RATING 4 stars out of 5

In the four months since hedgehog shifter Avery Babineaux started investigating the disappearance of a young female werewolf from the Portland Pack, he’s discovered his life’s passion. Now he’s apprenticing under established PI Corbin Reid. Avery hopes his training with Reid will help him finally bring Lacey home, but detective work isn’t without its perils, and the potential dangers strain his relationship with his new mate, Dylan.

Dylan Green would be perfectly content with his mating and his motorcycle shop if it wasn’t for his constant worry about Avery’s safety and the fact that Avery’s never home. Proud as he might be of Avery’s determination to prove his worth and fulfill his promise to Lacey’s father, Dylan can’t stand the thought of Avery being hurt. Yet what right does he have to demand Avery give up his job when it’s clear Avery’s found his true purpose? Still, Dylan wishes he could, and the appearance of a new police detective who sets his sights on Avery only adds to the tension.

Something has to give, but stubbornness runs in both their veins, and it might take a catastrophe for them to find a compromise they can live with.

Pickly by Nature is the second book in the Portland Pack Chronicles series by Piper Vaughn and Kenzie Cade. As I already mentioned in the review of the first book, Prickly Business,  I love that this series is not the typical Piper’s work.  I’m not very familiar with Kenzie writing yet, but I don’t miss a story by Piper and the mystery is a new theme and so welcomed.

We meet Dylan and Avery again months after the ending of Prickly Business, that left a lot unexplored. Avery is more frustrated than ever in his researches about the human trafficing people who took away the young Lacey. He has joined a PI, Reid, to learn the job and get his investigator’s license. His relationship with Dylan is solid because they are mates but these struggles are hard to take to both for them and it’s pulling down their life together.

I couldn’t have enough of the MCs, I laugh a lot at Dylan protectiveness, almost scary but considering the mating bond it can be overcome. Avery is the same adorable guy, loyal and strong in his researches, he is frustrated because he’s pretty much going nowhere.

What I particularly like in this series is the great cast of characters, the books are not focused only on our MC’s couple but there are a lot of friends and family around them,  interesting and with great personalities, for what I saw so far. I like the choice of the kind of shifters with Sven being a reindeer, Reid a hawk and of course Avery himself a hedgehog.

There is a lot of potential for the next coming books. A lot of characters need to have their own stories. The next book will be about Jayden and his mate (I can’t tell you who he is but I can’t wait to read their story).

About the writing, I’m always dubious and curious about co authored stories, but these two girls work amazing together, even knowing which character each of them wrote, it was impossible to see a difference (in the writing style) in the POVs. They were really well done.

As I said I loved this book, but there were a couple of things I want to talk a little. First of all I felt too much angst through all the story and it brought me down and didn’t let me fully enjoy it. Then I don’t like more than two (the MCs’ ones) POVs. I would have preferred to not have a third one, maybe it could have been told in a different way, maybe not. My “issue” was that Prickly Business was a great surprise, probably a little too much to be overcome. This time I already know where this second installment would have gone and that the mystery would have been solved exactly how I was hoping. That’s why I wasn’t able to give Prickly by Nature more than 4 stars, cause it was really good, I’m not saying the contrary, but being a series, and most of all both books have the same couple, it was inevitable that I would make a comparison.

I want to highly recommend the whole series.

The cover art by Reese Dante is  clearly well done and fitting. The only remark I want to make is that I would have preferred something not so similar to the cover of Prickly Business.

Sales Links:  Dreamspinner Press | All Romance (ARe) | Amazon | Buy It Here

Book Details:

ebook, 260 pages
Published November 16th 2015 by Dreamspinner Press
original titlePrickly By Nature
ISBN 1623801613 (ISBN13: 9781623801618)
edition languageEnglish
series Portland Pack Chronicles #2

• Prickly Business (Portland Pack Chronicles, #1) Stella’s Review
• Prickly By Nature (Portland Pack Chronicles, #2)
  charactersDylan Green, Jaden Odell, Avery Babineaux, Corbin Reid

settingPortland, Oregon (United States)