Tag: short story. Silver Publishing

Review of Almost Paradise (Pine Hollow Wolves #1) by Caitlin Ricci

Rating: 4 stars

Liam Glass is on a errand for the Alpha of his pack, Sampson.  His mission?  To buy gifts for  Evangeline, Sampson’s twin sister and equally powerful wolf.  With him are his two young Neapolitan Mastiffs, Lucy and Ethel.  As he is finishing his business at the jewelry shop they frequent, a frazzled man enters with his young daughter.  The stranger is looking for work when his daughter notices the dogs with squeals of joy.  Everything about the man and his daughter speaks to Liam’s inner wolf and his need to protect them both.

Travis and his daughter, Hannah, have been left in dire financial straights after paying off the lawyers in his custody case. After winning his case, Travis was forced to sell everything he owned to pay the bills.  All his attempts to find a job have met with failure when he and Hannah walk into a shop on their way back to the hotel. When an attractive customer in the shop offers Travis hundreds of dollars to watch his dogs for the weekend, he accepts the offer without question as it means a roof over their heads and food to eat however temporary the security is for their small family.

When Sampson calls and orders Liam immediately to leave the city on pack business, Liam uses his need for someone to care for his dogs as a means to aid Travis and Hannah without offending the man’s pride.  Then he realizes that Hannah can see his true self and everything changes. Liam must protect Hannah and tell Travis the truth.  But will Travis be able to accept the fact that Liam isn’t human and cost Hannah the security she needs?

Almost Paradis is a short story full of neat twists on wolf shifters and serves as a great introduction to characters in the new Pine Hollow Wolves series.  Where to start? Liam and his pack are chock full of intriguing characters  in a pack structure that appears to be  a little different from those  I have gotten in other shifter books.  For starters their Alpha, Sampson, has a twin sister who is he equal in power, dominance, and statue. And while the author  doesn’t come right out and say it, I believe the Alpha and his sister are both black (a diversity lacking in other shifter  tales).  She is also “the tallest woman” Travis has ever seen with an outrageous love of jewelry and sense of humor.  I can’t wait to get more of her character and her brother’s if she is anything to go by.  I also fell in love with Liam as well.  Who wouldn’t love a wolf shifter with two Mastiffs pups he has named Lucy and Ethel and obviously adores? Elegant and comfortable with who he is as a wolf high in status with his pack, he still loves children and falls under Hannah’s spell immediately.  I loved their interaction as well.

Travis is heartbreaking as a father who has given up everything he owns to win custody of his daughter only to see themselves made virtually homeless, with no support system and no income to rely on.  He and Hannah are statistics all too common in today’s economic reality.  Travis is totally believable right down to the bags of washed and unwashed clothing in the hotel room.  Those who might scoff at a father getting into a car with a stranger who offers food, shelter and money have no idea how desperation effects a persons actions.  In this case, Travis got lucky, he and Hannah bring out the protective instinct in Liam as well as feed Liam’s desire to have children.  Then there is Hannah, a totally endearing tot as well as Lucy and Ethel, the Neapolitan Mastiffs with personalities to match their size.

There is no case of instant love here which I appreciate.  It is definitely a case of HFN and Travis asks for certain rights and promises before he agrees to Liam’s proposal.  I was so happy to see that this book serves as a expositional setup for the additional books to come. I will eagerly await the arrival of Pine Hollow Wolves #2 and the chance to reacquaint myself with Liam, Travis, Hannah, Evangeline and the rest.

Cover: Artist Lee Tiffin.  I love this cover.  How cute is the father/daughter duo?  This would be perfect except that the animal on the cover is a Husky and not a wolf.  How could the artist make that mistake I don’t know but it takes the whole cover down several notches.  They should have done their homework, put a wolf on the cover, and then this would have been one of my Best Cover of the Month.

Review of Battle Buddy by S.J.D. Peterson

Rating: 4.8 stars

For Shane Tucker, the Army and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell give him two reasons to leave his small home town in Texas.  One, Shane saw the Army as a “great alternative to mucking cow shit and mending fences.”* Two, as a gay 19 year old, DADT was the perfect excuse to stay closeted.  It wasn’t his fault he wasn’t out, it was the Army’s!

Basic training upends Shane’s world in so many unexpected ways.  It’s both brutal and exhilarating.  He entered thinking he was in the best shape of his life and BT is telling him he was an idiot.  But he is also finding out as the training gets harder that he is good at it, loving the challenges and excelling no matter the obstacles.  Until he is assigned a Battle Buddy.  Owen Bradford is a six foot 4 inch mountain of muscle, cocky and gorgeous.  With Owen as his Battle Buddy, Shane has a whole new set of  problems, including temptation 24/7.  What’s a guy to do?

I loved this short story on so many levels.  One, Shane Tucker is perfect.  By that I mean, his voice is perfect for a small town 19 year with his first introduction to a larger world, in this case, the Army.  As you hear his thoughts, from his perceived notions of what the Army life would entail then through his introduction to the realities of basic training, you  just want to shake your head at his naivete and bone headedness, but it is always with affection.  He is just so damn likable.  And when the conflicts start when he is assigned Owen as his Battle Buddy, then his insights are priceless.

I will admit to looking up Battle Buddy.  I mean here you have two words that to me couldn’t be farther apart.  Battle is obvious with its association with war.  But Buddy?  Images of kindergarten and lunch buddies came immediately to mind.  But after some thought, I could see the rationale behind it.  Someone to have your back, be constantly at your side at all times.  So really not that far removed from kindergarten after all.  The author has clearly done her research and it shows throughout the story.

And the story is hot.  Sexually, intensely hot.  Just as you would expect from two young men in their prime, full of testosterone, brimming with physicality.

The story ends where it should for its length.  But there was hope at the end that we might learn more of what the future holds for Shane and Owen in another story.  I would love to see them return, especially now that DADT has fallen.  But either way, pick up this story.  It’s terrific.

Cover: I thought it was a little dark in color.  I am a fan of using just a partial face of the models.  A great tease and it lets the reader fill in the rest with their imagination.  But where is my farm boy, Shane in all of this?

 

*SJD Peterson (2012-03-12 04:00:00+00:00). Battle Buddy (Kindle Location 52). Silver Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Available: Silver Publishing, Amazon, ARE