Book 25, 2017
Feb. 1st, 2017 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chez_jaeJust completed Coveted by Shawntelle Madison. It's an urban fantasy, and it appears to be the first in a series featuring Natalya "Nat" Stravinsky, a werewolf with anxiety issues.
Nat once had the world by the tail, but OCD and anxiety attacks have conspired to keep her down. She lives alone, away from her pack, she works at an antique shop, and she compulsively buys Christmas decorations. In short, Nat is a hoarder with no social life.
When Thorn, her former boyfriend, returns to town, and the local pack is being attacked by a rival pack, Nat decides she needs to return to therapy. There, she meets Nick, a white wizard, who has his own issues with hoarding. In addition, Nat's friend Aggie comes to her, looking for a place to stay while dodging her match-making father. At first, Nat finds it difficult to adjust to having someone else in her home and touching her things. It doesn't help that the rival pack seems to have targeted her for extermination, and the local alpha, Thorn's father, is willing to throw Natalya to the wolves, in a manner of speaking. The Alpha banishes Nat from the pack's territory, but she isn't willing to go without a fight.
This was a different urban fantasy from the usual. Nat was a repressed and anxious individual, and it was sometimes painful to read about how she was nearly overwhelmed by her own compulsive behavior. There's a definite spark between Nat and Thorn, but he is now betrothed to another. To me, Nick seems a better match for Nat. I enjoyed meeting some of the other quirky characters from her supernatural therapy group, including a Muse who lived in fear of the crazed writer who was looking for her. Ha ha!
Favorite lines:
♦ "I have to go stuff crazy into a can."
♦ I could see the local paper now: Crazed Woman Brings Down Burglar with Hoards of Holiday Cheer.
♦ "You look like a cat beat your ass as comeuppance for everything dogs have done to them."
Intriguing premise, and I hope to find more books of Nat's adventures.
Five stars:
*****
Nat once had the world by the tail, but OCD and anxiety attacks have conspired to keep her down. She lives alone, away from her pack, she works at an antique shop, and she compulsively buys Christmas decorations. In short, Nat is a hoarder with no social life.
When Thorn, her former boyfriend, returns to town, and the local pack is being attacked by a rival pack, Nat decides she needs to return to therapy. There, she meets Nick, a white wizard, who has his own issues with hoarding. In addition, Nat's friend Aggie comes to her, looking for a place to stay while dodging her match-making father. At first, Nat finds it difficult to adjust to having someone else in her home and touching her things. It doesn't help that the rival pack seems to have targeted her for extermination, and the local alpha, Thorn's father, is willing to throw Natalya to the wolves, in a manner of speaking. The Alpha banishes Nat from the pack's territory, but she isn't willing to go without a fight.
This was a different urban fantasy from the usual. Nat was a repressed and anxious individual, and it was sometimes painful to read about how she was nearly overwhelmed by her own compulsive behavior. There's a definite spark between Nat and Thorn, but he is now betrothed to another. To me, Nick seems a better match for Nat. I enjoyed meeting some of the other quirky characters from her supernatural therapy group, including a Muse who lived in fear of the crazed writer who was looking for her. Ha ha!
Favorite lines:
♦ "I have to go stuff crazy into a can."
♦ I could see the local paper now: Crazed Woman Brings Down Burglar with Hoards of Holiday Cheer.
♦ "You look like a cat beat your ass as comeuppance for everything dogs have done to them."
Intriguing premise, and I hope to find more books of Nat's adventures.
Five stars:
*****
