Tabs’ Duckies Do Series Review of Daughters of Beasts (Books 1 & 2) by T.S. Joyce
Paranormal Romance published by Wicked Willow Press
A few years ago, my entire Twitter feed seemed to be glomming these wacky shifter books on Kindle Unlimited by T.S. Joyce. There were a bazillion of them, they all had similar covers and titles, and they looked like every other cheesy shifter book out there. Except, they were magic.
The original Damon’s Mountains series, comprising a bunch of sub-series, is set in the Wyoming mountains and features multiple crews of trailer-park-dwelling, redneck, malcontent shifter loggers. They make dick jokes. They cuss each other out constantly. They fight and drink beer. They heal from their emotional wounds, provide a safe haven for their mates to do the same, and they fall in love so damned hard. The books are cathartic and emotional while being simultaneously wacky and completely over-the-top all at the same time.
After about a bazillion books, Joyce’s writing pivoted to other locations, to other non-connected series, and then back to the descendants of the original crews. I only followed sporadically. But recently, she came out with a new series featuring some of the female werebear offspring and here I am back on the train and ready to ride. The series is called “Daughters of Beasts” and currently has two books out with the third slated for release in November.
If you’ve read Joyce and, like me, have fallen off of reading her regularly, I think this is a good re-entry point. If you’ve never read Joyce but could use a quick shifter fix with humor and heart, I think this is a good entry point for new readers as well. All you really need to know as background is that shifters are out to the world but face discrimination and distrust a lot of the time and that “Beaston” is a famous bear shifter seer who shifters and non-shifters alike respect.
(Quick note: If you don’t have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, these books are still ridiculously reasonably priced at $0.99 apiece.)
Novak Grizzly (Book 1)
28 Sept 2018
This book opens with the totally relatable scene of a young woman struggling with a breakup from a man who wasn’t right for her in the first place and who had eroded her confidence and sense of self over the years. Naturally, her BFF has her back (hilariously) and forces her to go check out a random crew in the Oregon mountains advertising for a manager of sorts because she is in major need of a life change. What Remi finds is a bunch of incredibly dysfunctional fuck-ups and a place that feels exactly like home to both her and her inner bear. Insta-love; a magical trailer; many, many, many penis jokes; and some good old-fashioned happy-making ensue.
“My ex-boyfriend was human. He got super disturbed if I went werebear on a rack of ribs. Especially in front of his friends.”
“Well, his friends sound lame. And he sounds like a boring moron. A boron. You dated a boron. Congratulations, you found one; they are super rare.”
Grade: B+
Summary:
The Daughter of Beaston is hurting. Remington Novak is stuck in a city, her whole life altered for a man who didn’t keep her. A life change comes in many forms, but for Remi, it comes as a newspaper clipping, sent by her best friend. A Last Chance Crew up in the mountains is looking for help, and her skillset matches the requirements. Must like animals? She was a grizzly shifter. Must be okay with crass jokes? She was raised a Grey Back in one of the roughest Crews in existence. She could surely handle a few rowdy boys. When she shows up for the interview though, it’s clear she’s made a grave mistake. Kamp demands her inner bear’s attention immediately, but he’s dangerous to her body and soul. Something’s wrong with that lion shifter, and the more she tries to figure him out, the deeper she falls into a dangerous admiration for him and these mountains he’s claiming as home.
Kamp is out of options. His days are numbered in his Crew, his lion needs to be put down, and every day looks just the same. Wake up, fight the Alpha, fail at his job, sleep, repeat. He’s lost too much to recover, but one look at the fiery-eyed beauty, and this lion shifter lumberjack aching to change his destiny. It might already be too late, but now every day is worth fighting for just to see the growing smile on Remi’s face.
Two damaged shifters, one fate, one helluva mountain to climb to get this Crew to C-Team status. No one could’ve got him living again, but maybe…just maybe…the Novak Grizzly can save him.
No excerpt available.
Beck Bear (Book 2)
17 Oct 2018
Juno Beck is not in a good place. She has always loved music but her career in the music industry is soul-sucking and not at all what she expected it to be. She also believes her days are numbered and that she doesn’t have long to live. A quick trip to visit her best friend in her new home is supposed to be an opportunity to quickly touch base, not a life-changing epiphany journey. But life has other plans in store for Juno and those plans involve exchanging a shit ton of innuendo with an incredibly sexy country-music-superstar lion-shifter hiding out in a remote logging crew and finding the home and family she didn’t know she needed. Inappropriate remarks about man-nipples, wild ATV rides, and a number of emotional moments with guitars ensue.
Sometimes when a dam flooded during a rainy season and the water pushed and pushed, rose higher and higher, the dam might feel the break but, oh, the water—the water was free. Juno hadn’t realized it, but she’d been in a rainy season for way too long.
Grade: B+
Summary:
Juno Beck is trying to step out from the long shadow of her father and make her place in the music industry. But this bear shifter’s days are numbered and she’s running out of time to make her mark on the world. When she stops for a day trip to visit an old friend, she discovers the hiding place of one of country music’s bad-boys-who-got-away. But everything she thought she knew about Rhett Copeland from interviews is wrong, and he’s hiding a mountain of secrets. And as she struggles with the decision to do what’s right or what’s necessary, she begins discovering who she really is, and what she really stands for. And that singer she’s crushed on for all these years, is about to show her how it really is to live.
Rhett Copeland threw away his destiny. The white lion shifter left his Pride to become a touring musician, but something important has sent him into hiding in a last-chance Crew of lumberjacks. His accounts are frozen, his muse is crippled, his fans are on the hunt for him, and his new Rogue Pride Crew gets on his nerves at every turn. All he wants to do is stay hidden, avoid as much logging work as possible, and pester his new Crew, but Juno Beck is going to expose him and all of his secrets to the public if he isn’t careful. Too bad she’s too interesting for her own good because his songwriting muse only wakes up around her, and now he can’t leave the mesmerizing stranger alone. But the more he lets Juno in, the more she threatens the life he’s carved out here in the wilderness of Rogue Pride territory.
He has nothing but time, and she barely has any days left. He has lost his passion for the music, while she’s more driven than ever to make her mark on the industry. Lions and mole rats and bears, oh my!
No excerpt available.
Overall grade: B
