Cam: I’m a changeling, a shapeshifter born to protect the innocent and serve my Queen, Hecate. While patrolling the Castle grounds in our supernatural world, a scent leads me through a portal to the Mortal Plane where I meet my mate and his charming daughter. An evil plot between his world and mine is trying to take them away from me, but I’ll die — or go against my Queen — to protect my new … family.
Ben: My daughter, Seda, is my world, though I try not to give in and let her have everything she wants. But I can’t say no to her keeping the large cat she finds while we’re on vacation. It turns out this cat really is different — he turns into a very sexy man who crashes into my life and steals my heart. When something evil tries to cross into our world, Cam vows to put his life on the line to protect my child. I may lose one to save the other, and I don’t know how I’ll ever survive the loss.
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A Hellhound and a single father, right away I was more than just intrigued. With the dangers of crossing worlds and the threats that follow Cam onto the mortal plain and you’ve got the makings of something really special, in my opinion. Thankfully this story did an admirable job living up to my hopes.
Cambrai was the more interesting of the two men, but that’s mostly because of what he is. In terms of who he is, we don’t actually get too deep into anything. Despite the lack of breadth that we get on him we do get a good feel for what he’s all about and his tenderness mixes well with his fierceness.
Ben was a little harder for me but mostly because he seemed to be a little too much the type to “follow the prevailing winds”, if you will. I think he’s a really good dad and was dealt a really hard hand when it came to his former partner. There was also his honesty and forthrightness with his need for Cam’s patience in dealing with everything new he learned. When the going got rough he reacted poorly but quickly realized what was wrong with his reaction and worked hard to make things right. But if you think about the way his life completely flipped on its head it’s pretty understandable.
And then there were all the supernatural elements. Most issues were cleared up a little too prettily and the “reunion” between Ben and Marcus had me a bit on the fence. While there was closure, it felt a bit forced, like without that Ben wouldn’t have been capable of showing Cam and himself that he was actually trying to heal and move forward. It was nice, but not my favorite part.
Oh the steam. So much steam!! I’m all good for a spicy story, but the little details should read a little more genuine. This one’s a little hard to describe, but if self-lubricating backsides are merely because you’re mates and Fate says that’s how your biology gets to surprise you rather than being a function of your special inherent biology, I’m not sold. Their first intimate moment made me a little apprehensive because lust and doubts and hesitations and sense seemed to be at odds enough to make me give pause. The dialogue didn’t really match the lead-up to the gettin’-it-on stuff too. Once things got heated though, then it maintained the level of passion through the entire story.
The underlying plot was actually focused and didn’t get too convoluted. Except when there was the confrontation near the end, then I was left thinking I really should have read the preceding books in order to get a more complete understanding of what was really going down here. Without that one moment of confusion, we learned what happened to lead them all there, where it left them at that moment, and where we’re likely going as the series continues. I have to say that even with a few misgivings I had about this story in particular, I’m actually going to look up the previous books and keep a lookout for Te ‘Garth’s story.