I liked this book, and I sometimes didn’t. But mostly I did. Here’s why…
Ms. Paffel can write! She’s a good writer with excellent word choices and few grammatical errors. Her characters sizzle off the pages…not just sex here, I’m talking personal shazam.
Allie Rowe is a baker with her own bakery that comes with one headache after another. She’s had a bad breakup with a bad boyfriend, Blake, who was an emotionally abusive bear shifter very low in the shifter scheme of things. Besides the ex-boyfriend conflict, there is another Big Conflict that makes no sense. One woman—entitled, wealthy, and silly—is able to create enough of a bru-ha-ha to threaten Allie’s bakery with closure. She uses blackmail as well as ridiculous behavior to get her way...but still, she’s just one woman in a town full of people who love Allie’s Sticky Sweet Bakery. Allie’s father, Benjamin, and good friend, Becks, round out her world.
Enter Dax Mitchell, an alpha bear shifter, the son of his clan’s alpha, and a hunk (well, of course). He’s got days to find a mate—any mate will do—or lose his manhood and other things with it. While he is an interesting character and as believable as it is possible to be in a paranormal world, the odd, overly contrived and absurd conflicts hurt the storyline. Two parts of the Big Conflict have to do with the absolutely fundamental, excruciating need for Dax to take a mate in days or lose his mojo and family (uh…no). Dax’s father, Rowan, and brother, Jett, round out his world.
The two worlds collide. The writer is careful not to make Dax aggressive; he is pushy and sweetly arrogant, and he’s met his mate (Allie) so he’s over-the-top protective and possessive. Allie is feeling negative about herself, thanks in part to her ex-boyfriend, Blake, and also to her self-denigrating nature. Dax and Allie feel the mating urge and, as they say, nature takes its course, but with a good bit of nurturing in there, too.
I think there’s too much sex. There. I said it. I was trying to figure out a way to introduce this because, hello, shifter-sex is…well…sexy. I skipped some of the sex pages because (of all things!) they became kind of “same-old, same old,” and some positions were downright awkward and uncomfortable! And hot, sweaty sex where baked goods are made? No, no, no!
Shifters have a whole culture that wants exploring, not just the part about the always phenomenal sex. We readers get it. We do. And there should be sex. But there’s so much of it here, that it takes over the book, and in parts, that’s all there is. I’d like to explore more of the Estes Park shifter world where shifting is normal, expected, unsurprising, and acceptable by humans. So many questions come to mind about this little patch of harmony. And what we get is sex. While it’s fine, and between mates it’s critical, there’s just so much left untold about a world that would have been exciting to explore.
I rated this book 3.5 stars and rounded up. While the Big Conflicts were not resolved to my own satisfaction (the good guys weren’t very good about ending said Conflicts), this was fun to read, a nice couple hours spent cozying up to new characters in a new setting…written well, which was a wonderful cherry on top. I wish I knew where that Sticky Sweet Bakery was. I’d stop in for a maple sticky bun (with a side of Jett’s bourbon-infused honey) in a heartbeat, and a cup of that dark roast coffee. Oh, yum.
P.S. I rarely read the chapter(s) of a next book that writers so often offer at the end of a book, but I did this time and I’m looking forward to reading the second book in this series. It looks to give a bigger glimpse into this shifter world and that’s as enticing as can be!