Shy Brookes is in a world of hurt. Attempting to rescue the handsome man she discovered her fellow scientists were hoping to use as a live specimen, Shy finds herself locked up and tortured in a cell of her own. When a team of mercenaries tears through the facility and effectively rescues her, Shy assumes her problems are over. Wrong! The team of Skin Walkers insist that she belongs to the handsome prisoner she’d attempted to free. Claiming she carries the man’s scent, the Walkers are determined to return her to her mate.
Leto Reigns doesn’t know who’s to blame for his captivity at the Megalya labs, but he’s certain Shy has played a role. She’s admitted to being an employee of the facility that hunts and experiments on his kind…Skin Walkers. His plan is to snap her pretty little neck the first chance he gets, but first he’s determined to find out why she carries his scent. He’ll have to control his temper and his disconcerting attraction to the auburn haired beauty to get his answers, if she’d stop running from him long enough to allow him to get close.
My pack territory is in Central Montana, between Stone Crow Estates and the North Fortress. Born and raised in an untamed location that bridges the gap between rolling prairies and majestic mountain peaks, I am born to a family that also bridges the gap between cultures. My father’s people boast a fiercely proud Scandinavian ancestry while my mother’s tribes descend from two savagely beautiful and unique nations (White Clay and Nakoda) that inspire my Skin Walker series.
I'm a huge fan of MMA, boxing, 30 Seconds to Mars, DMX, Nahko and Medicine for the People, and 21 Pilots (“…sometimes quiet is violent”). I also love to read because it encourages me to write. (I hate it when authors add that they love coffee and chocolate. Really? Who doesn't love coffee and chocolate?) Anyway, I love beer...kidding. I don't love beer but we are engaged in a very serious relationship. (Mom, please don't call me when you read this.)
Please leave feedback….well, only if it’s positive. “Keep in mind that I’m an artist and I’m sensitive about my shit! (Erykah Badu lyrics!)
Check me out at www.susanbliler.com for updates, my blog, and for excerpts from upcoming books.
* How did the book make you feel?: I loved the beginning angst in this book, but the characters’ actions became unpredictable toward the end of the book. * How do you feel about how the story was told?: I enjoyed the writing style and action. * What did you think about the main characters?: I appreciated that the h was trying to do the right thing. I didn’t understand some of her reasoning after she escaped. Also, what happened to her was horrible and she didn’t have the time or space to process any of it. The H was a hot head who sort of redeemed himself at the end, but he did a complete 180 and the h was just supposed to accept everything as it was and be compliant, no questions. * Which parts of the book stood out to you?: I enjoy the Skin Walkers world building. * What themes/tropes did you detect in the story?: Shifter romance, innocent h wrongly blamed * What did you think about the ending?: It was predictable, but good. It just seemed like the MC’s went from hate to love instantly. * What is your impression of the author?: This author has a good imagination and I enjoyed her writing style. There was such an abrupt change in the characters’s perceptions and behavior though, it gave me whiplash. I’m wondering if her other books are that way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Ok, I am a sold woman. Susan is now officially a go to author for me. For some reason I can't get enough of beastly like men. Men that are alpha and growl the word MINE! They claim what is they know is theirs. I am happy to say that the plot has smoothed out some. I think the author is trying to hold back some details and slowly unfolding them throughout this series. I got a better understanding of the 'halo'. I know why and what it is for and it is a unique concept. I know that some people might be like, "Um, lame." Well, they don't have to read it, I'll read it and love the crap out of the skinwalkers. We are understanding the baddies. We still don't know the origin of the Skinwalkers. Which isn't a bad thing, because so many possiblities are open. I highly recommend this series if you like the Breed or New Species.
This book was not as good as book 1 - Conn. I made the mistake of starting this book first and I was completely lost. So read book 1 first otherwise you will be very confused.
Why not so good - The romance was non existent.
90% of the book was about Leto hating on Shy & avoiding him. They did not spend any time together to get to know each other. There was no "pull" towards each other. When they finally got together it felt like they had too and the author was running out of space or forgot. Shy had a better relationship with York than Leto. The sex was bland only once and 1 oral and even that was boring.
Shy was just too annoyingly timid. She did not look Leto in the eye AT ALL, she did not fight back when he gave her grief or when he was being mean or judgmental, just walking away would have been worth it. She always kept her head down, she was not strong or resilient. When they finally got together almost at the end of the book, Shy just accepted Leto's apology and caved.
The one real drama of the chase & capture could have been more but it fell flat there was no purpose or result or action taken. I think my main issue here is that I did not care for either Shy or Leto, they where just not engaging enough for me to care about them.
I like the world this author is creating, I like the premise and the characters and there is lots of potential here but she is losing a great opportunity to make this series WOW.
I just hope she does better with the books to come.
I really disliked this book. Shy wanders around scared to death and doing the best she can. Leto is a giant ass. She's abused and taking advantage of by every man in the story. She finally gets the guts to go out on her own and somehow she ends up back with Leto and he's all sorry. And she forgives him! Even Jenny who knows how terrible he has been to Shy acts as if it's no big deal and that she should turn around and just love him and forgive him AND she completely betrays Shy by telling him all about the baby while Shy is unconscious. So unbelievable. It really made me want to kick Jenny in the teeth. There's no great regret for how he acted. Everything should be forgiven and forgotten. Ugh.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Seriously there wasn't even ONE character I liked.
And the plot to make Leto realise he's in the wrong was brilliant. Way to go putting a pregnant woman through all the stress. Not that I liked her either... She wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree. None of them was.
Pretty repetitive for such a quick read. A nice world to be introduced to but the hero wanted the heroine gone for too long that it dragged the book down. The heroine wanted to let her family know that she was alright but that doesn't happen. And all the hero had to do was apologize twice for everything to be ok? Hmmm nah.
This author has a knack for writing books that tap into your emotions and using them to keeping you invested in the book until the very end. You can almost taste the rage, agony, friendship, heat, joy and love as they draw you to the HEA that was meant to be. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
Will review when I have a little time - I haven't been able to put down any of Susan Bliler's books since I discovered them and I have things to do! I love it when I find books like this, even better than chocolate!
Once again, Susan has pulled me into another of her Skin Walker stories and has me blushing for the strong need of wanting one of my own!! In this installment, you get to know Leto's story. GOD how this woman can describe her characters and weave a story so riveting that has your undivided attention to the point of you forgetting you are not actually IN the story is incredible! I literally read this in a day. (ONLY because I literally could NOT put it down.)
One thing I don't do in my reviews, is tell you a lot of information from the book. Otherwise, why would you read it?? You would miss out on small vital things! With that said: Leto has been captured by the Megalya and his "brothers" come to rescue him. BUT someone else is also rescued. What happens after that is where all the fun stuff begins! There are quite a few surprises in this installment. You will find yourself wishing for one thing only to change your mind a couple of chapters later. :) You will encounter male dominance, lust, anger, vengeance, love, acceptance, forgiveness and the Skin Walker ways! I cannot wait for Susan's next installment. I believe it's Skin Walker: Monroe. Although, after reading this one, I would LOVE for York to have his story "very" soon!! Hint Hint :)
I HIGHLY recommend this read. I do suggest you read her first book in this series, Skin Walker: Conn first. However, it is not necessary to understand this one.
Merged review:
Once again, Susan has pulled me into another of her Skin Walker stories and has me blushing for the strong need of wanting one of my own!! In this installment, you get to know Leto's story. GOD how this woman can describe her characters and weave a story so riveting that has your undivided attention to the point of you forgetting you are not actually IN the story is incredible! I literally read this in a day. (ONLY because I literally could NOT put it down.)
One thing I don't do in my reviews, is tell you a lot of information from the book. Otherwise, why would you read it?? You would miss out on small vital things! With that said: Leto has been captured by the Megalya and his "brothers" come to rescue him. BUT someone else is also rescued. What happens after that is where all the fun stuff begins! There are quite a few surprises in this installment. You will find yourself wishing for one thing only to change your mind a couple of chapters later. :) You will encounter male dominance, lust, anger, vengeance, love, acceptance, forgiveness and the Skin Walker ways! I cannot wait for Susan's next installment. I believe it's Skin Walker: Monroe. Although, after reading this one, I would LOVE for York to have his story "very" soon!! Hint Hint :)
I HIGHLY recommend this read. I do suggest you read her first book in this series, Skin Walker: Conn first. However, it is not necessary to understand this one.
Ok, I understand the characters in this book where basically animals aka shapeshifters but really, after reading this ''Once he…mounts her, your affliction will begin to subside. It should only take a dozen or so couplings to rid her of your scent completely.'' I stop caring about this book!
Shy (weird name by the way) was an intern at the Megalya facility, she needed the internship to get her degree in cellular biology but Megalya is not an ethical place since they do live experiments on ''human'' I mean the animals/shapeshifters lool Leto was the guy she tried to save and ended up being held captive by her former Megalya teammates. Until Leto's friends, the Walkers, came to free him and mistook her for his mate.
Now all that ''mate'' talk had me grinding my teeth... It is like the human women in that book were simply used to satisfy the sexual needs of those Walkers, seriously. This was not a romance, there is no falling in love, there is no tension, no slow burn and guess what? It is not even sexy either lol!
It is shelved as Erotic Romance but really, the sex scenes were laughable, I was just laughing all along. I mean, look at Leto trying to talk dirty: “I know I’ve been…off lately. I’ve been told it’s part of the affliction. Thinking coherently, speaking coherently. It’s difficult when all I want to do is bury my dick so deep inside your sweet pussy that neither one of us knows where the other ends and we begin.” And he does it AGAIN lol! “Don’t run from me Shy. Not now. I won’t be able to control myself. I’ll chase you and force you down to bury my dick so far inside you…”
The author even ended their main sex scene like this: "Finally, Shy was bound, properly marked, and finally claimed."
Between the weird sex scenes, Leto always grunting or groaning like the animal he is, Shy being so silly and passive, I just couldn't take that story seriously, it was utterly ridiculous!
This book was just okay for me. I liked the switch up in the shifter story, but it reminded me too much of New Species. When compared to that, this one wasn't near as good. If you like this book and haven't read New Species by Laurann Dohner, I can highly recommend that. Now, with that being said, I really liked the two main characters of this book, I hated that it took us to almost 80% of the book by the time the two actually officially got together and then led us on (and not in a hot way) for them to have sex and actually "claim" eachother. To me, when writing a book where this is an intregral part of the story, it shouldn't take 80% to tell it. IF so, then you need to make the book longer and take out some of the needless stuff in the beginning. I did enjoy the way the hero found out the heroine was truthful and did care about him. I don't think I would have believed the love if he somehow didn't have facts on that account. So for me, 3 stars, really 2.5 because I think (that's how good the book is, I read it last night and I can't remember)they only had sex once and oral sex once before that...I think of these types as more erotic with romance and this ince was just kind of erotic and an eventual romance-ish.
I don't know ANYONE who would fall in LOVE with someone who's been trying to kill them for MONTHS. he chokes her, manhandled her, stalked her, snuck into her room and threatens her, continually verbally assaults her, ALL OF THIS WHILE SHRS PREGNANT, and somewhere during all this harassment and harsh treatment, she falls in LOVE with him.... ??? No, just no. By the end of this book, I hated HER for how stupid she is. None of this is conducive of a health happy loving relationship, yet that's what the book would have u believe. I love this series, but some of these male characters are extremely harsh, so when the realtionship finally evolves, I'm like, what!?!... WHAT!?! How can a woman fall in love with someone who treats them like that?! But, I keep reading soooo.... Lol
This book was more of a 3.5 for me, but I rounded down because the characters were well rounded and the story/theme of the series seems to be really interesting and full of potential, but the potential was never quite realized. It fell a little flat. I think my main issue was that I never really grew to care for Leto- I was sympathetic to his plight, but I kept thinking she could do better than this moron. I like the idea of this series and will definitely try a different one.
The story was ok, but they need to fire the editor. The wrong your/you're is used, breathe instead of breath, world instead of word...it totally disrupts the flow when one trips over these errors in vocabulary. The sex scenes seemed immature, almost crass. Perhaps I'm just spoiled with the likes of Nalini Singh, Caris Roane, and J.R. Ward. Fortunately, I didn't spend much on this book.
2 issues: no relationship and pregnancy issues. I kept waiting for notes slipped under the door, a kind gesture like a boring gift or a new lock for her door, an in-depth invasive background check, an accidentally shared meal, a conversation in the hallway...something! The main characters NEVER had a positive or even neutral interaction. They literally know nothing about each other besides that they were both captives. Shy was inseminated, they were both taken to StoneCrow, and then lived separate lives for weeks. At the end, suddenly Leto loves her. Really? Why? You sure you don’t just feel guilty and you’re literally dying without her? It felt manipulative.
I also got lost on everything relating to the pregnancy and it kept kicking me out of the story. Were they at StoneCrow for 6 weeks (2 months) and no one gave the girl pre-natal vitamins? She has an accelerated pregnancy but is never showing. Yet she’s far enough along that they can determine the baby’s sex? There are no concerns about the pregnancy and then there are suddenly A LOT of concerns about the pregnancy. A Walker baby isn’t enough reason to offer the mother asylum from evil people but she passes out after psychological torture and now the pregnancy is very important. Aries said she didn’t smell a second life. Could no one at the compound smell the pregnancy either? Is that how it was able to stay a secret when Leto was stalking Shy? Why was this pregnancy so different? I’ve read the previous books and was way lost on the whole pregnancy aspect with Shy. It ruined the book almost more than the lack of a relationship between the characters.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I first purchased and read this book in June 2013. At the time there was only 1 book published before this in this series. Conn. Re-reading the series in the publication order, as I did the first time and looking at each books reviews after the re-reading, I can see why the negatives. The world is more detailed and evolved in books published later and are now listed first in the series. You find out what the skin walkers are and who is hunting them. This world is incredibly creative, even in today's standards. Are there typos and grammatic errors, yes, but not enough to take you out of the moment within the book. Is Leto a brut? Yes. But his and Shy's horrific and brutal story sets the stage for series. Conn's book introduced you to the world, Leto's book explains why there is a need for the Conn's in this world, and why the males are what they are. This is definitely a series that needs to be read in order, if you really need to have the stage set completely in order to comfortably progress through the many wonderful books this author provides. If not, go ahead and read them by publication date like I did and am doing again. Well worth your time and $$ again and again!
This book was sooo good, I just cant not get enough of this series. Shy once worked for the Megalya not knowing how bad they were, she threatens to notify the authorities when they capture her and did tests on her instead. Leto was rescued after being help captive by the Megalya being told his "Angel" was safe, but he has no idea what they are talking about.. Leto argues he does not have a "Angel ". He's mad and believes he was lied to, he does not trust Shy and believes she is the enemy. Little does he know the pain and suffering she has gone through trying to save him..
This book can put you into a rage and make you cry for their circumstances!
WOW, this book will pull every protective instinct that you have for the way that Shy was treated and make you so mad about the way that Leto treats her until he is given all of the facts about what his Angel has endured on his behalf!!!
I dont like this trope where h does not tell H anything and then is hurt, because H thinks otherwise. Like how hard is it to explain?!?! And she explained to everybody else. She does not tell H she is preggo and was abused at the same place. No.. she only lets him know she was employe in the same place. And then is butt hurt that H did not trust her and thought she abused him.
Awesome characters and a fantastic storyline. The continuation of the background story is ever evolving and creates and amazing atmosphere add to that the books actually story it just exudes a wonderful experience in words that anyone can enjoy. Read this series in order for the best experience and enjoy
I've loved every book in the Skin Walkers series so far. The characters are well thought out and their actions/feelings are believable. Highly recommended! Looking forward to reading the next story.
Not the best one in this series but helps the continuing story. I just want to know what happend to the book 'Hunted' that we got a look at the end of leto. Very frustrating. Can't find it anywhere and her website doesn't help either.
So... I know it's part of a series, but I got this book as a gift and read it as a stand-alone. As a result I bought all the rest of the books that were out. The only one I couldn't find was RedKnife and based on the summary I really want to read it.
I love all of her books. I have a problem with needing any all books that have dominant hot alpha men in them. When they use their growling voice and say “mine” I can just mentally imagine it’s me in the book. It’s a great story had me on the edge of my seat and totally needed chocolate.
This was the first book that I have ever read by this author. I bought it because I have always had a serious love for shape shifters, of any kind and add in Alpha heroes and I'm so there!
First of all let me say this, this book is so much like a mash-up between New Species by Laurann Dohner and the Breeds by Lora Leigh that its not even funny. Even so... This was a really great book. I will be reading the first book in this series as I found that this is the second book in the Skin Walkers series.
I enjoyed the build up of the book, I liked the main female character, Shy and I liked Leto as well, I just wish that he would have been fleshed out more. Honestly, I prefered a secondary character, York, as opposed to Leto but that's just me. Even though I prefered York, I still enjoyed the build up between Shy and Leto. Shy was such a wonderful character, I could all but feel her anxiety and unease as well as her emotional connection to Leto. I think that the reason that I had such a disconnect from Leto was his hate for Shy. I only wish that Leto and Shy could have came together without interference from outside forces... I won't say what because I don't want to ruin it for anyone. This truly was a very good book, It's a very strong 4-star review for me. I only rated it sensual because honestly there wasn't much on the 'intercourse' side of things.
I have to tell you that this world, the way that it was built up is something that I look forward to seeing once more. I will read the next book, I can't wait for it honestly.