With a name like Sara Beth Reynard, it's not hard to guess that this tale's heroine is a lively were-fox. When we meet her, she's annoyed that some mixed human-fox DNA has been analysed and the story of her clan's existence revealed. SECRET PASSIONS is the fifth in a series called Forbidden Passions but I was reading this as a standalone, lured by the prospect of a different variety of shapechanger.

Sara Beth runs the residential side of the family construction firm and some of the guys on the crew are werewolves. That's all that saves her when a strange man tries to seize her and stuns her with a tranquiliser dart. The guys chase him off and bring her to her father and the werewolf clan alpha. To keep her safe, these two decide to send the girl to stay with the were-eagles. Patrick Aquila is in charge of the guards and he takes protecting Sara Beth seriously. He'd love to get to know her better, but her safety comes first.

The fox is attuned to home and hearth, while the eagle protecting her is lofty and flamboyant. Thrown together, their mating instinct surfaces, but Sara Beth is concerned that a fox and eagle are temperamentally unsuited and Patrick will get tired of her and move on. I was amused by werecreatures using a facial recognition program, while we are told that wereleopards and werewolves have only recently made peace. Meanwhile a game hunter is stalking the recently revealed shifters, considering them animals for the shooting.

Anyone keen on earthy shifter stories should find this tale exciting, and there are plenty of hot adult scenes and occasional strong language, so definitely one for grown- ups. I particularly enjoyed the characterisation of the various were-beasts while the notion of the game hunter trying to hunt the shifters down, upsetting in itself, did follow logically and made a plausible danger. Loribelle Hunt has made a good job of bringing her characters to life in SECRET PASSIONS and I would be interested in reading the others in this series. Werewolf stories abound, but I really took to this foxy lady.