The Durham brothers are shapeshifters and local law
enforcement calls on them for aid in missing person cases.
Wolf senses are better at tracking in difficult terrain.
Sergius is home one day when the sheriff arrives and tells
him a female hiker has gone missing in the surrounding
Smoky Mountains. Adding to the urgency, a rogue vampire
has moved into the territory, and he isn't fussy whose
blood he drinks.
In RESCUE IN THE SMOKIES, Juliana is a smart and
experienced hiker, who brought lightweight survival gear
even for a day hike and told friends where she was heading.
But the camera on her phone drained the battery and she was
given wrong directions to a shortcut - then led astray by
the vampire to tire her out. Now she's huddled under a
tree, jaded, confused and running out of time before
exposure sets in - and if someone did find her, could she
trust him?
Some excellent naturalist details flesh out the story for
us - red wolves have been reintroduced to the Appalachians,
providing cover for the shifters, while the bats in the
natural caves have a disease called white-nose syndrome,
killing them but harmless to humans, and some bats are
rabid. The beautiful surroundings are well described and I
agreed with the sense of the hiker in taking safety kit -
all but a basic compass! The story hinges around werewolves
protecting a human girl from a vampire - think we've read
that one, but the fact that one of the werewolves wants to
keep her as his mate is enjoyable and alluring.
Becca Jameson spent some years editing before settling down
to write and has put a fun story together in this latest
installment of her Durham Shifters series. The adult
content is nicely tempered and hot, but I actually wished
there was less of it so we could get on with the action.
There are few characters and no sub-plot, but there are
references to a previous story in the series, so the author
clearly has an ongoing story in her mind which she is
giving to us in installments. RESCUE IN THE SMOKIES is a
fine read for all those who enjoy werewolf tales and leaves
us howling for more.
Sergius Durham and his brothers are legendary trackers in these parts, and only the local sheriff knows why. They�re wolf shifters, attempting to live quietly on their horse farm. A difficult task when they�re summoned every time a hiker goes missing. Serg knows there�s something different about his latest case the moment he touches her left-behind clothing. She is his mate, and nothing will stop him from finding and claiming her�except maybe the repeat-offending nuisance of a vampire who lured her off the trail.