Tracy’s review of Surrounded by Woods by Mandy Harbin.
When Mikaela Patterson must take on a client with specific requirements that no single women be allowed on his property, she keeps her broken engagement a secret. She doesn’t realize her client and his sons are mountain lion shifters whose instinct to mate with any available woman turns deadly.
Josh Woods is her client’s eldest son, and he is immediately drawn to Mikaela. Knowing his father would never allow an available woman on the property, Josh doesn’t understand his fascination with her. Josh and Mikaela fight their attraction because of their own secrets, but when the truth comes out about Mikaela’s true availability and Josh’s animal instincts, they must be prepared to face the consequences.
Mikaela heads to a clients house that’s in Texas – surrounded by woods and lots of acreage. Because of its distance to any nearby town Mikaela is required to stay at the house with Thomas Woods and his four sons. This doesn’t seem all that bad to Mikaela but she has no idea that the Woods family is a family of mountain lion shapeshifters. Their need to mate is strong in their genetic make up and therefore they don’t let any woman on the property that’s not already spoken for by a boyfriend, fiance or husband as they respect the mating bonds that are already in place. Mikaela was engaged but the bastard cheated on her the month before and now she’s free. She was just so embarrassed that she never let her boss know and he thought she was taken when he sent her.
Josh Woods immediately upon meeting Mikaela is drawn to her. He feels a special affinity for her and is immediately all over her. While he was pretty crude when he first talked to her he seemed to mellow out the longer she was there. He knew he should stay away from her though and tried to but he just couldn’t do it. Pretty soon the pair are all over each other, spending the day together talking and laughing. They fall in love – but how will it work with Josh thinking that she’s married? And how can he possibly explain to her that he’s a shapeshifting mountain lion?
This was a cute book but there just wasn’t much to the story except the attraction, the submitting and then the conclusion. Neither Mikaela’s nor Josh’s worlds were explored all that much and besides their attraction to each other we really didn’t know much about them. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed in the story because of it.
The brothers seemed nice but they weren’t mentioned all that much except when they went all mountain lion on Mikaela and then they seemed like jerks. I know they were supposed to be feral lions trying to claim a mate but it just didn’t endear them to me at all.
Mikaela, when she and Josh finally were together at the end, went inexplicably alpha mountain lion on Josh – trying to fight him for dominance – and I didn’t think it fit her personality all that much. Josh loved it but he’s a guy who was having sex – as long as he got some what did he care how she acted. lol
In the end the book was cute but just ok for me.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
This book is available from Amira Press. You can buy it here in e-format.
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