Tracy’s review of Big Bad Beast 
When it comes to following her instincts, former Marine Dee-Ann Smith never holds back. And this deadly member of a shifter protection group will do anything to prove one of her own kind is having hybrids captured for dogfights. Trouble is, her too-cute rich-boy boss Ric Van Holtz insists on helping out. And his crazy-like-a-fox smarts and charming persistence are making it real hard for Dee to keep her heart safe…
Ric can’t believe his luck. He’s wanted this fiercely independent she-wolf from day one, but he never expected teamwork as explosive as this. And now is his last chance to show Dee what she needs isn’t some in-your-face Alpha male – but a wily, resourceful wolf who’ll always have her back in a fight…and between the sheets.
Ric has been in love with Dee-Ann since he met her seven months earlier. Dee-Ann is a hard, brash woman but he really likes that about her – the thought of her being so tough is a real turn on for him. But Dee-Ann and Ric come from completely different backgrounds and their packs hate each other – so how exactly will this work out?
After many months of trying to get Dee-Ann naked, Ric is successful in getting her hot and bothered for him. But he wants a relationship, not just a one night stand. He tells her straight up that this is what he wants and she’s so anxious to get with him that she agrees. She does have a few moments of “what the hell did I do?” after that first night but she likes Ric so decides to go with the flow.
Along with the relationship in the book there is a pseudo-suspense story of some people putting on dog-fights only they’re using hybrid shifters. Dee-Ann is put on the case along with a tiger shifter and a full human but when they discover where the fights originate it shocks not only them, but many, many others. There was also an issue with Ric and his father but that was kind of a minor issue.
Shelly Laurenston writes hard, tough shifter women better than anyone I know. She really takes the term “kick-ass heroine” to a new level and I really liked that about her. She’s not afraid to create someone who may not be liked by everyone…or anyone for that matter. In this book Dee-Ann actually scared people just by looking at them. She had some freaky eyes that Ric loved, but terrified everyone else. I loved her character because of this – maybe I’m just one to root for the underdog when it comes to romance.
While I liked the relationship in this book – I almost can’t call it a romance. The couple decided to sleep with each other and they became closer after that but it was just almost a given that they would be together. There wasn’t really any objections from Dee-Ann and by the time she realized that this was it for her it was almost a bit anti-climactic.
The story started out very slow for me and it took almost 100 pages before I could really get into the story. I realize that Laurenston was bringing in characters from previous books but it almost just seemed like filler to me and I never figured out how all of these people played into the story – mostly they didn’t effect the end result one way or the other and were just there as friends or acquaintances. Because of that the story was good read, and definitely funny, but it just didn’t have the cohesive feeling I’m used to from this author.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
The Series:
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place
This book is available from Brava. You can buy it here
Leave a Reply