Grayslake
is a bear town, and bears aren’t wolves. They don’t crave pack, they don’t instantly
‘mate for life’ and they have serious anger management issues. Full or partial shifts are common. (Vacationing
here? Not recommended.) What they do have is a fierce protectiveness of
children, a solid hierarchy, and a strong sense of justice and loyalty. (Well,
except for the bad guys, of course.)
The
heroine, a mostly-human, non-shifting woman has inherited a house in Grayslake
from her bear shifter grandfather. Lots of people aren’t happy about that. (Prejudice
is alive and well in the bear shifter community.) But Mia Baker figures she can
get past that. She’ll just blend in, keep a low profile…
Good
plan. Sadly, it doesn’t last past finding an abused bear cub in her
pantry. One who is terrified of the drunken
bear pounding on her door and demanding his nephew back. As Sheriff, Ty becomes
involved when the neighbors call the disturbance in. Mia unsuccessfully tries
to hide the cub, then announces he is abused and terrified of his uncle and she
refuses to let him go. When Ty forces the cub to shift back to human and sees
the bruises on the child’s body – both his roles as sheriff and head of the
local bear community come into play. And both he and his bear really, really
like Mia.
On
a side note, the alpha bear is known as the Itan, his mate is the Itana. Good
choice – especially if the author had followed the normal wolf shifter naming practices
of alpha wolf & alpha bitch. Because with bears that would have been alpha
boar and alpha sow… It would have been
hard to take them seriously.
As
Itan, and town sheriff as well, Ty Abrams is strong, serious, and used to being
obeyed. He roars and everyone drops to their knees and bares their necks.
Everyone except Mia. She both stands up to him and calms him. What an Itana she
will make…
Ty
keeps Mia and Parker at the den. To say the thought of a mostly human Itana is
not received well in all quarters is an understatement. There’s the skinny bitch
who wants the job herself, the faction that hates humans, and those that are simply
concerned that mating with Mia will produce non-shifting cubs. But others
quickly develop loyalties to her that supersede their loyalties to Ty when he
makes the ultimate alpha mistake of ‘protecting’ her by not telling her all of
what’s going on and she walks out, taking Parker with her. Or perhaps they are
proving their ultimate loyalty to Ty by protecting his Itana.
The
story continues with enough murders for a CSI episode being revealed and old
family secrets being illuminated. The ending is satisfying – and there is lots
of room for sequels. Since this is listed as the first in the Grayslake series
I assume there are others already being developed. I look forward to them.
Copy
received from Netgalley and publisher for an honest review.
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