Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: Friends With Benefits
AUTHOR: Cheyenne Meadows
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 124 pages
BLURB:
Playboy wolf shifter Wiley can’t duck out of his pack’s biggest annual event, despite knowing his grandmother has possible suitors lined up and waiting. Wiley has no intention of settling down, and the situation dangles just above disaster. Thankfully, Wiley’s best friend, lion shifter Ram, agrees to pose as Wiley’s boyfriend for the weekend.
They find out fate has other plans when they kiss on a dare, and the passion erupts, so hot and intense they fear the couch may spontaneously combust beneath them. Neither man is able to push the small act of affection from his mind, but both struggle with uncertainty and the ramifications of following where their libidos lead.
If they can’t outrun their feelings, they’ll have to muster the courage to face their fears before they lose everything, including their friendship.
REVIEW:
This book is about two shifters: Wiley (who is a wolf shifter) and Ram (who is a lion shifter). Wiley has been summoned back to his home pack for a pack get-together (*cough*fuck-fest*cough*), and in an effort to avoid the meddlesome matchmaking of his family, decides to ask Ram to come along as his fake boyfriend. Ram and Wiley have been friends for years, and while both of them are attracted to men, for some reason neither of them has ever looked at each other in that way. That is until Wiley’s meddlesome family gets involved.
Here’s the thing, I like reading erotica…but I absolutly hate reviewing it. The part of my brain that loves a good orgy is not the same part that gets used while reading a book for review. When I go to review books, my brain is automatically weighing everything I read, and sometimes it is really hard to shut that part off and just enjoy copious amounts of sex for sex’s sake. So…had I known that this was tilted more towards the erotic end of the romantic spectrum, I would have given it a miss.
Unfortunately I didn’t. And I struggled a lot reading it. Because there was just too much bloody sex and not nearly enough story to hold my interest. Yes the sex does get hot and heavy (and furniture does meet an untimely end because of it), but it just was not something I got too much of a thrill out of.
I love shifter stories because they blend animalistic nature and human rationality, but the only ‘animalistic’ part of this book is the sex. There didn’t seem to be any give and take between the two sides of the shifter. Even the dialogue of Ram’s inner lion was human sounding, all cultures and reasoned. Except for the fact that they can live super long lives, and have a tendency to bite, these shifters didn’t feel at all shifty.
And then there was Wiley’s family…*shudders*
I never thought I would have to point this out, but:
Point the First: Having a child walking around asking people how they go about having sex–be it ‘gay,’ ‘straight,’ or with a feather duster–might be entertaining once. And that is stretching it. To have to happen several times is just a tad bit off-putting. This went way past ‘isn’t he precocious’ and right into stranger-danger territory. I am all for sitting your kids down and explaining sex. I think it is necessary and healthy. I just don’t think kids should be asking strangers to explain sex to them. One, because that is the parents/trusted adult’s job (and aren’t I thankful that I’m never ever going to have kids), and two, as a ‘stranger’ I have no desire to talk to children about sex. Ever. It is incredibly invasive thing to ask someone you don’t even know, and I really think that the parents need to sit that kid down and explain about personal boundaries and respecting other people.
Point the Second: I do not want to read, see, or even think about anyone’s grandmother flashing her fanny to her family. I don’t care that she is fit. I don’t care if she is still sexually active. I just don’t want it anywhere near me or my mind. I don’t know if the author thought this would be funny, but to me it was just nauseating.
My family is extremely conservative (or at least some parts of it still are, heaven help me). We never talked about sex (except for a fifteen minute convo with my mom which I try very hard to forget). I can count on one hand the number of times I have seemn family member even kiss in my vicinity. So I always have a hard time connecting with families like this one. It seems so cartoonish, the way they butt into each other’s sex lives. And I don’t know if it is just me, and my life experience making it seem so very odd, or if it is the writing. Or maybe a mix of both.
Either way, I did not connect with this book at all. If you are looking for a book that is constantly talking about and or engaging in sex, this might be for you. Just…probably was never going to be for me.
RATING: 
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