BevQB’s review of The Beast in Him (Pride, Book 2) by Shelly Laurenston
Paranormal romance released by Kensington Brava on 25 Mar 08

We first met alpha wolf shifter and former Navy SEAL, Bobby Ray Smith (Smitty), in Laurenston’s double novella, The Mane Event.  Along with his sister Sissy Mae and other pack members, Smitty broke from his pack in Tennessee and formed a new pack in NYC. While The Beast in Him could probably be read as a standalone, I highly recommend you grab the pleasure to be found in The Mane Event first.

Once again, Laurenston shows us how, in her expert hands, humor can add a sense of enjoyable playfulness to a story. The humor arises naturally from each character’s personality. It’s like when you and your good (and rowdy) friends get together and talk smack at each other, jerk each other’s chains, push each other’s buttons, but defend each other against all outsiders.

And just like their wild counterparts, Smitty may be the alpha male, but it is the female of the species that is the most dangerous. You’d be hard pressed to find a stronger, more assertive bunch of female characters. As Smitty states:

“She-wolves were real simple to understand if you followed three simple rules: Don’t irritate them, don’t stare them down unless you’ve got a death wish or you’re sure you can take them, and don’t irritate them. You followed that simple logic, you’d do just fine.”

In The Beast in Him, Smitty meets back up with a female African Wild Dog shifter he knew as a teenager before he joined the Navy. Orphaned when a virus wiped out half of the adult Wild Dog shifter population, Jessie Ann was fostered in Smitty’s Tennessee home town and was a favorite target of Sissy Mae and the other then teenaged she-wolves. The one weak aspect to this book was that Laurenston never fully explores how Jessie Ann evolved from a victim to be the highly successful alpha of a large pack of this rare shifter species. How did she get herself together? How did she meet up with all the other Wild Dogs in her pack? I kept waiting for more gaps to be filled in and was disappointed when they weren’t.

Despite that lack, The Beast in Him was a sexy, enjoyable read with moments that had me hootin’ with laughter. Other characters from The Mane Event were welcome and fun additions to this story, too.

Shelly Laurenston remains on my auto-buy list and I can’t wait to see who finds their mate next!

Grade: B+

From the back cover:

     Some things are so worth waiting for. Like the moment when Jessica Ward “accidentally” bumps into Bobby Ray Smith and shows him just how far she’s come since high school. Back then, Jess’s gangly limbs and bruised heart turn to jelly any time Smitty’s “all the better to ravish you with” body came near her. So, some things haven’t changed. Except now Jess is a success on her own terms. And she can enjoy a romp-or twenty-with a big, bad wolf and walk away. Easy.

     The sexy, polished CEO who hires Smitty’s security firm might be a million miles from the loveable geek he knew, but her kiss, her touch, is every bit as hot as he imagined. Jess was never the kind to ask for help, and she doesn’t want it now, not even with someone targeting her Pack. But Smitty’s not going to turn tail and run. Not before proving that their sheet-scorching animal lust is only the start of something even wilder…

     Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series:

Read more from Bev at Cubie’s Confections.