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Shifting Time #2
Phantom Tiger
Two shifters, hunted by demons…and their love.
Waking up covered in blood was nothing new for Spike O’Shea. After all, Irish phantom cats are considered bad luck for good reasons. But this time there’s a strange shifter lying beside her…a shifter who Spike recognizes as her true mate.
Reed Allen is a bì-àn, a mythical tiger shifter driven to uphold law and order. He came to London to find demons. He’s found them, and more. Spike is everything he’s ever wanted—everything he’s ever needed!—and he’s already confessed his love.
But Spike says she doesn’t want or need love. She’s already escaped one arranged marriage, and she won’t let Fate trap her into another! Reed understands how she feels, but he also knows he can’t live without her. How can Reed convince Spike they are meant to be together, especially while forced to battle the murderous demons all around them?
Waking up covered in blood was nothing new for Spike O’Shea. After all, Irish phantom cats are considered bad luck for good reasons. But this time there’s a strange shifter lying beside her…a shifter who Spike recognizes as her true mate.
Reed Allen is a bì-àn, a mythical tiger shifter driven to uphold law and order. He came to London to find demons. He’s found them, and more. Spike is everything he’s ever wanted—everything he’s ever needed!—and he’s already confessed his love.
But Spike says she doesn’t want or need love. She’s already escaped one arranged marriage, and she won’t let Fate trap her into another! Reed understands how she feels, but he also knows he can’t live without her. How can Reed convince Spike they are meant to be together, especially while forced to battle the murderous demons all around them?
- GenresUrban Fantasy
102 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 4, 2020
5 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 1, 2020
Another fun paranormal sex romp. I like that there was more plot to sink my teeth into, but I still blazed through it in under 2 hours. Looking forward to the third.
April 20, 2021
I picked this one up because I've enjoyed other books that CE Murphy has written under the Murphy Lawless brand, but something tells me she's NOT the writer for this one.
I loved the concept for it, but there were SO MANY niggles that pulled me out of the story and kept me from truly enjoying it.
First up, there was the heavy emphasis on the fated mates thing. I know that both of the Murphy Lawless books I've read and enjoyed so far have featured this, but they've had much more of a light touch about it, and something about the way it was handled in this one just annoyed me.
Then there was writing Spike's accent. I've always figured that POV characters don't hear themselves speaking in an accent, so if you're writing their dialogue from their viewpoint and you make a big deal of their vocal patterns, it means they themselves are hearing it as a big deal for some reason (for example, because they're deliberately faking the accent because they're under cover). And if it's constant, it gets really, really distracting.
And then there were the ongoing insecurity-ridden communication breakdowns, where each of these UBER-competent characters was convinced the other one saw them as useless and dramatically angsted about it in their thoughts. It was a dynamic that felt more as though it belonged to a couple of highschool kids in their first relationship than the otherwise competent adult characters in this story. And it was also solidly in the realm of 'relationship conflict that could have been easily dealt with through a single 5-minute conversation', which meant I had precisely zero patience for it.
So I think, in the end this one gets several points for concepts and world building, but then loses most of them for execution. And it definitely makes me think twice about picking up more Murphy Lawless in the future if I don't know who's behind the name in that instalment (although I do have Librarian Bear, which I know is a CE Murphy one, already bought and in my electronic TBR pile)
I loved the concept for it, but there were SO MANY niggles that pulled me out of the story and kept me from truly enjoying it.
First up, there was the heavy emphasis on the fated mates thing. I know that both of the Murphy Lawless books I've read and enjoyed so far have featured this, but they've had much more of a light touch about it, and something about the way it was handled in this one just annoyed me.
Then there was writing Spike's accent. I've always figured that POV characters don't hear themselves speaking in an accent, so if you're writing their dialogue from their viewpoint and you make a big deal of their vocal patterns, it means they themselves are hearing it as a big deal for some reason (for example, because they're deliberately faking the accent because they're under cover). And if it's constant, it gets really, really distracting.
And then there were the ongoing insecurity-ridden communication breakdowns, where each of these UBER-competent characters was convinced the other one saw them as useless and dramatically angsted about it in their thoughts. It was a dynamic that felt more as though it belonged to a couple of highschool kids in their first relationship than the otherwise competent adult characters in this story. And it was also solidly in the realm of 'relationship conflict that could have been easily dealt with through a single 5-minute conversation', which meant I had precisely zero patience for it.
So I think, in the end this one gets several points for concepts and world building, but then loses most of them for execution. And it definitely makes me think twice about picking up more Murphy Lawless in the future if I don't know who's behind the name in that instalment (although I do have Librarian Bear, which I know is a CE Murphy one, already bought and in my electronic TBR pile)
July 25, 2020
Murphy Lawless is becoming one of my staples! This is a great story. I started on the second one in the series here. Still a really good fighting, loving, friends and family story. Sometimes your best friends are placed in your path for a reason. Just loved this book. If you want to read an adventure (ALL kinds of shifters), read this one. 😁
July 11, 2020
KU edition reader
Thigs are heating up (pun intended) with the demon infestation ... in more ways than one!Spike may have met her unwanted match, but can she run fast enough? Constant action, excitement, and danger throughout this one.
Thigs are heating up (pun intended) with the demon infestation ... in more ways than one!Spike may have met her unwanted match, but can she run fast enough? Constant action, excitement, and danger throughout this one.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews