Reviewer: Tracy Buck Naked by Evangeline Anderson
Series: Cougarville Series #1
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, Swerve
Publication Date: April 4th, 2017
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Sadie Becker is not herself. A 40-year-old, divorced mother of two, Sadie wakes up one morning and realizes that she looks and feels like she did in her twenties. Suddenly she’s unable to walk around in her new town of Cougarville without men falling at her feet. Confused and alone, Sadie isn’t sure who to turn to…except answers to her problems might reside with her broodingly handsome reclusive neighbor, Mathis.
An alpha shifter, Mathis lost the love of his life, and he knows he’ll never find another mate. But his innocent new neighbor clearly doesn’t know the danger she’s in, and he's the only one who can save her.
But when the attraction pulls too strong, will Mathis’ animal nature be unleashed and claim Sadie for his own?
Sadie wakes up on her 40th birthday, looks in the mirror, and can’t believe how she looks. She looks about 20 years younger and she’s a bit freaked out by it. She starting a new job so she has to get to town. She’s just got divorced from her cheating husband and moved to a cabin in a town fondly called Cougarville by its residents. Her mother left the cabin to her after she died but neither Sadie nor her twin, Samantha, knew anything about it.
Her first day in town doesn’t go exactly as she thought it would. No one will serve her, they keep calling her “Juvie,” they act like she’s got leprosy and they keep kicking her out of her businesses. Someone even slashes her tires! When she ends up crying on her hot neighbor’s porch he eventually explains that everyone is calling her “Juvie” because she’s got a shifter gene in her that makes her someone who rejuvenates when they hit anywhere from 40-50 years old. They are the only ones that can breed new shifters and they’re very rare. Apparently her mother was one as well and now all the men want her and all the women hate her because they’re not a juvie as well. Sadie is stunned by this news but soon handles it with aplomb – probably because she gets to get naked with her hot neighbor, Mathis. Unfortunately the mayor of Cougarville, Liam Keller, wants Sadie for himself and he’s not afraid to play dirty to get her.
Buck Naked was a cute erotic PNR. Anderson put a nice twist on the whole shifter/mating thing which made things a little more interesting. What also made things different in this story was the fact that all of the shifters in Cougarville shifted into animals from the Paleolithic era (yes, the Stone Age). We only got to read about Mathis’s Irish Elk and Keller’s cougar which was more like a saber-tooth tiger. I’m sure there were other animals in town but I have no idea what they were.
Sadie was a sweet woman but was more than clueless when it came to the town. I wouldn’t have put up with the town’s shit they were shoveling out but she just kind of ran instead of getting answers. Mathis was great to her and I loved how he cared for her when she needed him.
Mathis was a good man. He had been married before and loved his wife. He has sworn to after she died that he would never take another mate and hadn’t been with a woman in 20 years. He tried his best to stay away from Sadie but found himself falling in love with her. It happened quickly but it was still cute.
Overall a good start to a paranormal series. Of course there is A LOT of sex in the story because it was an erotic romance. Anderson always writes good sex scenes, that’s for sure. If you want a quick, sexy read then grab this one.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Totally apart from the story…what is up with the guy on the cover of this book? I can’t stop laughing! Is that supposed to be a sexy smirk? Fail. He looks like he’s trying to get something out of his teeth. And his eyes…he’s not cross-eyed but the way he’s looking to the side certainly makes it look that way. Weird.