Behind the Eight Ball

Publisher's Summary

A cool morning, a yard full of birds, and a kitty on a mission. What more could a werecat want? Beta Heller Wirth has it all, except a mate - a shifter mate, that is. The last thing he wants is one of those dangerous humans who kill without remorse. Heller knows about that firsthand. So what does the goddess Bast do? She gives Heller exactly what he does not want - a human, business owner Lawson Dupre.

Lawson hasn't a clue what just happened in his car detail shop. One minute a cute client is about to pass out, and then he perks up and starts flirting. Next thing, he runs out the door like the hounds of hell are after him. Learning that Heller is a werecat doesn't freak out Lawson. He happens to be one of those rare humans who knows paranormals exist. He even lives with one. Watch the fur fly as Heller and Lawson battle hurt feelings, misguided beliefs, and a power shift in Heller's clowder.

©2016 M. A. Church (P)2016 Dreamspinner Press

Love, love, LOVED this!

We met Heller as the human-hating Beta in book one. He redeemed himself by saving Dolf’s mate Kirk in the end, but boy – we sure didn’t get a good vibe from Heller at the beginning. He continues this vibe in book two by being vain and then shunning his mate for being human right off the bat. We know he has some hidden depths – he hints at a tortured past involving human misdeeds – but we don’t know for sure what’s happened.

Then we meet the mate – Lawson. Lawson is a human who’s been living with a paranormal family for the last decade. So he’s not too freaked out by the whole “shifts into a cat” thing. But he is very hurt by the rejection he feels from Heller, especially when he learns they are mates.

It takes a bit of time and talking, but eventually our mates get together. There is some serious drama still going on in their lives, however. There is a werewolf stalking Lawson and that pushes him into Heller’s arms and house in a big way.

We get a lovely HEA for our guys and a look into the next book as two others meet their mates.

**

MA Church’s writing is funny and fluid and very creative. Her shifters are animals and humans (which I love!) and so there is lots of purring, mewling, growling and even trilling in this book – blurring the lines between cat and human.

Heller was tough to love at first – but he quickly redeems himself and there isn’t a lot of time stuck in the land of “big misunderstanding”. Our guys talk and clear the air. Most of the drama isn’t about their mating in the second half of the book – but instead surrounds the evil werewolf.

Church introduces some new paranormals – Vetalas. These guys are cool! I’m really excited about learning more about them in the coming books.

I also like that we got to see a bit of our guys from book one again – that’s always nice. It’s definitely a stand-alone, you could understand everything without having read book one, but it gives the story a little more depth.

I highly recommend this book to fans of shifter romances!

Audio

I’m so pleased with the narrator change! Sometimes a series NEEDS the same narrator for the entire collection, however, I was pleased to see that we get Derrick this time and he’s SO GOOD! He gives enough distinction to the characters that we know who is speaking and I particularly liked Marshell’s accent (I hope he does the next book in the series!). He’s very good at the emotion and smexy times and all the meowing! LOL That was pretty hysterical! I definitely found myself immersed in this narration and think this is a great way to experience this book.

5 of 5 stars for both the narration and the story

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Series keeps getting better

We finally get to see why he Heller humans so much. I want to see more of the Vetalas, they have me intrigued. The "stalker" is crazy and I can't wait to read the next book.