Waking the Beast

Awakening Pride, Book 1

By: Lacey Thorn

Narrated by: Anastasia Lynne

The legend of the Paka Watu...

Abby Lane can’t resist the allure of a cat shifter tribe forced to repress their beasts. Research has led her to a coveted piece of information. The location of a man who could prove everything she’s been searching for.

The sleeping lion...

Utah Pearce can't keep his gaze off the woman who slips into the bar every night. Though not his usual type, she brings out the possessive instinct in him, making him battle with himself as he tries to stay away.

Mine...

Abby’s research never prepared her for the reality in front of her. The beast is waking, and Utah is changing in ways both exciting and terrifying. He is possessive and dominant, and when he finally claims her, neither of them will ever be the same.

©2014, 2019 Deborah Helton (P)2024 Deborah Helton

Fated mates -- with a twist!

This was an interesting twist on the normal fated mates shifter story and I quite liked it. The introductory journal quotes at the beginning of each chapter confused me for a bit, but I think that's just the challenge of listening to a book instead of reading using my eyes.

Narration was clear and easy to follow. Definitely the narrator's young voice was applicable to the FMC and highlighted her youth and inexperience.

New to me author and narrator. Would definitely look for more work by both of them.

Tah

It was so refreshing to go back to the beginning of this series. It’s been awhile. I love how Abby found her lion. Mine.

Good

I really enjoy this book. It was to where I did not want to put it down. I will be marking the rest of the book to read. I just hope they are as good as this one.

Unique Take on Shifters

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️.5
Heat Rating: 🔥🔥🔥.25
Narrator Performance: 🎧🎧🎧🎧

Now this is what I’m talking about! WAKING THE BEAST is the introduction to a truly unique take on the shifter world.

I’ve read and listened to many different shifter books but I’ve never come across a world like the one Lacey Thorn has created for her Awakening Pride series. Whereas in most books pertaining to shifters the lore about the shifting ability is set and known, in this series almost everything about shifters has been forgotten. The ability to shift not only laying dormant within a person but a person doesn’t even necessarily know they’re a shifter until something or someone “triggers” the beginnings of the change in them. The concept is so simple but also completely foreign in the genre. I absolutely loved that. I got a kick out of the fact I was learning things and experiencing the world for the first time right along with the characters.

Back in January I reviewed A JAGUAR’S TOUCH, book 5 in this series. I was highly disappointed in the book (I gave it ❤️❤️.5) and even swore to never read a book by this author again. I felt like I was playing catch up the entire time since I hadn’t read any of the other books in the series. Apparently Thorn writes her books in such a way that they absolutely must be read in order. This bit of information is in the Kindle blurbs of each book in the series but obviously got discarded when it came time to publish the blurb for the audiobook. I can now say that many of my unanswered questions about the world building have been answered. I’m not sure why the author chose to publish the audiobooks out of order because now I feel that if I listen to A JAGUAR’S TOUCH again it would change my entire opinion about the book. However the “damage” has already been done. Although I truly am glad that I gave Thorn another chance. I’m excited for Reno’s book to come to audio. I definitely want to continue with this series now.

Narrator Anastasia Lynne is a fantastic actor. The emotions just seemed to jump out at me as I listened to her voice. I found her acting extremely impressive. I feel that she needs to work on her voices/accents though in order to perfect her art. Although I could tell that she was trying to differentiate the characters she really didn’t have a definitive male and female voice for the two main ones. Neither did she have a separate voice for each of the secondary characters. The exception was Reno. For some reason only he had his own unique voice. Which I found kinda weird.

FAVORITE QUOTE: “You’re saving me, Abby. Every time I touch you. Every time I sense your presence. You’re the only thing capable of soothing the beast inside and giving me a moment of peace.”

*Review copy provided for voluntary review.

Good book good audio

Jess and Utah story. Utah doesn’t know that he has a link dormant inside of him until Jess life is threatened by her crazies uncle. Once his beast is slowly awakens, he’s unable to keep his hands off Jess. When her crazed uncle finds them and once again threaten to hurt Jess, Utah will shift and protect his mate.
Steamy, full of danger and wonder, tone of good characters, and happy- ever- mated.
The narrator does a super job with the narration. Both the story and the narrator captured me as I listened to the really good book.