Mark Robertson had been sleeping for three days when his
front door buzzer interrupts a vivid erotic dream. Mark's
sanity is hanging by a thread, he's a bear shifter and his
grizzly is threatening to take over. Mark needs to mate.
Badly. And to make things worse, the annoying visitor is a
woman, and she's fertile. The man in Mark seems to
recognize something about her, but his bear side only sees "a
breeding ground." Julie Simon is rather astonished that
Mark answered the door completely naked, and even more
astounded that she is quite turned on at the sight of the
gorgeous, if grunting, man in front of her. Julie
remembers Mark as the linebacker she crushed on eight
years ago, and she finally thought that something was
developing between them, he pushed her away. But Julie has
not driven from Chicago to Saginaw to change her life: she
needs Mark to give her journals belonging to her father,
Professor Simon. Mark, when he finally gets his bearings
somewhat back, says he has given Professor Simon his
journals, but Julie says they're not in her father's
cabin, so he will help Julie find the journals, even if
Mark doubts his sanity will prevail. Mark also needs to
know if the Professor's research on shapeshifting legends
could cure what ails him.
I found the premise intriguing, and even if at the
very beginning it seemed over-the-top, everything soon
began to make sense. What, at first, appeared totally
outrageous -- the big, horny bear made me laugh -- soon
made my heart ache for him. I'm difficult to please when
it comes to shifter stories, it seems almost everything
has been done, but Ms. Lyons put a fabulous twist on their
mating habits, and their DNA. Their animal side feels more
present, more real, and more tragic in some instances. I
loved Julie: she's a full-figured heroine (yay!), she's
level-headed, and she finds her attraction to this wild
man a tad unsettling, and when she learns that he's a
shapeshifter, hold on to your hats! And what makes this
even more delicious, is that she is well-mannered, almost
precious. But it gets even better story-wise: there's a
psychopath experimenting on shifter children, one is still
missing. There are such wonderfully clever touches, such
as coffee helping Mark retain a semblance of sanity, and
that is something a lot of us can relate to. The writing
in LICENSE TO SHIFT is excellent, very smooth and
descriptive, and I felt every emotion. What a crazy,
wonderful story!
BEAR MEETS GIRL…
Julie Simon returns to Saginaw, Michigan, to find her
ailing father's missing research on local shapeshifter
lore. Unlucky for her, the only person who can help her
is the darkly sexy Mark Robertson, the guy who spent an
entire summer giving her the cold shoulder—and one white-
hot night of pleasure…
Mark is a hair’s breadth away from going feral. Soon, his
grizzly side will destroy everything that makes him a
man. And after years of fighting, Mark is ready to give
in to the beast. Then Julie—the gorgeous, curvy book nerd
who awakened his most primal desires as a young man—shows
up at his door. Now, he’s fighting an insatiable longing
to claim her as his mate. But Julie isn’t the only one
after her father’s research. Someone—or something—evil is
tracking Julie’s every move…