Shifter City Hero Omnibus: Books 1-3

De: Shane Hammond

Narrado por: Jude Erin, Rhys David

The complete series in a single offering!

Become a shifter. Build my pack. Be the leader these people need.

I’ve always known I was different. There’s a beast inside me, clawing to get free—and it finally breaks loose when I return to Thornveil City, a magic-soaked metropolis crawling with shifters.

Soon, I’m teamed up with a razor-sharp wolfgirl whose bite is much deadlier than her bark, and we have one mission: protect a dangerously-gorgeous kitsune heiress from those evil creatures who want her magic for their own twisted ends.

Our enemies are ruthless. The stakes are sky-high. And I’m the last one standing between Thornveil and total oblivion.

This city needs a hero—and I’m going to give them one.

©2025 Shane Hammond (P)2025 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

Different, but fun nonetheless

I normally don’t go for stories with such an older MC but this one was different. It really made him more relatable than other characters. The one thing wrong with it was the pronouncing of the fox kin. It’s Kitsune. Not kitsun. That was the one thing wrong. I’m definitely going to check out more of his work

The fact that the MC was a father was a big standout for me

I love the entire book it it did happens up and downs but it was a good mix really good story Love the action and the fact that he had a daughter that he cared about more than anything and the ending was really good wrapped up the whole series Loved it

Good, some issues

Story-wise there's a lot to like here. I was pretty skeptical of the notion of Alex having a daughter, to the point I passed on the series the first time I took a look at it. Extremely bad call on my part; that little girl is an absolute gem and adds more to the books than I thought possible. Characters in general are well-handled. The plot is a bit hole-y from time to time, but solid overall. As harem books go, this is one of the better ones, easily 4.5 stars.

Generally the narration is excellent, with a couple of issues. First, Jude's general narration voice is a bit flat at times. Her character voices are excellent, so I don't really understand why. The second and far more aggravating issue though, is that both narrators spent three entire books absolutely butchering the pronunciation of 'kitsune'. It comes up regularly in the story, and every time they read it as KIT-soon I winced internally. I actually had to take breaks from listening because it was so aggravating at times. Boggles my mind that this was not caught and fixed early on...

FIRE THE NARRATORS AND PRODUCERS!

Both the narrators butchering thrlr Japanese word for fox (Kitsune) was a constant irritation. Having the female narrator do the thoughts for the male character was another annoying aspect that kept grating on my nerves.

Kitsune is SUPPOSED to be "kit so nā" not "kit soon"
soon"

The first story had a garbled time line bit that requires turning off the brain to make it make sense.

good thing I used a credit, I am dumping this audio book. let me know if you ever get competent narrators.

Weak

Characters in books can only be as smart as their author, and none of the characters in this book have an ounce of intelligence to them. Alex is too dense to recognize any signs anyone gives him, romantic, political or otherwise. He has no particular charisma to him, and he's also too cowardly to assert himself, always playing backseat to the women near him. Hammond is too scared to come off as domineering that instead he turned Alex into a whipped mutt rather than the supposed legendary lion he's supposed to be.
None of the characters act with any of the intellect and charisma we are assured they have, instead they manage to somehow flop their way through 'strategic maneuvers' like fish out of water. The bull guy who's name I can't even remember is a prime example of this. He's allegedly some criminal mastermind, but his machinations in a real world scenario would get him dropped like a sack of bricks by any actual competent mobster. The characters can waltz around and cause destruction and death without even a whiff of law enforcement or any backlash or retaliation.
The villains have a completely nonsensical goal as well. Tearing the veil to allow in some awkward 'super shifters' is about as ridiculous a takeover plan as anyone could come up with. The moment they're met with meager police retaliation any shifter would be turned into evil swiss cheese.
Finally, the way Hammond goes about trying to build a harem situation is cute to say the least. Alex simply doesn't have the charisma for it, and it requires a whole lot of circumstance and plot armor to put him in any situation that could potentially lead to the complex emotional relationship he's trying to build. The only one who's going to have a harem is someone brimming with confidence, swagger and ambition, the exact opposite of our cowardly and bland protagonist. If you can't do it, either put in some more effort or move to another genre. I would recommend reading some of Bruce Sentar's work if you need some pointers.