We all know that shifter reads are a favorite trope of mine. I have always had a fascination with fantasy and supernatural things. Probably the only thing that falls into this category I don’t like is aliens. You read that right … aliens. You see when I was a kid that movie scared the bejeezus out of me. Still, to this day, I won’t watch an alien movie.
Now, I’m going to step on my soapbox a little bit, you see Amazon has stated I am unable to review. They allege I am in a relationship with these authors, publishers, sellers, and/or I accept a bribe for my review. I can assure you I do not. I am fighting a battle to gain back my 15 years worth of experience with Amazon. That said, I felt bad for the authors I read. Many of them lost my review, an honest review that I paid for. I snagged this book on Kindle Unlimited, so I am paying Amazon to let me leave this review, whenever that may be… Okay, I’m off the soapbox now, I could say more, but we will leave it at that.
As I was saying, I love shifters, and when the third in the series released, I had to snatch it up. Ben and Penny’s story had me very excited. I think this is my favorite in the series so far. We travel back in time a bit to when Ben and Penny first encounter each other. This was handled beautifully, to interweave the time they met in previous stories, to the present time. I wasn’t lost and thought it flowed nicely into the present day.
Penny comes back home and finds a job as far away from her nightmare as possible. She was written as a kind character with a lot of heart and compassion. She was genuine and vulnerable. How she grew in the story was sweet beyond words. Her strength and smarts came out at the end and showed her just who she really was. I love how her personality was written. The author did a fantastic job of making Penny’s issues shine without feeling like it was the ONLY thing in the story. I like backstory and growth, and Penny had that.
Ben, the bear, is one of my favorite characters in this series. One thing I find enjoyable is how his personality fit that of a bear. If that makes sense… Ben had this loveable personality and just wanted to provide comfort and protect those he considers family. Even the tiny mention about how much he sleeps, had me chuckling thinking, ‘yup, he’s all bear.’ How he comes to be there for Penny, moves me as a reader. He was patient, kind, and had such love for Penny. All he was willing to do just so she could feel safe, made your heart swell.
The author surprised me with this story. There were moments where the characters had the willies, and I was thinking ‘oh no, what’s going to happen.’ I was surprised as a reader, and that doesn’t happen often. There were different layers and threats in this story, that wove together and overlapped. It really was very well written and leads to the feeling that something bigger is coming.
I definitely recommend this story, and this blogger gives it 5 (unbiased) pointe shoes. I also recommend signing up for the author’s newsletter. There is a bonus story and it had me falling in love with Penny even more. It also had me loving Sybil!
Meet Alicia Montgomery by clicking here.