You can now have all four of the Lake Erie pack novellas in this one reasonably priced collection! Included in the set are the previously released novellas: An Erie Halloween, An Erie Operetta, and An Erie Garden Party. To round off this whimsical and romantic shifter set is a brand-new novella, An Erie Uprising! It’s been one wonderfully romantic year since skunk shifter Templeton Reed met Mikel … met Mikel Lupei, the alpha wolf of the Lake Erie pack. During that year, the two men fell in love and worked side-by-side to solve some tricky murder mysteries. They also opened up Lupei Manor, Mikel’s familial home, to other LGBTQ mystical beings in the Erie area. Sadly, being gay in the supernatural world Templeton and Mikel live in can be a death sentence.
During the past year, the magical world has slowly been coming unraveled. Civil unrest now runs rampant through the community as the lesser breeds revolt against the hateful dictates of the Elder Council. The uprising will surely touch every person residing in the magical world near Lake Erie. Will the flames of unrest and war consume everything and everyone Templeton and Mikel hold dear as well?
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I would rate this 4 stars.
This is a m/m paranormal romance collection of short stories with a lot of humor, sexy times, and some violence. The urban fantasy stories are set by Lake Erie, in case you wondered. The stories are told from our plucky hero Templeton’s point of view. Although these stories are a lot of fun, in the way of science fiction, this has some rather pointed points to make about society with serious social commentary woven through each story. So, each story has its own plot–usually murders–and an overarching plot about politics in the magical community. There are graphic sex scenes in each book between the fun and violence. I really enjoyed these tales; you just kind of have to roll with each new thing that gets thrown in and laugh. Each story is written in a different season until we come full circle over a year later.
An Erie Halloween
This is an interesting take on wolf shifters as well as adding a nontraditional shifter character, which is fun. It’s not all fun and games because shifters are being murdered. Mikal and Templeton get thrown together as someone tries to kill Templeton. It’s a good thing things go bump in the night to hide paranormal activity at this time of year. Sexy times, political intrigue, and an attempted coup later, the story has a sweet ending.
An Erie Operetta
This continues our adventures with the werewolf Mikal, and his lover Templeton. The rogues are rising and shifter civil war threatens if the strong and those in power don’t start to make concessions to modernity. Of course, they have to go to the opera because that is what one does when bored in winter weather. It’s fun to see more magical beings. Did I mention this is a murder mystery? After the crime is solved, they continue building their dream to have a safe haven for LGBT shifters as the vampire Vincente, and his human partner Akio come to live at the manor.
An Erie Garden Party
It’s finally Spring and hibernation is over. Mikal’s cousin Haval comes for a visit and all of the sudden, there are dead bodies. With the full moon making Mikal much more aggressive than usual–the sex is rougher in this one. As the Council investigates the deaths, will Mikal and Templeton get found out? Cross species dating and being gay are forbidden after all. Then there is Haval’s secret. Of course what one does when there have been humans murdered on the property is take one for a walk along the lake, at night. An old friend from the Halloween book shows up to wrap up lose ends so they can finally have their garden party with Rugby, the majordomo, in fine form for the comic relief.
An Erie Uprising
The ongoing shenanigans come full circle back from Halloween to Christmas in this tale. The pack has been away at a werewolf gathering of the east coast packs. The bear shifter Margaret now lives at the manor with Haval. The rebellion that has been brewing is here as species choose sides: to maintain the status quo, or fight for a more equal society with equality. The author lured us in with all the fun and sex, but this is a much more serious book and was fully foreshadowed, so not a surprise. Don’t worry, a happy ending is had by all who don’t get killed.
This collection of novellas was so enjoyable. I fell in love with Templeton and his Mikel! I was immediately drawn into this wonderful world created by V.L. Locey and couldn’t put the book down until I reached the very satisfying epilogue.
This story is full of wonderful secondary characters and many adventures! I highly recommend it.
Okay these stories are one animal shy of being a bar joke – but the humor in this story was so tongue-in-cheek that I loved it. The main character Templeton (skunk shifter) is blind as a bat without his spectacles, and his only real self-defense is in the lifting of his striped tail, and the spraying of a most obnoxious musk?
The other character Mikel (Alpha Wolf shifter) finds himself saving Templeton from a sticky situation and then thinking of bathing himself in peroxide or tomato juice, it was rather hard to take him seriously as the hot alpha wolf he is portrayed as in this story. However, he does manage to pull it off with a few funny encounters between his pack and Temp.
The first story sets up the relationship between Mikel and Templeton when Rogue Shifters seem to randomly being killing other shifters – they go after Temp and Mikel and his pack come to the rescue literally in Mikel’s case and they work together to figure out what the pattern is to the Rogue’s attacks plus why they targeted Temp specifically.
The second story – Mikel and Temp go to the opera with the rest of Mikel’s pack and find a dead body for their troubles. While looking over the scene – a vampire is sent to solve the crime, this causes problems as Vampires, and Wolf shifters do not get along. Has a great fight scene and once again Mikel comes to rescue his mate while trying to curb his urge to vomit since his mate is a skunk shifter with a tendency to lift his striped tail and spraying his attackers to defend himself.
The third story – Spring has arrived on Lake Erie and so have dead bodies on Mikel’s beloved Lupei Manor grounds just as his cousin comes to visit. To clear his pack of any wrong doing Mikel must ask the resident Vampire to check their memories to show they had nothing to do with the dead bodies. Mikel has to figure out if he can trust his cousin or if he will need to turn him in for the killings.
The forth story – only new story in the anthology the Manor provides shelter to other paranormals who do not follow the strict code set by the Elders. Temp and Mikel will have to fight to keep their new pack/family together
I love that all of these books are now in 1 anthology this is a unique pairing in the shifter universe and I found it quite comical and loved the interaction with all the characters.