Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Wild About You

I'm so grossly late with this review it's embarrassing. I don't know why I can't be on top of it all of the time but if I could I'd probably be President or something.

Wild About You - Kerrelyn Sparks


It’s not every day that Elsa Bjornberg feels delicate, not when she hosts a home renovation show where she can effortlessly demolish a kitchen. But from the moment she meets Howard Barr, this bear of a man makes her feel like a woman. And the way he looks at her, as if she were a pot of honey he’d like to lick . . .
Howard is not like most men. For one thing, he’s a shapeshifter. And he always thought his celebrity crush would never amount to anything more than drooling at Elsa on TV. When his meddling vampire employer gets involved, the star is suddenly within his grasp—and within a hair of her life. For an ancient curse forbids their newfound love, and Howard is suddenly torn between his desire for her and his desire to keep her alive.
Real talk- a were bear is just weird for me. And it's not like it's a turn off, it's just really hard to picture in my head. So in my head, I envisioned him to being like Alcide in the Sookie Stackhouse. Wrong? Maybe. Also when Elsa is first introduced in the book, she felt like (an God help me but I can't help it), a special needs/carnival showpiece. You know, that person that has something wrong with them but yet that's what makes them a star quality? Because picturing a gorgeous, very tall woman swinging a sledgehammer is what that felt like for me. 
But all of that aside? Loved the book. Sure, it took me a bit to get to used to, but once I did, I wasn't disappointed. I just wish I had known this was in a series because I would have done some homework and maybe read some of the earlier ones because I believe this is book 13. Not that you have to read the series, this is definitely a stand alone book, but I felt like I would have loved it even more had I know the back story to how Howard got here, and learned a little more information about the vampires he essentially works for. 
This book is everything you want a romance novel to be- it obviously has romance between Elsa and Howard but it also has mystery, it has suspense, and it has relationships that you know would matter in real life. I actually flew through this book one evening before bed and it was worth it. I'm actually really excited to read some of the previous stories and then bookmark her future books. Kerrelyn is a really great writer that is believable. Sure, we're talking shifters and vampires but she writes it as this is just common stuff and no big deal. Very interesting her take on vampires too- not really like what most writers are doing with vampires in their books but still very traditional, if that makes sense? Maybe it feels weird because everyone else seems to have daylight tolerating vampires and Kerrelyn doesn't go that route and that's another reason I appreciated this book. No need to be different, just do the traditional but do it well. 
Kerrelyn has a website HERE that I encourage you to check out!

2 comments:

trish said...

I know what you mean about the book being believable. That's how the Anita Blake series was for me, at least up until book 6, when I felt like it jumped the shark.

Thanks for being on the tour!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that in spite of the oddness you really ended up loving this one!

Happy New Year, and thanks for being on the tour!