Reviewed by Nikyta

TITLE: Alrik
SERIES: C-7 Shifters #1
AUTHOR: Carol Lynne
PUBLISHER: Totally Bound
LENGTH: 69 pages
BLURB: Alrik is determined to keep sex with Ben simple, but when wolves, shifters and bullets enter their world, all bets are off.

Dr Ben Cook has devoted his life to saving the Mexican Grey wolf population from extinction. A year after being shot while looking for a large pack of Mexican greys, he’s determined to try again. When Ben’s sister hires one of the C-7 shifters to protect him on his mission, he feels an immediate and undeniable attraction to the huge blond protector.

Alrik’s body yearns for his client on sight, but for a shifter who prefers sex without sentiment, Ben presents a problem. Centuries earlier, Alrik learned that love was a worthless emotion that only served to trap those stupid enough to fall.

Alrik is determined to keep sex with Ben simple, but when wolves, shifters and bullets enter their world, all bets are off.

REVIEW:

This is the story of Dr. Ben Cook, who has a fascination with Mexican Grey wolves and saving them from extinction, and Alrik, the bodyguard Ben’s sister hires to keep Ben from getting shot again while gathering data of the few known Mexican Grey wolf packs in America. Attraction is instant when the two meet but Ben is determined to get the information he needs to help the wolves, even if they don’t want his help. While Alrik thought it’d be an easy job to shadow Ben, neither of them count on their attraction becoming physical nor do they expect to find shifters merging with natural wolves. Unfortunately, Ben’s desire to help the wolves has caused Ben and Alrik to stumble upon an issue the wolves have been having for some time. Now they’re trying to help but just how wanted is their assistance? And who keeps saving Ben from sticky situations? But, more importantly, does the sudden lust between Ben and Alrik mean something more and is it even wanted?

One of my guilty pleasures is shifters. I can’t get enough of them, no matter how many of them I read. With this one, I liked that the shifter was of a different nature. Alrik is considered a chameleon shifter, part of the C-7 shifters, named because there is only seven of them in the world. They can change into any animal, no matter how small or how large. Alrik being part of the C-7 and what that all means, plays a big role in this book, in my opinion. I found all of that fascinating because I love seeing different takes on shifters and mixed with the fact that the C-7 are so different but so similar was very interesting for me.

As characters, Alrik is very forceful, demanding and surprisingly possessive considering he’s very adamant what is going on between him and Ben is ‘nothing’. It’s cute how he denies what is right in front of him but also sad (this is also a guilty pleasure of mine). Ben, on the other hand, I absolutely adored. He’s such a sweetheart and I loved that he could be stubborn when he wanted to be but also knew when putting up a fight would be useless. The two together are cute and indulge in their lust quite often. Their relationship isn’t as in depth as I would have liked (since the story is so short) but I liked what they went through and had a lot of fun reading it.

While I loved the world Ms. Lynne created and the characters, I had a few issues. My main issue was how much sex there was. It was too much for my tastes and it made me feel, in the end, that their relationship was more of a physical one than an emotional one. Besides that, I was confused in the beginning regarding the world. It feels like you’re thrust into this unknown society and expected to understand it already. So, it took a little time to get acquainted with the fact that shifters were common knowledge and lived among humans openly. Over the course of the book, the world becomes clearer but those first few pages were somewhat disorientating.

All in all, I enjoyed this one a lot. I love Ms. Lynne’s writing and I adored the world she created. This series seems to be all short stories so far (something that saddens me greatly!), they’re quick reads but I loved the characters and found the world fascinating. I can’t wait to see the direction this series goes in but I hope the other books are longer than this one!! Definitely recommended for those looking for something short, easy and fun.

Nikyta rates it –

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