Rating: 3 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novella
Watcher and lynx shifter Yuri is out chasing a rabbit for dinner when a Bighorn Ram attacks. He wakes up in a basement, still in his lynx form, and with a huge knot on his forehead. There’s also another man in the makeshift cell with him, a raven shifter named Regi. Regi is able to fill in a few blanks and tell Yuri that the man who has them is looking for information about Watchers. Yuri keeps his true identity a secret, and tries to figure out a way to get out. But he can’t, and Beau comes to question his new captives. Yuri’s arrogant attitude gets him beaten.
Yuri can’t contact the other Watchers because of the intense pain in his head, but as he and Regi grow closer, Yuri realizes that Regi is his mate. When they find release in one another’s bodies, Regi’s ministrations help Yuri to feel better. As Yuri’s Watcher powers come back online, he realizes the reason Beau is holding them captive. And when Beau attacks again, Yuri can’t do anything but protect his mate, even if it means ending Beau’s life.
This is a tough one for me to review, because it’s the second one in the Watcher series, and I had higher hopes for it. As it is, there isn’t much to Yuri’s story. I felt it was too short, the plot not fully developed and fleshed out, and the characters not given much depth.
This story is told solely from Yuri’s POV and he’s a nice narrator. We got a taste of him in the first book, and I was looking forward to his installment to see where the authors’ took his story. But what you see of Yuri is what you get, and I didn’t feel like he had much depth. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, just that I wanted more range from him than I got. I liked Regi, who was sweet and naïve, and a little on the dumb side, but really had a big heart. So two nice characters, but don’t expect anything deep here.
And even that would have been okay if I felt the connection between them. Sadly, I didn’t. They felt like just two guys in the same place, so they got together because of proximity. There was nothing to build on. No shared connection, no fiery heat of the pull of fated mates, no explanation at all. They were there, they thought the other one was attractive, they realized they were mates, and when they go free, they moved in together. Honestly, there was little intensity and the romance aspect fell flat.
So ultimately, the plot was too big for the small number of words, and nothing was fleshed out and developed so it felt rushed and undetailed. The characters were nice, but nothing too impressive. I hesitate to recommend this book, and then only to those who are diehard shifter fans looking for a very quick, easy read.
