The lions and tigers and bears are back!! And I couldn't be
more thrilled. If you read my review of Big Bad Beast
you know I'm a big fan of Shelly Laurenston and her clan
(pack? pride?) of shifters. The latest book in the Pride
series brings back Marcella "Cella" Malone, tiger-shifter,
hockey player, and cat killer (or is it killer cat?), and
Lou "Crush" Crushek, bear, rabid hockey fan, and by-the-book
cop.
We met Crush way back in The Mane Event when Dez
MacDermot runs into him outside a bar and delivers, with all
the pissed-off attitude she's know for, one of my favorite
lines ("There are bears?"!) They've come a long way since
then and now they are partners working for a secret shifter
branch of the NYPD. Crush, not a fan of change, was good at
undercover work but now that his cover is blown finds
himself sitting across a desk from MacDermot and isn't quite
sure how he feels about it. It doesn't help that he woke up
naked in her house after a party and too many Jell-O shots
with a naked tiger-shifter using him as pillow. Cella, in
typical shit-starter fashion, uses the circumstances to mess
with his head. Crush isn't sure he likes this flaky drama
queen, even when he discovers she is the enforcer on his
favorite hockey team, and agrees to be her pretend
boyfriend, and finds himself working alongside her (in her
role as contractor for KZS) to handle a number of threats
(bears and taxidermists, oh my!).
BEAR MEETS GIRL has a little bit of everything I love to
read in romance—humor, passion, and suspense with a touch of
paranormal. It works well as a stand-alone story but much of
the fun comes in getting to visit characters we know and
love. I really enjoyed the dynamic created when Dez, Cella,
and Dee-Ann Smith teamed up in Big Bad Beast, and I am
glad to see those friendships carried over to the latest
book. Cella and Crush are fantastic as individual
characters and as a couple. They each bring their own
quirks, family issues, and moral code to the story. Around
here, we've already started debating whose story is next.
Can't wait to find out!!
Lou Crushek is a reasonable, mellow, easygoing kind of
guy—especially for a shapeshifting bear. But once someone
starts killing the scumbags he works so hard to bust, that
really gets under his fur. Especially when that someone is
a curvy she -- tiger who\'s bringing his passion out of
hibernation...
Marcella Malone is a member of an elite feline protection
unit, and Crush is proving one major pain in her gorgeous
tail. The only reason she\'s joined forces with him is to
track down the wealthy human who\'s got her entire species
in his ruthless sights. But there\'s no denying that beneath
that big, burly exterior is a man who knows how to rub her
in all the right ways...