BevQB’s review of The Mane Event by Shelly Laurenston
Paranormal romance published 1 Oct 07 by Brava

This is a collection of two novellas, Christmas Pride and Shaw’s Tail.

In Laurenston’s paranormal world, most male lion shifters are traded out to be pampered breeders in Prides of female shifters. But the two alpha lion shifters in these stories, Mace Llewellyn and Brendon Shaw, want mates of their own. We also meet alpha wolf shifter Bobby Ray Smith (Smitty), his sister Sissy Mae, and the others pack members who follow Smitty, who is lion shifter Mace’s best friend, ex-Navy Seal team member, and current business partner, as he breaks from his pack in Tennessee and forms a new pack in NYC.

Be warned that the backwoods cliche’s get a bit thick at times, and the two male lions are a bit too similar, but roll with it because this book was just so damn enjoyable!

The men were, of course, swoon worthy, but it’s the women who are in charge here. Dez (Christmas Pride) is ex-Marine Military Police: Canine Division, who loves being a NYC police detective. In fact, she loves her work so much that it took three weeks for her to realize that her ex-husband had left her. But the secondary female characters are just as strong – the scenes with Dez’s sisters and Mace’s sisters are priceless!

Ronnie Lee (Shaw’s Tail) never wanted to be trapped into a life with a mate and babies like her mama, so she took off to travel the world with Sissy Mae, who is the alpha female of the new pack. Let’s just say that there are still countries that won’t let them back in. Those two, plus the other women in the Pack and Brendon’s twin sister, are all forces to be reckoned with.

I chuckled, laughed, and grinned ear-to-ear while reading this book. Rather than being wacky or silly, the humor arose naturally from the personalities of the characters. That’s not easy to do without it feeling forced, but Laurenston seemed to accomplish it effortlessly.

The men aren’t just alpha males here, they are alpha shifters and Navy Seals. So you’d expect them to be overwhelming, surly, and intense. Nope. Laurenston adds one thing that sets this book apart from nearly every other paranormal erotic romance I’ve ever read– PLAYFULNESS. Even in the bedroom, these couples play and have fun which makes the erotic scenes all the more real and scorching.

This probably sounds sappy, but… this book was a joy to read! I personally think a sense of play is needed in more erotic romances and I can’t wait for Smitty’s story, The Beast in Him, which releases in April 2008 from Brava.

Grade: A-

From the back cover:

CHRISTMAS PRIDE
How come all the good-looking ones are insane? That’s what runs through NYPD cop Desiree “Dez” MacDermot’s mind the minute she hooks up again with her childhood buddy, Mace Llewellyn. It isn’t just the way he stares at her with those too-sexy gold eyes-as if he could devour her on the spot. Or the six-four, built-like-a-Navy Seal bod-o-death. It isn’t even that he sniffs her neck and purrs, making her entire body tingle. It’s more about that disconcerting, shifting-from-man-to-lion thing that unhinges her and makes her want more.

Mace likes making Dez crazy. In fact, he likes her any way he can get her-in bed, on the desk, here, now, again. Together, they’d always been trouble, but Dez has no idea just how good trouble can feel…”

SHAW’S TAIL
Brendon Shaw, hotel owner and lion shifter, has seen better days. He’s been beaten, had a gun to the back of his head, and had to be rescued by a Pack of shape-shifting wolves. He didn’t think he’d survive the night, much less find the woman of his dreams. And he never thought the woman of his dreams would have a Tennessee accent and wear cowboy boots. Once he sets his sights on her, the predator in him is ready to pounce and never let go. Ronnie Lee Reed is ready to change her life, and New York City is the place where any girl-even one who runs with a Pack-can redefine herself. First order of business: find a mate, settle down, and stop using men for sex. Even big, gorgeous, lion-shifting, oh-my-what-big-um-paws-you-have men. Then again…

Read an excerpt.

Drop by my personal blog, Cubie’s Confections. It’s the often bawdy, and not always work safe, musings of a pervy old broad with opinions about books, chocolate, and eye candy (you know– the important stuff), and who is convinced that hot flashes burn away brain cells.