REVIEWED BY CINDY
TITLE: Shifter (Dark South Book 1) 
AUTHOR: Jace Payne
PUBLISHER: Loose ID
LENGTH: 183 Pages
Blurb:
Kayden Garrett’s ready to head home to Georgia, after four long years in Boston attending university. An unexpected fight with an abusive lover leaves him battered—and cursed, into becoming a werewolf. Immediately after leaving the plane, he’s introduced to a man, Paul, who makes his former flame dwindle in the dark. Their connection is instant and explosive. The two can’t explain the attraction to each other, but don’t waste time trying to figure it out.
Between struggling with being a werewolf, and getting in with a local pack, Kayden has to acclimate to being with someone who treats him as an equal, instead of a possession. And all their progress comes to a halt when a dark figure from Paul’s past resurfaces, threatening their newfound love, and their very existence.
Going home isn’t always easy—but for Kayden, the experience is a true test of his strength, his ability to adapt to the shifter world he’s been thrown into, his need to protect his family and friends, and his overwhelming desire to be loved.
Review:
The blurb for this book was fascinating and the premise was one that intrigued me to no end. I love shifter stories more than just about any other and I couldn’t wait to read this one.
Kayden is a character I wanted to love. He was badly treated by someone he cared for deeply and I really couldn’t wait until he found someone who would love him the way he deserved.
Paul is mysterious and beautiful and I liked how good he was to Kayden right from the beginning. All people who have been so badly hurt should have someone as sweet as Paul to show them how love should be. The fact that he was dealing with some major heartbreak of his own just made the kindness he shows all the more impressive.
I’m not a big fan of insta-love except in certain circumstances and this is one of them. Because of the animal aspect of the characters, you can forgive them for acting on instinct.
Both men are instantly smitten and the connection only deepens throughout the story.
I did have some problems with the story though.
Kayden’s best friend just rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning. I never really took a liking to her and I had a hard time reconciling her motivations with her actions.
And for me, everything just happened too fast. I felt like things just kept being thrown at me, one after another and it made it very hard to just get lost in the tale being told. There was no anticipation being built, it was just one crisis after another with odd little bits of information thrown in that sometimes didn’t really add anything to the story and were just there for the sake of adding unneeded drama. Sometimes less is more. There was one particular scene where a message was delivered by the bad guys through an unusual source and it just didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the book.
The blurb mentions Kayden’s struggle to acclimate to being a werewolf, but it was all just glossed over in the rush to get to the next plot point and I would have liked to have seen that aspect explored a little more.
Also, the author has a tendency to fall back on sex a little too often when his characters could have actually used a conversation to show their deepening connection instead.
The writing is good and the editing is well done and as this is the author’s first published work, I’m sure that the talent that is more than apparent in this story will develop as he moves on to other stories. I, for one, am looking forward to more exciting and erotic tales in the future from Jace Payne.
Rating: 
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