What do you think?
Rate this book
Lonely Lioness
Love. Responsibility. Pride.
For Ainsley, turning eighteen means finding a mate – and fast. When she runs into an old acquaintance, it seems as though everything is falling smoothly into place.
But it’s not.
When the wolves begin growing more bold and aggressive, a tremendous truth, hidden from her by her parents, is revealed and Ainsley will be forced to make a decision for the good of herself and her people.
The kind of truth that affects not only the present, but the future. The kind that changes everything.
Ainsley is a Sekhmet, a lioness descended from the Goddess, and with that knowledge and power comes great responsibility.
The only question she has left to ask herself is: can she do what’s right?
**This is a slow burn reverse harem/#whychoose novel with a HFN.**
178 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 2, 2019
About the author
Catherine Banks
93 books840 followersCatherine Banks is an award-winning, USA Today Bestselling fantasy author who writes in several romance subgenres under multiple pseudonyms. She began writing fiction at only four years old and finished her first full-length novel at the age of fifteen. She is married to her soulmate and best friend, Avery, who she has two amazing children with. After her full time job, she reads books, plays video games, and watches anime shows and movies with her family to relax. Although she has lived in Northern California her entire life, she dreams of traveling around the world. Catherine is also C.E.O. of Turbo Kitten Industries™, a company with many hats including being a book publisher and store full of nerdy fun.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 6, 2019
Ok then
Ainsley is the alpha lion's daughter. But not like African lions, or even mountain lions. Ainsley and her pride are Smilodons. For those not familiar with the name, these are the large saber-toothed prehistoric cats. They aren't as extinct as humanity thought. Other shifters exist, too, although the focus is on 2 types of shifters: lions and wolves. They coexist but aren't friendly. In fact wolves are becoming a real problem right now. And it's not like Ainsley needs more problems. Her mom isn't happy with her dad's other mates, she's met 2 guys (finally, because even though there's more males than females oddly enough she's not come across any other single male lions), both guys want to court her- which sounds good but a girl needs more than 2 weeks to decide on a lifelong mate, 2 of her human friends are showing interest but that isn't going to work because shifters and humans don't mix, and now those 2 friends are acting very strange.
Spoilers ahead.
This is advertised as a YA RH, and technically it's... sort of true? Ainsley makes the comment, internally and to others, that with more males than females the pride structure should be different. One male can collect multiple mates and females are expected to accept that males will do this. Ainsley makes this part of her wishes to her beaus. No other mates and they will accept it if she finds another male. This makes her sound pretty tough. She's supposed to be, according to the author. She's strong, fierce, stubborn. The stubborn comes through but the other 2 not so much. When there's fights, she panics. She has human friends but seems very upset at the idea that one of her beaus kind of flirted with a human waitress, which sort of comes off as weird. Not a lot of world building was done here, either. Alphas, Ras, Seks (I can't remember how to spell the female version), immortals, why unmated males are part of a pride, wanderers, ack. There's a lot of brief mentions but no real explanations. Also, if Ras and Seks are the children of the union of both Ra and Sek then why are some males called Ra and others Sek? How can they tell? Why is an ubermale Ra ok with his mate, of which he's supposed to aquire many, accumulating more males? What's his background story that allows this thinking? While I'm glad the teen drama wasn't focused on the cheerleaders (thank you!) how come one of her beaus went from sweet and levelheaded to a raging tantrum tyrant? It was like a switch was flipped out of nowhere. Then, bam, happy for now with a happy pair, the mention of travel, and buying a house... and then end scene. It didn't come off like a serial, it also didn't come off as a real ending with any kind of resolution. Not a lot of investigation was done into the wolf issue, as in: if shifters are supposed to be born- how did he turn people, how many did he turn, how is the police investigation going, do we actually get to see Ainsley and her choice bond any at all- because a handful of stilted dates don't count, and if she's already talking about setting up house how does this expand into a RH? I'm hoping that the next gives readers a little more insight. And here's my final question: how did Smilodon, a creature whose fossils have so far been found in the Americas, get Egyptian deity patrons?
Ainsley is the alpha lion's daughter. But not like African lions, or even mountain lions. Ainsley and her pride are Smilodons. For those not familiar with the name, these are the large saber-toothed prehistoric cats. They aren't as extinct as humanity thought. Other shifters exist, too, although the focus is on 2 types of shifters: lions and wolves. They coexist but aren't friendly. In fact wolves are becoming a real problem right now. And it's not like Ainsley needs more problems. Her mom isn't happy with her dad's other mates, she's met 2 guys (finally, because even though there's more males than females oddly enough she's not come across any other single male lions), both guys want to court her- which sounds good but a girl needs more than 2 weeks to decide on a lifelong mate, 2 of her human friends are showing interest but that isn't going to work because shifters and humans don't mix, and now those 2 friends are acting very strange.
Spoilers ahead.
This is advertised as a YA RH, and technically it's... sort of true? Ainsley makes the comment, internally and to others, that with more males than females the pride structure should be different. One male can collect multiple mates and females are expected to accept that males will do this. Ainsley makes this part of her wishes to her beaus. No other mates and they will accept it if she finds another male. This makes her sound pretty tough. She's supposed to be, according to the author. She's strong, fierce, stubborn. The stubborn comes through but the other 2 not so much. When there's fights, she panics. She has human friends but seems very upset at the idea that one of her beaus kind of flirted with a human waitress, which sort of comes off as weird. Not a lot of world building was done here, either. Alphas, Ras, Seks (I can't remember how to spell the female version), immortals, why unmated males are part of a pride, wanderers, ack. There's a lot of brief mentions but no real explanations. Also, if Ras and Seks are the children of the union of both Ra and Sek then why are some males called Ra and others Sek? How can they tell? Why is an ubermale Ra ok with his mate, of which he's supposed to aquire many, accumulating more males? What's his background story that allows this thinking? While I'm glad the teen drama wasn't focused on the cheerleaders (thank you!) how come one of her beaus went from sweet and levelheaded to a raging tantrum tyrant? It was like a switch was flipped out of nowhere. Then, bam, happy for now with a happy pair, the mention of travel, and buying a house... and then end scene. It didn't come off like a serial, it also didn't come off as a real ending with any kind of resolution. Not a lot of investigation was done into the wolf issue, as in: if shifters are supposed to be born- how did he turn people, how many did he turn, how is the police investigation going, do we actually get to see Ainsley and her choice bond any at all- because a handful of stilted dates don't count, and if she's already talking about setting up house how does this expand into a RH? I'm hoping that the next gives readers a little more insight. And here's my final question: how did Smilodon, a creature whose fossils have so far been found in the Americas, get Egyptian deity patrons?
March 4, 2019
I wanted to like this book but the female MC was just too much. She was super arrogant and considered herself superior to everyone and spent most of the time looking down on everyone.
March 31, 2022
Good book, solid start to the series...
March 16, 2019
Ainsley is a conceited and prejudice spoiled brat
This was a very poor book. The heroine is a spoiled brat and there is very little world building. In fact the single mate that she ends up with is just a big of a jerk as she is.
One this is not a harem romance since she ends up with one guy. Two while I wouldn’t say she is evil. Ainsley is a spoiled brat that I couldn’t care about in the least.
She hates humans, and thinks the other potential mate is worthless because of his smaller dreams of being a mechanic.
She is not a leader and I didn’t like her at all
This was a very poor book. The heroine is a spoiled brat and there is very little world building. In fact the single mate that she ends up with is just a big of a jerk as she is.
One this is not a harem romance since she ends up with one guy. Two while I wouldn’t say she is evil. Ainsley is a spoiled brat that I couldn’t care about in the least.
She hates humans, and thinks the other potential mate is worthless because of his smaller dreams of being a mechanic.
She is not a leader and I didn’t like her at all
March 25, 2019
[SPOILERS TOWARDS THE END OF THIS REVIEW BEWARE!!]
So I picked up this book because it sounded interesting although I completely forgot that I swore I'd never read another book by this author again. In a way, though, I'm glad I accidentally picked this up. The author has improved dramatically since I had the horrible experience of reading the first book in her Royally Entangled-something or other-crap of a book.
So if she's improved so much, why am I still giving her a 1-star review you ask? Well, I'll tell ya! Because there's just still so much more improvement to go, my friends. The biggest issue this author had with her previously mentioned book was that by 25%-ish the storyline had achieved its intro, climax, and conclusion. It was a terribly unorganized and badly planned plot. While the plot for this book wasn't as bad, there were still major discrepancies.
The biggest discrepancy was the fact that the author could not decide on whether lionesses outnumbered males or not. On page 4 of the book, lionesses were rare. On page 53, however, lionesses outnumbered the lions. Then on page 98, lionesses were rare again. The author is going for an RH type book, and it really didn't make sense to start the book with lionesses being rare but men still being the ones to have the harems. It was really unsatisfactory like that...This was only ONE of the MANY issues this book had with consistency.
I know many other individuals reviewed this saying the MC was cocky or arrogant....and she was, but that didn't really bother me too much. What did was how the MC was told constantly to stop thinking like a human yet [HERE COMES THE SPOILER] at the end her first lover proposes marriage to her? He's supposed to be her mate...yet they practice the human tradition of marriage? Does not compute at all.
If you've made it this far in my review, I thank you. Because now I'm going to give you a direct quote from the book that actually bothered me on a more personal level. I quote, "I was five foot seven with long legs and curves that fat girls wished they had." I really kind of thought we was past fat shaming by now, I mean it's 2019 people. I don't know, I might be the only one bothered by this. I do want to say that I did NOT lower my star level because of that quote. There was too much wrong with the book for it to be anything other than a 1-star review, the quote was just a personal dislike.
The only good thing that came out of this is that I somehow actually managed to finish the entire thing. I really must like torturing myself. Anyways, will not continue the series. I may, however, try another book of this author if one is released at a way later date in hopes that they progress in improving their writing skills. Maybe produce something that is more thought out and consistent in plot development.
So I picked up this book because it sounded interesting although I completely forgot that I swore I'd never read another book by this author again. In a way, though, I'm glad I accidentally picked this up. The author has improved dramatically since I had the horrible experience of reading the first book in her Royally Entangled-something or other-crap of a book.
So if she's improved so much, why am I still giving her a 1-star review you ask? Well, I'll tell ya! Because there's just still so much more improvement to go, my friends. The biggest issue this author had with her previously mentioned book was that by 25%-ish the storyline had achieved its intro, climax, and conclusion. It was a terribly unorganized and badly planned plot. While the plot for this book wasn't as bad, there were still major discrepancies.
The biggest discrepancy was the fact that the author could not decide on whether lionesses outnumbered males or not. On page 4 of the book, lionesses were rare. On page 53, however, lionesses outnumbered the lions. Then on page 98, lionesses were rare again. The author is going for an RH type book, and it really didn't make sense to start the book with lionesses being rare but men still being the ones to have the harems. It was really unsatisfactory like that...This was only ONE of the MANY issues this book had with consistency.
I know many other individuals reviewed this saying the MC was cocky or arrogant....and she was, but that didn't really bother me too much. What did was how the MC was told constantly to stop thinking like a human yet [HERE COMES THE SPOILER] at the end her first lover proposes marriage to her? He's supposed to be her mate...yet they practice the human tradition of marriage? Does not compute at all.
If you've made it this far in my review, I thank you. Because now I'm going to give you a direct quote from the book that actually bothered me on a more personal level. I quote, "I was five foot seven with long legs and curves that fat girls wished they had." I really kind of thought we was past fat shaming by now, I mean it's 2019 people. I don't know, I might be the only one bothered by this. I do want to say that I did NOT lower my star level because of that quote. There was too much wrong with the book for it to be anything other than a 1-star review, the quote was just a personal dislike.
The only good thing that came out of this is that I somehow actually managed to finish the entire thing. I really must like torturing myself. Anyways, will not continue the series. I may, however, try another book of this author if one is released at a way later date in hopes that they progress in improving their writing skills. Maybe produce something that is more thought out and consistent in plot development.
June 21, 2019
4 stars for Lonely Lioness by Catherine Banks. This is book 1 in The Lioness’s Harem series. This is a slow slow burn reverse harem.
In this book we meet Ainsley who is a Smilodon shifter. She is a lioness who is looking for a mate. She comes across two male Smilodon who are both given two weeks to court her and then she will choose. Ainsley knows she doesn’t not want to share a mate with other females and this seems to be a common practice even though there is less females than males. When Ethan and Iagon start to court her she begins to pull more towards one of them . Ainsley has had a problem with wolves since she was younger and they seem to still be after her. You do find out why during the book but I do not want to spoil that for you. I will say that I don’t trust either of her choices very much, but we will see what the future holds..
I am intrigued by this story and its characters. While this will be a reverse harem as it says this book just tells you that Ainsley is leaning towards as her choice. I can not wait to see what the next book will bring. This is my first book from this author and I will be reading more from her.
In this book we meet Ainsley who is a Smilodon shifter. She is a lioness who is looking for a mate. She comes across two male Smilodon who are both given two weeks to court her and then she will choose. Ainsley knows she doesn’t not want to share a mate with other females and this seems to be a common practice even though there is less females than males. When Ethan and Iagon start to court her she begins to pull more towards one of them . Ainsley has had a problem with wolves since she was younger and they seem to still be after her. You do find out why during the book but I do not want to spoil that for you. I will say that I don’t trust either of her choices very much, but we will see what the future holds..
I am intrigued by this story and its characters. While this will be a reverse harem as it says this book just tells you that Ainsley is leaning towards as her choice. I can not wait to see what the next book will bring. This is my first book from this author and I will be reading more from her.
May 7, 2026
This was just not a book for me. It's more of a typical damsel in destress but the protagonist has no actual growth that is what really helps us fall in love with characters as we go along in a story and relate to a character's flaws and weaknesses but there needs to be growth. Other than her choosing which lion to marry (which the choice is focused on the strength and ability of the lion to protect her). This book had a lot of potential and although it is an easy read, it's got a lot of patriarchal tones and some minor feminism but the main character not becoming strong on her own made the story fall flat for me. I could see this book being amazing, having more character development and growth as the story goes on, maybe it just needed more length to develop that, sometimes publishing problems can make it so the book cuts too much out in the end.
March 2, 2019
This was very interesting! Trying to figure out just who the MC would end up with was so entertaining! My favorite totally changed! I liked that these weren't standard shifters in that the species was quite unique, there are just not many shifter stories that follow along this line. I am absolutely hoping that Max will re-enter the series. He wasn't the most dominate of guys, but I think that he has a heart of gold 💗 This is a slow burn RH which makes sense given that Ainsley (the MC) is just 18. Her father is quite the strong alpha. I even found that the pack dynamic was different from most books. Ms. Banks never disappoints. Her creativity and plotting is always filled with surprising twists.
July 20, 2025
Decently enjoyable although I don’t see how it’s a reverse harem story. In the end she has 1 mate and since it’s been 6 years since publication and I can’t see anywhere online that there will be a 2nd book it can’t really be called a why choose. It seems maybe the author had plans for more because there are some loose ends of stuff to explore further like the council that was briefly mentioned but Ainsley hadn’t heard of and the immortals. The blurb on audible also said contains mature themes which usually means spice but this book had no spice and nothing really R rated with violence or abuse or whatever so overall I kept waiting for things that never occurred (like spice and the why choose aspect).
They can’t all be winners
They can’t all be winners
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 12, 2025
I enjoyed the fact that the shifters were lions and they had their own pride dynamics. But I find that there was something a little lacklustre about the storyline. Maybe I’m just listening to too many of these shifter romance novels. But the storyline seems to be all the same. The shifter is looking for a mates finds one they get into trouble due to some circumstance and then their mate says them. There was some originality due to the lineage of the female and male shifter. Overall, the story wasn’t good or bad it was just enjoyable.
March 8, 2019
LOVED!!
I love our main character, I felt she had some growth in this book & it was a good start to a series! Wish it was longer!! LOVED Ethan!! CANNOT wait for the second book so please hurry!! Wonder who else will end up in her harem. Are you thinking bout all lions or different types of paranormal? I think it'd be cool if she mates to different types of paranormal to mix it up!
I love our main character, I felt she had some growth in this book & it was a good start to a series! Wish it was longer!! LOVED Ethan!! CANNOT wait for the second book so please hurry!! Wonder who else will end up in her harem. Are you thinking bout all lions or different types of paranormal? I think it'd be cool if she mates to different types of paranormal to mix it up!
March 24, 2019
Slow burn
I really liked this book but i thought that the dust two in the harem wield be uncovered in this book but that was not to be in impressed with the characters and now that the backstory is over in looking forward to seeing how the harem develops and how each member is introduced.
I really liked this book but i thought that the dust two in the harem wield be uncovered in this book but that was not to be in impressed with the characters and now that the backstory is over in looking forward to seeing how the harem develops and how each member is introduced.
March 29, 2019
Very enjoyable great reading
I really enjoyed this book and loved the characters and how they came together. I can't wait to see what will happen next for her and Ethan I was disappointed that iagon did what he did but he seemed to be a nice guy.
I really enjoyed this book and loved the characters and how they came together. I can't wait to see what will happen next for her and Ethan I was disappointed that iagon did what he did but he seemed to be a nice guy.
June 22, 2019
Freaking LOVED
I loved Ainsley and her ferocious determination. I rooted for her, felt her plight. This was amazing. I cannot wait to see her harem grow. Already her pick is delicious
I loved Ainsley and her ferocious determination. I rooted for her, felt her plight. This was amazing. I cannot wait to see her harem grow. Already her pick is delicious
March 3, 2019
Good read
This was a good read but not my favorite from Banks. Good plot and great characters but they were a little in mature for me.
This was a good read but not my favorite from Banks. Good plot and great characters but they were a little in mature for me.
March 28, 2019
The plot was good but I just didn't like how rushed some parts were. I did like the main character, Ainsley, quite a bit. Unfortunately, the only other character I really liked was her dad.
March 28, 2019
Interesting plot but didn't enjoy the writing style
I struggled to finish this book purely because of the writing style. It was almost like reading it through a translation app.
I struggled to finish this book purely because of the writing style. It was almost like reading it through a translation app.
April 3, 2019
Could not stand the FMC. I got about 45% through the book and absolutely hated it... figured give it a chance... NOT glad I did. Will not be picking up any more of this series.
April 24, 2021
Several inconsistencies and the female character was annoying.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews