Title: Crate Trained
Author: Julia Talbot
Length: 3,300 words (14 pdf pages)
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: m/m paranormal (shifters)
Rating: C-
Blurb:
Gary knows that anonymous cruising is dangerous, but he never expects for a night out to end in a painful bite that won’t seem to heal. His cop roommate Chey knows that bite is even more dangerous than Gary imagines. Can he convince Gary that he needs to take some precautions before it’s too late?
Review:
Normally I’m a pretty big fan of this author’s shifter stories but this one didn’t quite work for me. Gary decides to go out and get laid and meets tall dark and handsome right off the bat. During a blow job the guy bites him. Weird but he doesn’t think much of it. Leap ahead. Now his roommate knows something is off. He can smell it and Gary is acting weird and finally forces the truth out of him, which leads to hot sex even though Gary was sure Chey was straight since he made a move on him when he first moved in and Chey said no. Leap ahead. It’s the first full moon and Chey has Gary in a cage because new shifters can’t control their impulses.
It was the rather large leaps, where I’m assuming things happened in between, that didn’t work so well for me. It felt disjointed and I was like “Wait, wait, go back and show me how you told him about the werewolf thing and how you had to bonk him on the head to get him there. Don’t just tell me you did it.” There were great opportunities for the filler that would have made this far more interesting. And they’d lived together for three years and Gary never clued in that Chey never dated women?
So all in all, it just left me feeling a bit confused and I felt the story was rather disjointed and not a cohesive story that made me care whether the whole roommates-to-lovers thing worked out for them. If you like shifter stories and want to try out this author, I’d recommend you try out the Bloodrose books the author writes. I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this as one of her best.
I’m up and down with these JT shifter books. I’ve liked some and not liked others. This one isn’t calling my name though.
I know shifters aren’t really your thing as a rule, so I’d think there are better offerings by this author unless you are a die-hard fan of the genre/author.
I do hate the feeling that I’ve missed something….
That’s what it felt like, that thing were skipped over. Just didn’t work for me this time.
Totally agree Tam. I really liked the Bloodrose books too 🙂
I do enjoy the author’s work, but not every story will be a home run and some might enjoy the more truncated story, but I prefer a little more flesh.