Em & M Books
A place for Em & M to discuss books, post reviews, and ramble about whatever comes to mind!
Review - Taming the Pack Box Set by Wendy Sparrow
I really enjoyed all three stories in this book. With great characters, witty banter, and an interesting plot that was carried throughout the books, Taming the Pack had just about everything I like in a paranormal romance.
I had previously read the first book, Past My Defenses, when it was originally released. Vanessa and Dane were great. She’s a wolf that has allergies, he’s a human forest ranger, and together these two were lots of fun! Vanessa runs when things get difficult, but she’s in heat so it’s a bit hard for her to run away from the man she has scent-matched to, even if he is a human! Dane is just trying to figure out how the wolf he had in his cage could possibly be this woman who just ran off on him. These two didn’t have the easiest time getting together, but it was a whole lot of fun watching them get there.
In This Weakness for You, we get to see Jordan fighting his scent-match to Christa – not only has he been there, done that and it didn’t work out so well with having a mate, it turns out Christa is Dane’s sister…and after all the grief Jordan gave Dane about Vanessa he knows Dane will kill him if he even thinks about going near his sister! Christa has to be one of my most favorite characters in a long time. She’s feisty, confident, and really lives for each day and moment – all this in spite of life’s set backs, including the fact that she has MS. She doesn’t let Jordan get away with anything – from pushing her away to being over-protective, she always called him on his actions.
“And then there’s this…” He took a step back and shifted. One minute, he was a man – the next, a large black wolf beside a pile of clothes.
Christa’s eyes widened and she stared. “Oh, well…” Then, she wrinkled up her nose and tilted her head. “You know, I’d actually considered that, but there’s no way to ask that without sounding insane.”
The black wolf stared. Jordan’s primal intelligence had been expecting panic and shock. This amused acceptance was…confusing.
His mate scooted farther back in the bed with a yawn. “So now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, can you stay?”
He didn’t move.
His female leaned forward and whistled while patting the bed.
There was a brief fight between his stubborn human intelligence and the instinctual desire to be with his female. Also…she’d just whistled. His pride couldn’t fight the altered primal mind-set. Mine. Mate. Mine. The black wolf jumped on the bed and lay down beside her.
And in Crazy Over You we finally get to see Sheriff Travis Flynn meet his match, uh, scent-match – even if she seems to walk a bit on the other side of the law! LeAnn just wants to find her brother and falling for the sexy sheriff is not part of the plan. Travis has seen his two friends find their mates and wants what they have…and if that means pulling out all the stops to keep LeAnn with him and maybe breaking a law or two along the way, well, a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.
And did I happen to mention Lucifer? The devil-cat that belongs to Christa? Loved how Lucifer was woven into these stories – from Vanessa’s allergies to Jordan’s heart to heart “talks” with the cat – Lucifer was one awesome kitty…even if he could truly resemble his namesake at times!He gestured between them. “Us. We’ve scent-matched. It means we’re mates.”
So…she wasn’t expecting that. She stood there blinking stupidly. He’d said that. Her mouth opened and closed. It was insane. Sure, there was this primitive sort of connection between them – she didn’t just kiss anyone – but this pull…this brain-frying lust…it’d fade. They weren’t mates. “Does that line work often?”
“You know it’s not a line. You can feel it. That’s why you kissed me. It’s either that or you’re really…”
“Slutty?”
“I was going to say friendly.”
Although there wasn’t a lot of steam in any of these books, there was some great tension between the characters as they either fought their attraction or continued to be in denial about their scent-match. There was a lot of cute play between the characters – like the sheriff stripping to get LeAnns attention and Christa wanting to experience some dirty talk – so I was more than satisfied with a bit of sizzle, especially that there was also a good dose of humor that always seemed to accompany it!
The over-arching story line that was carried between these three books was great – and even though all the books do wrap us nicely on their own and can be read as stand-alones, there is a nice tie-in between all the books. I really enjoyed the world and characters that have been created, and the human/lycan connection was a nice twist to the traditional werewolf lore. There were a lot of great characters in all the books and I would love to see more books written in this world! This is definitely a series to check out!
