Reviewed by Tara
TITLE: Releasing the Shifter
SERIES: Solitary Shifters # 3
AUTHOR: Summer Devon
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: 175 pages
BLURB: To save his love he must face his monster and—worse—be nice to people.
Montag is a monster. He doesn’t know what sort of creature he would turn into if he ever let himself shift, but he knows it’s something predatory and lethal. He fights back the urge to shift every day of his life, and has never dared get close to anyone—not that they want him to. He can literally smell their fear.
Kevin’s not scared of monsters. He works for the SSU, the agency in charge of tracking shifters—particularly the dangerous ones. When he and his young niece are kidnapped by her scum-bucket dad, he’s grateful to be rescued by Montag, whose curmudgeonly defenses can’t hide the kind man beneath.
As they work together to protect Kevin’s niece, attraction sizzles between them. But their relationship may not survive if Montag learns who writes Kevin’s paycheck—or if Montag dares to confront the inner monster he hates and fears.
Warning: Contains a grouchy virgin shifter (and we mean virginal in all possible ways), a hero with a back pocket full of secrets, and a couple of jerks.
REVIEW: I haven’t read any of the previous books before this one and the plot itself is standalone but to get a better idea of the background I recommend reading the whole series. I was a tad confused on the shifter classification. Montag is big scary guy or so it seems to everyone he meet. Living in the middle of nowhere he is a hiding a secret that keeps his big angry image going. He is a shifter although he has no idea which kind. At a young age he shifted for the first time and after the horrified looks and disgusted glances from his dirt bag father he never takes the chance to shift again. He has spent years repressing the urge to shift and it definitely does not make him a people person since every time he stands near someone he smells their fear. He works as a mechanic and occasionally takes a side job from wannabe gangster Henry aka Dr. W who wants people pushed out of his “turf”. After two new arrivals come into town Dr. W offers Montag three hundred dollars to run them off.
Kevin has been kidnapped by his sister’s idiot boyfriend and brother. They’ve taken his car, sick sister, and niece Sassy to a town in the middle of nowhere and they’ve been locked in the cabin for days. After hearing a commotion outside the door he is amazed to see the locked door to the cabin broken in by a guy who he nicknames BSG (big scary guy) and much to his amazement he is attracted to him immensely. Kevin who works as a SSU agent who polices the shifters instantly sees the shifter in Montag. As they take his sick sister to the hospital, Kevin learns that Montag hates the SSU and keeps it a secret from him. For the first time in Montag’s life being near a person doesn’t bring the red rage that he normally has while fighting his shift and begins to be attracted to the calm that Kevin brings and him physically as well. But not everything is roses. The two idiot brother’s escape, Montag has to deal with his growing attraction to Kevin, losing the privacy he has since he agrees to let Kevin and his niece stay there. After in an incident at the house, Montag is blasted into shifting for the first time since he was a child, and Kevin has to use his connections to help. Will the secrets be too much for them both to handle or will the growing attraction between them be enough to conquer all?
I’m usually a fan of shifter stories but I guess I’m a bit spoiled because I miss the mate bond and the romance as well. I stated before that this is the first book I read of the series and I know that was a mistake on my part seeing as I was instantly confused on if the shifters were actually animals or werebeings or what. I also had the feeling that maybe I was missing more of the back-story of Kevin and I wondered if he was mentioned in past books. I did like the plot though and the slow build up to both characters falling in love with each other was a nice detail to have. I was also a bit confused on what the SSU did, were they jerks that didn’t like the shifters or were they supporters. Montag though I did enjoy his character. You could tell that he was hiding his true self and to watch him blossom into a caring guy who was so happy to finally get a family for himself was touching. I generally liked Kevin as well. I didn’t like that he didn’t stand up to his sister before all this but still he was never afraid of Montag, and through that he helped Montag see that he wasn’t just some big scary monster. The supporting cast of characters particularly Shelly was a good addition as well. It kind of made it nice to see that despite Montag’s gruffness he did have people who cared about him. All in all it wasn’t a bad story it just didn’t grip me like others have in the past. I think if you are a fan of the series already it will be a good addition to the series.
RATING: 
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