Sourcebooks Casablanca | July 7, 2015 | Paranormal Romance
Heart of the Wolf, book 16
★★★★
Paul Cunningham has eluded many traps in his long career as a Navy SEAL, but there’s no way out of this one. On a rare visit home, he gets “volunteered” for a local charity bachelor auction, and the community is counting on him. Then he discovers that the sexy she-wolf with the winning ticket is Lori Greypaw—the one woman he could never resist. And she has plans for Paul that go way beyond a simple date. For the first time in his bachelor life, this alpha wolf SEAL is going to have to prove his worth…
{ about terry } .
USA Today bestselling author Terry Spear has written over fifty paranormal and medieval Highland historical romances. In 2008 Heart of the Wolf was named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry also creates award-winning teddy bears that have found homes all over the world and is raising two Havanese puppies. She lives in Crawford, Texas.{ interview with terry } .
What's your favorite part of the paranormal genre? I can create super heroes and heroines in that they have enhanced healing abilities, longer longevity, the power to shift into something other than what they are, more strength, better hearing, eyesight, sense of smell. Wouldn’t you love these things and more?
Of all your characters/couplings, who is your favorite? The ones I’m working on currently because I have to love them with all my heart as I’m creating them, getting to know their pasts and their desires for the future, their frailties and their strengths. Every couple has been my favorite as I’ve struggled to reach that happily ever after with them. Even now, I can look back at the past 22 books—18 wolf books I’ve written and the 4 jaguar books, and think about the favorite scenes, the fun and the conflict, what made each so special and different from every other couple.
What is your typical writing day like? I start with a cup of green tea, take the puppies out, write my blog—which can be about anything—a perfect purple day—a photo of a jaguar I took at the Cameron Park Zoo and turned it purple—about how excited I am to write 3 days worth of work on the next book in the que: Billionaire in Wolf’s Clothing, or about the Escargot that Got Away, or the puppies learning obedience training. That helps me to jumpstart my writing day. I answer emails, Facebook comments, post something on FB to say good morning, I’m awake, are you? And then I’m off to write my word count goal. I have them written on my calendar so I get my book done in time. If I can—in other words, the story is just flowing, I’ll keep writing until it’s time for bed. If I can’t, I will make myself keep writing until I get my word count. Sometimes, that means doing research, rereading what I’ve written, and go from there.
{ excerpt } .
He sure did and joined Lori in the kitchen, where she began washing her bucket of berries. He followed her lead and washed his. Then she put them all in a big saucepan and added sugar in the same quantity as the huckleberries. After that, she dissolved pectin and added it to the fruit and sugar mixture.
“Do you want me to break up the berries more? Less?” She paused in stirring them and crushing some to make the mixture more jelly-like.
He peered over her shoulder, breathing in the sweet berry-and-sugar mixture and Lori’s sweet she-wolf scent. “Smells great. Looks great.” He wasn’t just talking about the jam. “Just right.” He hadn’t eaten homemade jelly in eons, so this was really a special treat. He remembered fondly eating jam on bread before it had even cooled all the way when his mother made it.
Lori looked up at him and smiled a little. He wasn’t moving out of her space, just smiling down at her, his mouth close to hers. Hell, he’d never enjoyed watching someone make jam as much as he did Lori. He was ready to kiss her again. She shook her head and turned to finish cooking the jam. He only let her get away with avoiding any further entanglement because he didn’t want to make her burn the jam. Otherwise, he would have kissed her.
Lori began to transfer the jam into jars and seal them. She’d let the jars cool down so she and Paul could have some jam tomorrow.
“See? I knew what you’d like for breakfast. Waffles, pancakes, or French toast with fresh huckleberry jam.” She licked some of the jam off the spoon she’d used to stir it.
The way her tongue licked the spoon made him think of tangling his tongue with hers again.
“Or honey. Don’t forget how much I like honey,” he said. He let his gaze switch again from the spoon to her lips and thought about how much he’d enjoyed licking the honey off them.
She chuckled.
Unable to stop himself and hoping Lori was of a like mind, he took the spoon from her and set it in the empty saucepan. Then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her again, tasting the sugary berries on her lips and tongue as she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave in to the kiss.
“I couldn’t wait for breakfast.”
{ review } .
Our leading male, Paul, is not only a SEAL, but a wolf as well. As is explained early on in the book, due to the non-aging of shifters, a separate SEAL group was formed. On this team, we have pseudo-brothers, Paul and Allan. The book opens after a semi-successful mission, where the team went in to rescue hostage college students.
Paul is suffering a bit of guilt when we open; the team was able to extract the college students, but were unable to save the lone female. While Paul was trying to bring her to safety, she was shot and let go of Paul's hand, all after thanking him for trying.
Needless to say, Paul suffers some ghosts from this mission.
The moment the men get home, though, Allan's mom calls, telling them to stay away from the cabin. The way it's worded, Paul and Allan fear she's in danger and, what any red-blooded, strong minded, military man... they run to the rescue.
First off, I have to say that the conversation between Allan and Paul on this didn't ring... believable? Too wordy? Not sure, but it just didn't sit well with me.
"Mom must have known we would realize something was wrong. She was trying to warn us not to come, which meant she wanted us to come."
Yeah... Anyway, they rush to the rescue -- and we, as readers, get our first glimpse at our lead female, Lori.
Lori is a tough chick, let me tell you. I knew right off the bat I would like her. Granted, cheesy moment numero dos happens shortly after and there's a major make-out session between Lori and Paul. Again, anyway...
Lori is part of an all-female pack that is looking for an alpha man. Until that happens... The pack is hoping for Paul to lead them (and Lori's hoping for him to mate with her) but it's going to take more than just asking for it to happen.
The romance aspect of the story was cute. I love watching a man fight for what he wants, even though thinks he doesn't want the full deal. This was, honestly, a mindless read. I was personally hoping for more excitement, but it didn't quite get there for me. Maybe it will for you. But again, on a Lori and Paul eventually getting together aspect, it was a decent story.
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