Amber Eyes

Wild Series #2

by Maya Banks

Their final mission will be to win her love. A beautiful, vulnerable woman appears at the high country cabin where Hunter and Jericho live between assignments. They are captivated by their stunning, reticent visitor and vow to protect her—and uncover what she’s hiding. Neither is prepared for the unbelievable. Their beautiful innocent is a cougar shifter who’s spent a lifetime alone. In the shelter of their love, Kaya blooms, finally willing to trust—and embrace her humanity again. Then Hunter and Jericho are called away on a mission that goes terribly wrong. Now, pregnant, and alone once more, she must find her way in a world she doesn’t belong to—and hope that the two men she loves will find their way home. This title contains explicit sex, adult language, sweet lovin’, multiple partners and ménage a trois. Amber Eyes is the sequel to Golden Eyes, which is available through another publisher.

Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Menage, Shapeshifters, Paranormal Romance, Erotica, Erotic Romance

124 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 10, 2009

About the author

Maya Banks is the #1 New York Times, #1 USA Today and international bestselling author of over 50 novels. A wife and mother of three, she lives in Texas.

Reviews

[Jac K · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Kaya’s story (the sister of the h from Golden Eyes). In that book we learned that she was a mountain lion/cougar shifter that has been missing (and presumed dead) since she was 4-6ish years old. The book opens with a grown Kaya that spends the majority of her life in animal form watching the H’s (Hunter & Jericho) cabin.

This had a different feel than the last book which was largely smut-based. This author loves her sexytime, add in the M-F-M dynamic and I made assumptions that didn’t pan out. Yes, there’s sex, but it takes a while to get going and is a small part of the plot… Honestly, I found it more sweet.

Bottom Line- This is short, somewhat fluffy read with a lost/naïve h and her two broken/closed-off H’s. It’s not a bad read, there’s just not a lot going on, and she doesn't really dig deep to generate feels. I also think it needed an epilogue to show us the sisters farther in the future.

[Cheesecake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was cute and short but still somewhat thoughtful.
Kyla is a were cougar who is drawn to 2 friends who stay intermittently at a cabin in Alaska near her.
She has spent most of her life alone since she got lost and her family moved away while she was lost.
So she's battling her fear of humans and her habit of being alone.
The 2 men are close life long friends who aren't manhos. There was another childhood friend who had been involved with them but died and they still grieve her.
I thought the MB did a nice job of gradually revealing their secrets to each other. It's erotica so when they get busy it becomes a large part of the story but only for about 1/4 of the story.
The way their separation towards the end turns dangerous was a little hard to believe. But so are shifters ; )
I just don't understand why they didn't leave her any money before they left, just in case. It's odd that they didn't think of that.
Anyways, I wasn't expecting much, but quite enjoyed it.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book quite a bit and had intended to give it five stars right up until I swiped the last page on my Kindle and realize that it wasn’t going to end, just stop. It left me feeling really disappointed that there was never any real conclusion to the story. Nothing for the characters to overcome. MB just stopped writing.



The story begins with Hunter and Jericho living in a very remote cabin in the Rocky Mountains. Their profession is never really stated but we’re given the impression that they’re mercenaries who fight for righteous causes. They also both loved a woman named Rebeccah and shared her in a ménage a trois. Supposedly Rebeccah never really trusted their relationship, though. Convinced that the men couldn’t possibly remain friends while sharing the same woman. Rebeccah also ran some kind of doctors without borders operation where she took badly needed medical supplies into some of the most dangerous war zones. Hunter and Jericho helped clear the way for her, so that she and her people would be safe. Unfortunately, Rebeccah was eventually killed during one of these expeditions and it destroyed the men. They’ve continued to do their job, as a tribute to her memory, but withdraw to their mountain cabin in between missions, preferring solitude to being around people. They’ve also vowed to never share a woman again.

A female cougar has been visiting their cabin for months now. She’s skittish and never comes too close, but they leave her food and like that she visits them. When the book opens, however, their cougar limps right up to their cabin, hurt. Hunter opens the door and invites her to come in, which she does, though she’s nervous. They treat her wound as best they can and then put her in a back room for the night. While they’re asleep, she shifts into a woman, Kaya.

Kaya is a shapeshifter who has spent most of her life in her animal form. She grew up in Alaska and remembers having a playmate, a shifter who could turn into a cheetah. But when Kaya was only four years old, she was captured by a well-meaning group who thought she’d been captured in the Rocky Mountains as a pet or even as an exotic animal for expensive hunting expeditions, and released in Alaska. They put her in a cage and brought her to Colorado. She escaped and made her way back to Alaska as soon as she could, but she found her house empty and her family gone. She waited a long time but they never came back. Eventually she realized that they’d abandoned her and she returned to Colorado. She’s lived there ever since. But she’s lonely and tired of always being hungry and cold. She likes the way Hunter and Jericho smell, and feels she knows them, after all the months of visiting their cabin in her animal form. She senses that they’re loners, like her.

Still, Kaya doesn’t trust them enough to tell them her secret, and only wants to get some food and leave again. So she helps herself to some of the food in their kitchen and is chowing down when one of the men walks in. Of course he’s stunned to find a naked woman in his kitchen and Kaya runs out the door before he can stop her. Hunter and Jericho go out searching for her, worried that she’ll freeze to death with no clothes or shoes. They find her in a small animal den, still strangely in her human form, even though MB made it a point to have Kaya shift back to her animal form as soon as she was out of sight of the cabin. She’s freezing and unconscious so they take her back to their cabin to warm up.

Kaya stays for a while and then leaves again, needing the freedom to shift without the men finding out her secret. This happens a couple of times and it frustrates the men. They don’t understand where she can possibly be going when she runs off into the mountains with no clothes, but she implores them to trust her. The three of them also start inching toward having a relationship. Kaya is innocently forthright in her manner of speaking and decides pretty early on that she wants them both as her “mates.” They’re both drawn to her as well, but hesitant because of their vow never to share again.

One day they’re outside, hoping to see Kaya coming back, but instead they see their cougar. Even though they’ve befriended the cougar, they’re concerned that it could attack Kaya, or make her scared to return if it’s hanging around, so they fire a shot over its head to scare it off, not realizing that the cougar IS Kaya. She’s shocked by this and ends up falling and breaking her arm. When she makes her way back to the cabin in her human form later than night, the cougar inside her is hurting at their betrayal. The men are relieved that she’s back but upset that she’s got a broken arm. She decides it’s time to trust them with her secret and she shifts in front of them. They’re shocked, of course, but it makes all her bizarre behavior make sense, so they accept it pretty quickly.

She explains her backstory to them and why she’s afraid of people finding out her secret. So they agree to set her arm themselves, rather than take her to a hospital. She heals quickly, courtesy of her shifting ability and the three of them settle into a nice domestic scene. They soon start sleeping together. First just one at a time, but soon it’s all three of them at once. This goes on for a while and they’re all blissfully happy. Though MB spent a lot of time making it clear that the men always pulled out because they didn’t have any forms of birth control with them at the cabin.

Eventually they get a call that Rebeccah’s old team is in a bad situation and they need help. Hunter and Jericho assure Kaya that they’ll only be gone a few weeks and that they want her to stay in the cabin until they get back. There’s enough food for a few months so they’ll be back in plenty of time. Not long after they leave, Kaya has a dream that tells her she’s pregnant and her baby will be a wolf shifter. She’s ecstatic and can’t wait to share the news with the men. Then we flash over to Hunter and Jericho and they realize they’ve been set up and lured into a trap. A bomb goes off very close to them and then it’s lights out.

Months later, Kaya is desolate. She’s run out of food and she can’t shift into her cougar form because of the pregnancy. So since she can’t hunt, she knows she has to go into the town at the bottom of the mountain to try to get food, even though she’s terrified of people. She can’t believe that Hunter and Jericho abandoned her, just like her family. Meanwhile, the men wake up in the hospital and learn that they’ve been in comas for months. They’re both frantic to get out and get back to the cabin, worried that Kaya will think they’ve deserted her and that she’ll leave and never come back. They sign themselves out AMA and have a friend transport them to their cabin.

Down in the town, Kaya gets caught shoplifting by the local sheriff. He’s more worried about her than interested in prosecuting, though. She’s literally barefoot and pregnant and looks absolutely terrified, but she won’t give him her name or say anything at all. He puts her in a jail cell to keep her from running off when he’s sure she needs help. Kaya, of course, just sees this as a cage and she huddles in the corner shaking like a leaf.

Meanwhile, Hunter and Jericho have found their cabin empty and are desperate to find her. The least-injured one of them goes searching all over the mountain for any sign of Kaya, but she’s not in any of her dens and there are no tracks. They worry that she could have been shot by a hunter, or even killed by another cougar. Eventually Hunter heads down into the town to get supplies and he overhears the sheriff talking to the general store owner. She’s a kind woman and the sheriff is hoping that Kaya will speak to her, since she seems to be terrified of him and his male deputies. Hunter realizes right away what’s up and runs to the jail, snarling at everyone to stay away from her. The sheriff is a bit suspicious of the relationship between Hunter and this woman. He’s concerned that Kaya might not be all there mentally and that Hunter and Jericho may have taken advantage of that. But he eventually lets Hunter take Kaya home. Back at the cabin, the three of them have a tearful reunion and are blissfully happy once again. The men don’t find it at all strange that Kaya is pregnant when they took such pains to prevent that when they were together.

Then we flash over to the sheriff arriving back home, anxious to see his wife. She jumps into his arms and then stops and demands to know what woman he’d been with that day because she recognizes the scent clinging to him. Turns out that she is the cheetah shifter from Kaya’s memories. They’re sisters and the family though Kaya dead all these years. The sheriff takes his wife up to the cabin and though the menfolk do a lot of grunting at each other as they each try to protect their respective women, eventually Kaya and her sister are happily reunited. The sister explains that the family thought she’d been killed and they worried that the cheetah sister would be next. After all, a cheetah in Alaska doesn’t exactly blend in. So they’d moved to Africa until she got old enough to keep her shifting under control. A scene change later Kaya is reunited with her parents and everyone’s happy and together again. The end.

I found the ending to be kind of abrupt. It didn’t feel like we’d actually gotten a third act climax to this story. The closest we got was Kaya thinking the men had abandoned her, but literally the same day she left the cabin, they were back and reunited. And everyone forgave each other instantly so it didn’t really feel like a big deal. I kept expecting there to be some kind of outside villain who would be introduced. Like, who set up Hunter and Jericho to get blown up? MB made it a point to say they’d been lured into a trap but, by whom? That could have been something to explore. But no, it’s just happily ever after with no real trouble. Heck, we didn’t even get an epilogue where we saw the baby get born. Just disappointing.



Overall I really liked this story but I wish it had a more exciting ending where the main characters actually had to triumph over something.

[Diane Heffner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amber eyes is a shifter story which I did not know when I picked it up I only picked it up is because I saw it was my Banks and I haven't read Maya Banks book and so long and I love Maya Banks. And I didn't think I ever read this one, and I didn't. I didn't remember this at all it was really good. I enjoyed it it's my bank's usual very spicy.

[Sana Zameer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnfed at 20%.

[AG Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread. This isn't a bad read, just not a lot here. The emotion all seems rather flat and unexplored.

[Chelsea Kumer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kaya is a shape-shifter, and having been left behind by her family she's spent most of her life as a cougar in the wild. She's been watching Jericho and Hunter, two men who live in an isolated cabin, and they have been watching her. When she is hurt, she allows them to help her--and they discover that their wild cougar companion is in fact a beautiful woman. They both form an attachment to her, and are reluctant to leave her even when their work calls them away.

I liked that the plot was slow and mellow. It has a quiet, isolated feel that I found relaxing. It isn't an adventure story, and the paranormal element is uncomplicated and matter-of-fact. That simplicity really fit the story and set the tone.

While reading this story, I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out how the author intended to characterize each of her protagonists. Kaya comes across as a bit weak and helpless, but then you have to bare in mind that she hasn't had much human contact. Still, I feel like the author could have spent a little time establishing that Kaya does have some innate strength, and isn't totally dependent on her men to provide for her. Hunter is portrayed as the more closed off, emotionally isolated of the two men. Why that is is never fully explained. I can't really get a handle on Jericho's personality at all, other than that he's a bit more open than Hunter. Both men are, of course, insanely protective and intent on caring for Kaya. I think part of the problem at work here is page limitation. It's a short book, so there is only a limited amount of time to establish everyone's personality and allow them to develop.

My other "complaint" is the sunny, slightly sugar coated ending. Everyone is accepting of Kaya and her relationship with two men. Nobody comments or thinks it's odd. Everybody is just part of a big happy family. That's a bit unrealistic. But then, this book has shape-shifting so I guess I shouldn't demand realism.

All told, for a novella you can read in one day, this is worthwhile. It has steam, emotion, and a fairly satisfying happy ending. 3.5 stars.

[Meliss · Rating 2 out of 5]

Both better and worse than the first book.

[Jimmy Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really, I liked "Amber Eyes" much more than it's predecessor "Golden Eyes." The relationship build-up is slower, more natural. I especially liked how in the beginning Hunter and Jericho would trade attitudes off on things - Hunter was open to the cougar, but not the girl; Jericho was open to the girl, but not the cougar. It was creatively ironic. ^_^;;

But then, after they found out the truth and the three of them grew closer, I was a little disappointed about how Hunter took the prime roll in everything. He wasn't very open to having Kaya stay, and yet he was the first that took her. She did seem to go to them both evenly which helped, and none of it was covert - no sneaking around behind the other's back - which helped more. Still, it seemed that although Jericho was getting his own share of pleasure, when it was them three together Hunter always got the 'top position.'

Their leave-taking and extended absence was done well, and Kaya's feelings in being alone and pregnant, while poignant, were not angsty-over-done. But another minor detail that kind of stuck in my mind ... neither Kaya, nor Hunter, NOR Jericho ever bothered to question how she could have gotten pregnant, if they always pulled out before finishing.... food for thought. o.O;

On a more personal note, I was a bit frustrated that Hunter and Jericho weren't a couple, or at least a sort-of couple, in their own right. They should have been; it would have probably pushed this one right up into my favorites, then.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once part of a menage relationship, Hunter and Jericho both agreed to never enter into another menage out of respect for their former partner. Hunter, a loner, has formed an attachment to a cougar that has been hanging by the cabin Hunter and Jericho share between assignments. Jericho is just waiting for the cougar to eat his best friend, but when it becomes injured Hunter is adamant it needs their help.

As if taming a cougar is not weird enough, they find a naked woman in their cabin. After a rocky start, both Hunter and Jericho find themselves both falling for Kaya and are weary about jumping into something she may not want. Kaya knows these two men are destined to be her mates, but she has a secret that she fears they will use againist her, once they know. Once they get called out on assignment though, with a promise to come back soon, Kaya finds herself alone and pregnant.

An interesting story, have not read one like this before where a female is a shifter and knows nothing of her history. I liked that she was kind of stilted in the beginning, having lived most of her life in cougar form. You sensed her innocence and her two mates are also healing from their own losses.

[marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was the sequel to Golden Eyes. in this one we see where Kaya ended up after being captured from her home in Alaska. Coincidentally she ends up in the mountain of the small town her sister is living in. In cougar form she was watching a pair of men who lived in a cabin, longing for some human contact. after caring for her in cougar form she makes herself known to them as human. from there the relationship heads to a HEA menage, and HEA's all around really.

this one was lacking on the action/suspense story side. this was pretty much 110% romance. it was focused on the relationship between the three and the trust issues they all had. of course once we got going there was plenty of delicious scenes. since kaya spent almost her entire life in cougar form her speech patterns and straight forwardness were pretty cute to read.

[Nickisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I personally have an issues with this "sharing lovers" thing, but the book was a good read. I was a bit disappointed towards the end because I expected someone to at least call out Hunter and Jericho for taking advantage of Kaya (EVEN IF THEY DIDN'T)or something towards that extent or maybe Jericho or Hunter died on the mission before you introduce this "relationship" to the girl's family but then who knows why things happen the way they did. Had a hard time rating, 3 stars or 4, cause even though i enjoyed the book alot as i said I'm not into the whole "menage a trois". Still interested because i still want to know who the biological father is. hmmm.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Maya Banks's Highlander series so I thought I would give this one a try. I'm not impressed, but I'm rather tired of the whole shapeshifter, werewolf, vampire stuff. This book features a shape shifting woman and 2 uber men. My biggest problem with this book was that I've never seen 2 men share French fries from McDonalds much less what these 2 share. I will continue to read books by Banks but will defiantly stay out of her paranormal novels.

[Rose L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mucho mejor que el primero, definitivamente tiene el encanto de la autora que hizo falta en el primer libro, me agrado mucho la historia realmente es tierna, obviamente tiene sus fallos y algunos pedazos demasiado rebuscados pero en fin es buena historia para pasar un dia

[Olga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since this was my first dip into M/F/M, I found the triangle quite nicely done. And because I'm not a fan of love triangles, I guess this is saying something. Plot- and mythology-wise, though, it was seriously lacking.

[The Book Junkie Reads . . . · Rating 4 out of 5]

Banks early menage was acceptable but does not compare to here later works. Kaya has paid a huge price for what little she has. Jericho & Hunter takes on a little more than either of them knew.

[Mystique · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it!

[Hannah Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this would be neat, with shape-shifting. But it is erotic fiction and two guys 🤮 Kaya is also stilted and a shallow and simple character.

[Jamoz23 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short quick and enjoyable coffee time read.
I own and read this book years ago. Didn’t review back then but I am now cleaning up my book file and rereading and reviewing as I go. Seeing the cover had changed I grabbed a copy through my library but the story is the same.
Such an emotional read due to Kaya but one very lovely story. It didn’t take me long to twig who the cat was but that didn’t detract from the overall story.
Loved both Jericho and Hunter and was so sorry about what happened to them but that is the job they were doing. Not expecting trouble was just stupid and to leave Kaya with no resources was not forward thinking. Shame on them.
Poor Kaya, what a hard life she’d had but I will state this story is lacking background on how she ended up where she was. I am assuming she travelled from Alaska in cat form.
The ending was just so wonderful.

[Palesa Msizi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly never usually review things but omg for this I had to. I hovered between 1 and 2 stars only because at the end of the day, writing is an art and a skill and whether bad or good. And make no mistake this book was bad. The willingness to create the art of literature should still be commended but truthfully this was just English words strung together to make a passible story. The jumping from perspective to perspective without warning. Jumping from 3rd and 1st person. The lazy descriptions. Implausible plot development. The lazy attempt at dialogue. There’s just so much to unpack. But the same way it feel both author and editor didn’t bother to, I’ll leave it at that.
This book is definitely for those who don’t care about structure and plausibility.

[Nicoline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was better than the first book in the series... The way things are described in this book however is very much making me uncomfortable:

- "She went slick around him, and suddenly he didn’t seem quite so large inside her passageway."
girl passageway to where?

- "The two women embraced, both crying noisily while the men looked on in discomfort."
i don't think it would be possible for this author to write the men in a more "ew i'm a man and i don't like feelings' kinda way

- "Not when her stomach bubbled like a cauldron. It was all she could do not to go to the bathroom and be violently ill.”
i'm gonna be violently ill reading this

[Daniela · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Explícito). Al principio fue genial, todo eso de ser una cambia formas que se acerca a la cabaña de ellos para no sentir tal soledad agobiante. Incluso la relación está genial. Lo que no me gustó fue la narración tan poética que usó la autora. Eso es lo que siempre hace que un libro pierda mi atención, porque lo encuentro exasperante y empalagoso. Algo original pero al mismo tiempo cliché. Muy recomendable, aunque puede que resulte un tanto desesperante por la 'trágica' historia de la protagonista que hará que te salgan algunas lágrimas, bueno en mi caso.

[Fedora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amber Eyes by Maya Banks is the second in her Wild shifter series. Kaya has been hiding in the mountains for years, so much so that her cougar form tends to be more in control than her human form. Hunter Caldwell and Jericho Hartley serve together and live together. At one point they had shared a lover and a vision for a shared future but her loss devastated them both. Finding Kaya rocks their world.

Maya Banks’s story is hot and emotional.

[Carrie Gubish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

This book was way better than the first one. In this book at least they got to know each other for like 40% of the book before sex, unlike the first book. I just wish the baby was born and we got to read about all of them shifting and the baby creating havoc lol.
I don't even know if they're will be a 3rd book because they're is no more shifters mentioned. This book doesn't have too much drama except for the end but at least we got character connections.

[Rachael Day · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Amber Eyes" begins with promise, drawing readers in with an intriguing premise and captivating prose. However, as the narrative unfolds, it veers into increasingly implausible territory, leaving behind the initial allure for a plot that strains credibility. Despite its promising start, the novel ultimately disappoints with its descent into absurdity.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it well enough, but it suffered due to its short length. All the usual culprits were there: lack of character and world development, insta-love, etc.

I didn't realize until I was 80% through the book that I read the other entry in the series "Golden Eyes" at some point. LOL

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good story by Maya Banks.
I felt so bad for Kaya. She has been though so much in her life. Forced to live an isolated life because of fear. Hunter and Jericho live isolated because they choose to.
I really liked that the first story, Golden Eyes, tied into this story.

[Yogi Yogi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why did I read the second book in this set? Why? I knew what I was in for after the first one. Damn.
So I skimmed the last 1/3 of this book - always gotta know how it ends. But hands down this is the worst shifter series I’ve ever read. No world-building, minimal character-building, just no.

[Carla · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2.5*

[Bela · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow, i really liked this book :) ending was kinda abrupt and no epilogue. Will there be a sequel? I want to read about baby wolf!