry between the two is definitely still there and still quite electrical so the passion in their lives when they find the time is still hot and steamy but the happy and warm feeling is missing as Elana and their children hardly ever get to spend time with Kalan which has lots of emotions flowing from the pages that readers can’t help but get caught up in.

The story is fast paced and has lots of suspense and excitement as well as a series of crimes has Kalan thinking that the Changelings are back and up to no good once again. Some unexpected twists keeps readers on their toes but it the emotionally gripping and heartwarming romance between Kalan and Elana that keeps readers glued to the pages of this story.

That was an entertaining "love you/hate you" romp. To be honest, I was not sure about attempting this, because trying to redeem magnificent bastards tends to make them decay, but had to after his show up on Magic Triumphs. I had fun, even if the format resembles a medieval romance with arranged marriage type of thing more than standard Urban fantasy fare (though to be fair, Andrews does usually veer more into the romantic as volumes pass).

Most interesting part for me was him analyzing why he failed in Magic Rises.

You can not tell me the amount of dogs left is not a 300 allegory.

Badass crown for that "Hi, honey" at the end.

There was a lot set up here and questions raised as befits a pilot to a new series, but they don't intrude that much if you want to read it as a stand alone.

Really, what else is there to say about the closing of a saga worth it's salt?

Ok... Fast paced wrap up choke-full of badass moments, everyone gets a scene bit or at least a name check and the last solution reeked of poetic justice with a good dose of deus-ex-machina (heheh). Plus all the mommy moments that were hilarious, dysfunctional, messed up and all around weird, or awesome, or blood-thirsty, or all of the above, lol.

Now, for all the bits that I can't comment without spoiling

Oh, lookie, I just busted my yearly challenge

Big thanks to Ceridwen and her guidance, because I really liked this one.

The world is rich but understandable enough, and the author does not go for info-dumping to ensure it. So, from my point of view, extra kudos for being self-contained.

I don't know how the romance works in other volumes, but there were a lot of positives for me in this one:

- There is a very alpha male. He's very protective, sure. But he's respectful. And he wants his mate to be his equal. Everyone equates capacity for being alpha with capacity for love.

- Consent is a huge thing in-world. At some point, the main male character says consent once does not imply consent again. Like wow, how come we don't see that often. So sexy.

- Main female character is BAMF. Actually, everyone is BAMF, even the grandmother. World of BAMF. But what I like is that it is in a quiet way. We don't see her engage in any huge display of power here, but it's always there, in the dialogue, her hyper-competence, the way she attends to her looks and literally calls it armor, the no-bullshit directness.

- Directly related to that one, the way the romance progresses in a no-bullshit way. Given the uber-praticality of anyone in Silence, and Valentin's commitment it makes sense. It translates into fast paced and big on communication. There are hurdles, but it's more an external, plot related thing. Little to do with hysterical angsty push and pull. Like I said, no bullshit. Such a relief.

I don't know that I will love all of the books in this series, but what I see I like, and will certainly read more Singh soon

Shiver
Maggie Steifvater

Hard Copy

Public Library

So I took a few days to write this review just to think about the book.

Characters:
This book was weird. While reading it, I really cared about Sam and Grace. I wanted them to be happy. Thinking back on it, I find that I just don't care as much. That's odd for me. Normally, once I latch onto a character, I love them for life. I can't even really say what I liked about them while reading it. Neither one seemed all that special. I mean, sure, Sam is a werewolf, but who isn't in YA these days? It's different that they only change when it's cold. And I did feel bad for him and his messed up childhood with what his parents did to him. But that's it. Now. But while reading Shiver, I thought he was just awesome. I'm not going to act like I wasn't relieved when he was human at the end though.

Plot:
This started pretty slowly for me. Some people enjoy that easy going start. I'm not one of those people. Overall, the action in this book was lacking. The end was decent however. I never would have guessed that by getting them sick, they could be cured. Well, not for Jack, but... Whatever. He was a jerk anyway. Aside from the romance, there didn't seem to be much of anything. Which for a romance is fine, but I expected more. I don't even know why. All I have ever heard about this book is that it is a good romance. I just think werewolves, so there must be something more to it. Not really.

Setting:
Meh. Nothing special. Could have been my hometown. Which is fine.

Writing:
This is why Shiver is getting four stars from me. Because despite everything complaint I just had, the writing drew me in. I wanted to read me. Some parts were downright lyrical, folks. If you want romance and pretty writing, this is the book for you. If you need some action to go along with it, pass this one up.