Hunter's Choice

by Timber Philips

Jessamine Connors

I lead a simple life on the Olympic Peninsula running Moonchild Owl Haven, a bird sanctuary for sick and injured owls.

When I'm not doing that? I work a regular shift at the animal hospital fulfilling my day job.

Life is pretty great, what with my best friend Charlie coming around daily to help with my fly babies, but it's also lonely. I mean, Charlie is old enough to be my grandad and the only other man in my life? A not even legal teen that’s like a younger brother.

Meeting people out here in the sticks is tough. Tougher still for a girl like me who can't string two words together without stuttering so bad she can't be understood. For the most part I'm okay with that, but sometimes I wish I could do away with my whiteboard and just tell people how it is, what I'm feeling…

After all, a man wants someone he can talk with, not just someone he can talk at.

At least that's what I've been told...

Hunter Grayson

I am older than time… A god amongst men…

No really, that's not just me being arrogant. I really am the descendant of two gods.

Half cursed by my father's uncle because of my mother's betrayal, I can change from human to owl at will. It's a lonely existence for the most part, I can only stay someplace until my lack of aging becomes a problem. So I wander, never staying anyplace longer than a few months and spending almost as much time in the freedom of my owl's form than in my human one.

So who would have thought, that after centuries upon centuries of living I would find myself a broken and bleeding pile of feathers in the middle of a modern highway?

Who also would have thought that this would be the end of my self imposed solitude when she came, plucking me off the asphalt, carefully putting me back together.

She saved my life, and after weeks of being under her care… Watching her move silent and alluring between myself and the rest of her charges...

Well, I just had to know everything about her.

*Mature Audiences Only*
*Recommended 18+*
*Violence & Sexual Content*

Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Shapeshifters, Fantasy

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 14, 2014

About the author

Timber Philips hails from a land filled with beauty and steeped in magic; the Pacific Northwest. She swears you can see fairies and goblins, magic and promise around every tree and in every drop of water and she shares that magic whenever she can. She loves welcoming everyone to her worlds of romance rooted in fable and fantasy.

Reviews

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

His arms went around me and he held me as if I would break. I liked that about him. That big and imposing as he was, that he was so gentle with me. I appreciated it.

I also appreciated Hunter's gentleness. After reading that godawful The Water Knife, I needed some sweet kissing to cleanse my palate. I had been meaning to give this book of Downey's a chance after pretty much hating her book Shattered & Scarred. Deciding that rough bikers, women-are-my-property-I-call-them-bitches wasn't really my thing, I reached farther into Downey's past to when she wrote stuff that was friendlier, and stumbled across this cute little novel.

BRIEF SUMMARY
Jessamine is a veterinarian. She rehabilitates birds of prey.

Hunter is a wereowl. Jess finds him broken on the road.

Jess has a tragic past and has a bad stutter. She has low self-esteem but a strong family and friend group.

Hunter and Jess fall in love.

BREAKDOWN
Okay, let's break this down.

TROPES

Sometimes people come to the romance genre and are shocked and appalled that it is full of tropes. But tropes are one of the most wonderful thing about romance. They are like the bare bones that the author can build flesh on and also arrange any way she or he likes. Every romance reader has her (or his) favorite tropes. Tropes are fun, comforting, wonderful, and exciting. I count romance as a genre all on its own, and don't grade it the way I would other books. I want romances to be sweet, I want explicit sex scenes, there'd ABSOLUTELY had better be a happy ending or I'm going to rage, and I want good, kind, characters who are "too good to be true" or at least on the more unrealistic side of moral and kind.

Complaining about how "unrealistic" and "silly" romance is is not only insulting to romance readers, it's a complete waste of time and a giant misunderstanding of the whole point. Romance novels are FANTASIES. No one wants to have REALISTIC sexual and romantic fantasies - men included. This should be very obvious. I don't even know what the hang-up is for people who still claim that the romance genre is "garbage."

Downey employs Find a Wounded Man Who is Probably Trouble Injured on the Road and Bring Him Home to Nurse Him Back to Health trope (one of my all-time favorites).

She also employs Hero Rescues Heroine from Being Raped.

And last but certainly not least, Human Female Falls In Love With Male Non-Human, personally one of my favorite tropes.

Let's examine.

Find a Wounded Man Who is Probably Trouble Injured on the Road and Bring Him Home to Nurse Him Back to Health is one of the best tropes in existence. For one thing, it establishes a kind and merciful heroine who is willing to help others. Usually the man she rescues comes from a darker background, and her rescuing him can be a sign to him that this woman is worth sticking around for, or it could be a trigger for him to begin a more moral life. Putting someone who is later going to be A Dangerous Man into a vulnerable and weak position is a good starting point for a novel. (examples: Dance with the Devil, or the Japanese manga The Demon Ororon: The Complete Collection, among countless others).

Downey skillfully weaves this with Human Female Falls in Love with Male Non-Human. The "man" Jess brings home to nurse back to health isn't a man at all, but an owl. As an owl, Hunter is able to see the true side of Jess that other people don't get to see: she's relaxed and natural around her "fly babies" in a way she isn't around humans. Seeing what a kind, shy, and hardworking woman Jess is makes Hunter determined to get to know her better and become a part of her life as a human man. (There are countless examples of this trope, one notable one that I loved is Night Play, but there's also billions of others. My big pet peeve is when two non-humans fall in love in a romance - leaving the reader no one to relate to. Downey did the smart thing here in making one of her characters a human being, and an extra good choice in making it the woman.)

Now, I'm not as crazy about Hero Rescues Heroine from Being Raped, but I don't mind it. Some readers hate this trope and can't handle any rape or rape threats in their romance. I'm usually fine as long as no sexual assault, penile or otherwise, actually takes place. It's harder to walk the halls of romance if you are an absolute stickler about rapist bad guys, because rapist villains are a staple of the genre (especially in historicals). Downey does a rather mixed-up job in her treatment of this trope. The good thing is that she keeps the injuries Jess sustains in the assault and Jess heals in a time-appropriate manner. The bad thing is some things she doesn't deal with - like psychological damage from the attempted rape (which would have been all the more interesting with Jess's already damaged psyche) and a rather strange inclusion of later in the book of Hunter putting Jess in the same position the rapists did to have sex with her (bent over a flat surface) which I thought was going to lead to... I don't know. Something. Sexual healing? A flashback? A panic attack? I don't know, I thought Downey was going somewhere with this, but it ended up just being sex. I would have rather (as I always do when assault is brought into a romance book) had some semblance of helping the female recover from her attack. For instance, seeking counseling, perhaps show the couple struggling in one or two ways in the bedroom after the attack, perhaps the man doing some research on the best way to treat his woman after an attack, etc. etc. etc. However, none of that is addressed in this book, Jess's bruises end up being physical only.

SELF-PUBLISHED ROMANCE NOVELS

Sometimes I think that self-published romance novels are closer to the truth of the romance genre than ones that are traditionally published. If you can find a traditionally published romance novel that captures the absolute essence of romance novels, obviously you've hit paydirt, you should buy a copy and never ever let it out of your sight, because you'll be reading that book over and over and over and over. (See my shelf five-romance-stars for examples.)

But often when I read traditionally published romances, sometimes I find that some of the romantic essence has been sucked out of them in the editing process. I'm not sure why. A fear that the book isn't 'original?' A lack of understanding about what exactly drives a romance plot forward? I don't know.

Many people (actually almost all people) who write fan-fiction are writing romance novels. Just take away whatever specific fandom-based traits have been written into the fan-fiction and you basically have a romance novel. In this way, I think self-published romance novels are (like fan-fiction) closer to straight-up fantasy than traditionally published works. Romance (and fan-fiction) appeal to people because it is a straightforward, no-holds-barred fantasy situation. Love, amazing heroes/heroines, great sex, happy endings, and evil-to-the-bone bad guys. These very same things that critics mock these genres for are the most amazing and impactful aspects of the genre. You smile when the couple shares their first kiss. You worry when the hero or heroine has a crisis of the faith. You cheer when the evil villain gets what's coming to him/her. It's visceral, it's raw, and it's closest to what humanity fantasizes about at night.

Sometimes I seek self-published romances out for this very reason.

Which isn't to say self-published romance has a higher incidence of being good. The opposite is true. There is tons of crappy self-published romance out there, TONS. Some of it unreadable. I shudder to see what Amazon is offering on its free deals, that's for sure.

EDITING
Now let's talk about editing. There's no question that Downey needs an editor, or - if she has one - a stronger editor. She has no concept of when and how to use hyphens, she often writes two sentences (one a fragment) when she should be writing one longer sentence, she (as in Shattered & Scarred) doesn't seem to realize that 'ewe' is a female sheep and 'ew' is an exclamation of disgust, and at one point she says I clung to him and kissed him as if he were the last drink of water and I'd just stepped out of a dessert. Really. You just stepped out of some ice cream? LOL Drawing it taught instead of "drawing it taut," etc. etc. She also has a huge problem with commas. She almost NEVER uses them before and after a name. "I want you Jess." should obviously be "I want you, Jess." "Is that a yes love?" should obviously be "Is that a yes, love?" This happens too many times for me to count. Multiple times on a page, every page.

Now. If this kind of spelling/grammar looseness drives you mad, obviously I would recommend you avoid this novel. I was able to shove it aside with relative ease because the story was gripping me, YMMV.

However, one place where I'm rather glad Downey DIDN'T have a copyeditor was with her actual content.

Now. This book is very slow-moving. Downey moves us through the ins and outs of Jess's daily life. Some readers may find this boring. However, I am a person who LOVES the slow burn and also LOVES really getting to know characters as individuals before they end up in bed together, so I was happy. This slow-moving dynamic was really working for me. Others might groan over long scenes of Jess rescuing owls or baking pie, but to me, each scene was another brick in the structure making up the Jess-ness of Jess. I thought Downey did a good job of making her a real person.

I know a copyeditor would've been making text cuts right and left, but I actually think the story is stronger for all the mundane everyday details and scenes that Downey included.


I also want to say I loved that Jess was such a cook/baker. I love cooking and baking and I like to have something in common with the heroine of a romance novel. Jess makes cherry pie for her friends and family, I just made homemade cherry pie for Thanksgiving. Jess cooks every day for her family and friends, I also cook every day for at least myself but often for others.

Another plus was the way Jess dressed. Just like a normal person. Very comfortable. She wore jeans, work boots, flannel shirts, long underwear, she wore sweat pants! She wasn't freaking out about Hunter seeing her in normal clothes or spending her time worrying about her lipstick or anything. She was very plain-dressed and down-to-earth. I, also, am a very low-maintenance woman and it was nice to see a heroine wearing comfy and practical clothes and not wearing much more make-up than some lip balm.


Oh, I almost forgot.

How's the sex, Carmen?

Actually, the sex was really cute. Downey does a great job of including things like snuggling and cuddling (without sex) which is an added bonus. I've never seen so much snuggling in a romance novel, I was very happy. Like I said, it's the slow burn, they don't even kiss until 51%. I could have used MORE KISSING, but to be fair I say that about 99.9% of romance novels. I thought the scene where Hunter goes down on Jess in the first sex scene was really adorable.

They don't use condoms, and usually I'd be upset, but (here's a secret) I usually give Human Female Falls in Love with Male Non-Human a pass on this. If you want your couple to have condomless sex and still want me, Carmen, to have mercy on you in my review, I highly suggest making your hero a non-human creature. It's the only instance in which I will show mercy. (Unless, of course, it is a human couple who is trying to conceive).


Tl;dr - A cute romance with an interesting premise and a very sweet execution. Just what I needed after that horrible torture-fest Bacigalupi wrote.

This romance is NOT for people who are unable to ignore questionable spelling and grammar, those who can't handle an uncompleted rape, and those who like their romances to be fast-moving. This is the slow burn.

However, if you like sweet, if you love the tropes I've mentioned, if you enjoy a more simple and down-to-earth heroine, and if you like sweet, kind sex scenes, this might be worth checking out for you.

P.S. I'm probably going to continue to avoid Downey's biker series. I'm just not sure I'm cut out to read biker romances. I'm not into the more mean and scary aspects of romance that are so popular now.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually REALLY loved this!!!! I thought it was fantastic!!!! Maybe I was just in the mood for something a lot different and this was what I was looking for but I loved it!!!!!!!!

I seriously did! It was a
Mystery, a romance and also a HUGE life learning lesson all rolled into one. Great story like and an amazing message!
Did I Also Mention super hot too? ;)


Loveeeeee!!!! So re reading this when I can!!!

[Myst]

Oh man that was good.
There's reference to the owl rescue in another works by a.j in moon forged.

[Yasmin Vasquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

I enjoyed this book a lot it had a lot of mythical Gods and was very interesting. It was not what I expected but I enjoyed it non the less.

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

[Kim Gualtieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg

Omg this book is so great that you won't want to put it down.I can't wait to read more from this author.

[Rachel Barnard · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘“Hi! You’ve reached Moonchild’s Owl Haven. The owner, Jessamine Connors is non-verbal so if you hear a high tone it means yes, a low tone it means no.’ (Kindle Locations 414-415).

Jessamine cares for her fly babies – her rescued owls – in and around her regular job working at an animal hospital. Her true love is for the owls at Moon child’s Owl Haven and for her friends and family that made the place possible. Charlie, her best friend, is 70 and Aaron is a teenager given a second chance and volunteering at the Haven. Jessamine has all she needs, except that she doesn’t think she is enough for someone to love because of her stutter. Along comes Hunter, a Barred Owl, and Jessamine is truly happy saving him and caring for him, but Hunter is not just an Owl and not content to sit by and watch Jess get hurt.

Hunter’s Choice is one of AJ Downey’s first books and you can see that it is less sophisticated with grammar and writing style than her later works. But from the very beginning, you can also see how great Downey is at writing a compelling story and layering the plot and giving life to her characters. Everything that makes a good book a good book is here in Hunter’s Choice. You just have to get used to the grammar errors and they won’t bother you too much, because the story has great flow and the sentence structure is not difficult to read.

I love how Jessamine is a person before she’s a romantic character aka love interest. Jessamine has her own story and her own background and interests and passions even before the main man shows up. She doesn’t assume someone will save her when she’s in dire straits, she doesn’t just give up. She is a fighter and stubborn even though she has low self-esteem. That is where she has room to grow and she does. She is a broken character that can be healed by the power of love and it’s so gratifying to watch her bloom.

I didn’t need Hunter’s background in so much detail, but it was valuable to have an explanation for the paranormal aspect of this book.

[Deb B · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of my favourite authors and i really enjoyed it.
a simple feel good style pnr romance - standalone. well written with really likeable characters and an interesting storyline

[♥ Joy Joy ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure how this was going to go, but my expectations were low. I did not expect to actually enjoy this book, much less be adding it to my re-read list! There were a couple issues near the end because I thought it was too rushed, but overall, would recommend. Loved the characters!

[Angarad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet story with an unusual but beautiful background. Interesting characters and folklore behind. Good read

[Marguerite · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters names are so cool, the details make it seem like your there. love it

[Candice · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Stace · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5