Review: Sanctuary's Price by Moira Rogers

Title: Sanctuary's Price
Author: Moira Rogers
Page Count: 127 pages (.pdf format)
Publisher: Samhain
Genre: paranormal romance
Purchase Link: MBaM!
Copy for review provided by Veronica at Strictly Reviews in exchange for an honest review

50 words or less: The saga of Red Rock continues with the story of Dylan, a beta wolf with a heart of gold, and Sasha, a witch in training who has big shoes to fill, and their journey to Maine to find out what's going on in the rest of the werewolf world.

This series just keeps getting better and better. Each story adds more detail and nuance to an already engrossing world, and every time I finish one I find myself feeling kind of angsty because I need the next one. Book withdrawal is a terrible, terrible thing.

From the moment Dylan was introduced in the first book, I wanted him to get his happily ever after. Sanctuary's Price definitely delivers on every count, but also throws some new or at least less common elements into the proverbial pot.

To begin with, Dylan isn't your typical snarly, bossy boots alpha male. Fans of the shapeshifter genre might initially say "ick" upon reading this, but I'm going to challenge you to put that assumption aside. Instead of being, shall we say, a dick to the heroine, as is so often a danger in stories with strong alpha heroes, Dylan is way more in tune to what Sasha is feeling and thinking, which is good, considering the horrors she endured in Sanctuary Lost.

I really enjoy how intuitive all the characters are in this story, and how everyone works together as a team and leaves the villainry to the actual villains. Case and point: Dylan and Sasha are sent on a mission, ostensibly to check on the other packs who are supposedly on Red Rock's side in the increasingly ugly violence between the werewolf packs, but really, Gavin (leader of Red Rock) figured out that Sasha was feeling uncomfortable in Red Rock and could use a change of scene. He sends Brynn and Joe along for the same reasons; Brynn is tired of feeling like a freak and needs to get away without it looking like she's being cast out.

Well, it's a good thing this quartet traveled to Maine, because all is not well with the other packs, especially in rural areas. The authors here do a good job of creating a realistic and plausible conflict that is definitely not going to be resolved any time soon. Also, we get to meet Adam Dubois, vampire lumberjack extraordinaire. Just saying.

I went back and forth about whether or not this book merits a Scandalous Books designation, and I decided to hold off- there is adult content here, sure, but it's more in line with what one might encounter in other romance novels and most of the more graphic things referred to are things that happened in other books. The relationship between Sasha and Dylan is very physical, but that takes a definite backstage to their emotional growth and commitment to each other. If sex in a book bothers you, though, then I'd still steer clear.

I could go on and on and on about this book and the other ones in this series, so all I'll say is this: stop what you are doing and buy them. Buy them all together, so you won't have withdrawal symptoms when you finish one. You know you want to!

Book Reviewer: Emily

Strictly Reviews Note:

Book received by author for this review. Sent to and reviewed by our new book reviewer Emily. Review will also be posted at Emily's review blog here and may also be posted here as well by Emily.

Review: The Wallflower by Dana Marie Bell

Title: The Wallflower
Author: Dana Marie Bell
Page Count: 114 pages (pdf format)
Publisher: Samhain and purchase at MBaM
Genre: paranormal romance

Copy for review provided by Veronica at Strictly Reviews in exchange for an honest review.

50 words or less: Max Cannon is an optometrist/Alpha of the puma shifters who's finally ready to settle down. He falls hard and fast for Emma Carter, who's grown up in a big way in the years he's been away. But will she want to be with him when she realizes just what that will involve?

The Wallflower is a great story for when you've had a blah sort of day or when work or kids or family or whatnot are stressing you out. It's short (114 pages is generous as there are a boodle of excerpts of other books that add to the page length), spicy, and sets up the next installment in the series nicely.

Emma Carter is a career wallflower, so naturally she and her best friend Becky name their antiques shop precisely that. While's been focused on running her business and making it successful, Emma's grown up into a confident, sassy, beautiful woman, a fact that doesn't go unnoticed by Max Cannon, who moves back to town after an extended absence. Max lays eyes on Emma and immediately decides that he's been a moron when it comes to her; instead of being forgettable, Emma shows Max that his search for a mate is over and all he has to do is convince her that his feelings are genuine.

Because of the length of the story, the relationship develops at a breakneck pace; I about had whiplash during their dinner date and how quickly they went from "nice to see you again, you're looking well" to "ZOMG be with me forever!" There's a cute subplot where we find out that Emma's best friend Becky and Max's beta Simon secretly think each other are just the best thing ever; matchmaking ensues and the stage is set for the next story. The matchmaking served as the vehicle for Max and Emma to really bond as a couple and worked well as a story element. They certainly do a lot of bonding as a couple, too- hence the Scandalous Books note.

This isn't a perfect story- it suffers a little bit from an abundance of telling and less showing than I would have liked. For example, Max tells Emma all about how he became Alpha and how this was a huge ordeal and how he and Simon completed it while they were still human which was unusual, and how people are changed from human to puma changeling and all that, and I felt like those were elements that were important and deserved more attention than a pre-nookie info dump could give them. The other characters didn't really get a lot of attention, either, although that may be because of the length and the fact that many of them get entire stories to themselves eventually. This isn't a big deal, just a heads up to people who want a lot of details about secondary characters or a lot of world building.

Overall, though, this was a great start to a series that definitely made me want to read the rest. Emma and Max are hilarious together (Emma especially is snarky and flip and a girl after my own heart.) Lucky for me, there are a bunch of titles already available!

Overall Grade: B+


Book purchased by me for this review. Sent to and reviewed by our newest book reviewer Emily. Review will also be posted at Emily's review blog here and may also be posted here as well by Emily.

Book Review - Sanctuary by Moira Rogers

Title: Sanctuary

Author: Moira Rogers

Page Count: 296 pages (pdf format)

Publisher: Samhain - Purchase at MBaM

Genre: paranormal romance

Copy for review provided by Veronica at Strictly Reviews in exchange for an honest review

50 words or less: The stories of Abby and Keith and Brynn and Joe, two werewolf couples trying to find their way to happily-ever-after when war is coming fast to the community of Red Rock.

Sanctuary is actually the combined release of two separate, shorter stories; Cry Sanctuary is the story of Keith and Abby and comes first, chronologically, while Sanctuary Lost is the story of Brynn and Joe. I highly recommend reading them in order and back to back in order to get the full effect of the story, because it is definitely an effect worth getting, no doubt about that.

The stage for an excellent werewolf story is set from the first pages. Red Rock, Montana is a sanctuary for wolves escaping from more violent, corrupt packs. In Red Rock, residents are treated with dignity and respect; in other, less stable packs, members are treated however the alpha feels like treating them. The plight of new wolves caught in the clutches of cruel, brutal or just plane insane alphas is an issue the wolf world is trying to resolve.

Abby Adler is one of those new wolves. She was turned against her will because the freaky alpha of the Helena pack decided he wanted her; now she's on the run with her friend Dylan to try to make it to safety before they're hunted down and killed. Keith figures he'll rescue the two trapped wolves and bring them to Red Rock and that'll be that; he doesn't plan on the epic, immediate attraction between him and Abby. They do an okay job fighting their attraction to one another, but then Abby's sister is kidnapped by her old alpha and the whole scene goes to the dogs (literally) in a big hurry. Abby has to learn to control herself and rely on Keith if there's any chance of saving Brynn's life.

Cry Sanctuary has all the ingredients for an excellent story- great, believable characters, a realistic and detailed setting, a spicy (and I do mean spicy) romance, adventure, danger, and a believable setup for the second story. I think being able to dive right into Sanctuary Lost helped me enjoy this story a little more, since the two really do read like one longer novel instead of two novellas.

Grade: A

While Cry Sanctuary is all about the alphas and what it means to be strong, Sanctuary Lost is about recovering from trauma and relying on the strength of someone else, and how that's okay too. Brynn (Abby's sister) is trying to come to grips with a) what happened to her while she was Alan the crazy alpha's prisoner, b) dealing with her sister being a werewolf, and c) trying to figure out if her desire to be changed is genuine or just a reaction to the stress that's spewing all over her life. Her conflicting feelings for Joe, one of her rescuers, certainly aren't helping things either, and Joe's just as conflicted as she is. The story is angsty and emotional and gut-wrenching; I sympathized with Brynn while at the same time feeling excited for her to get to her happy ending. The fact that a lot of important decisions are brutally ripped out of Brynn and Joe's hands only sweetens the deal for the end of the story.

Sanctuary Lost takes a different approach to the relationship between the hero and heroine. There are lots of stories out there about an alpha pair finding their way to each other, but not so many where one of the characters is less dominant than the other. Sanctuary Lost explores that concept very efficiently without ever painting the characters as stupid or naive. It left me wanting to read more of the series like, now.

Overall Grade: A

If you're interested in trying a sample of this series, there are two free short stories available for download from the author's website here.

Book Reviewer: Emily

Strictly Reviews Note:

Book received by author for this review. Sent to and reviewed by our new book reviewer Emily. Review will also be posted at Emily's review blog here and may also be posted here as well by Emily.