Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: Troy

SERIES: Whitedell Pride #12

AUTHOR: Catherine Lievens

PUBLISHER: Extasy Books

LENGTH: 125 Pages

BLURB:

Sometimes you have to make the best with what life gives you, even if it’s something you don’t want.

Troy has been handed an ugly hand by life. He was kidnapped, his DNA was tinkered with, and he doesn’t know what or who he is anymore. Even if the pride has accepted him without questions, he hides in his room, scared of what he could see in the other peoples’ eyes.

Emery is used to a lonely life. He lost his family years before to the Krsnik wars, and he’s happy to have found new friends within the pride. He’s even happier to find out his mate lives in the mansion, even if Troy makes approaching him difficult.

Troy pushes Emery into mating, scared that Emery will flee once he finds out just how wrong Troy has become. He doesn’t, though, not even when something incredible, something no one could have forecasted, happens. Will they be able to face their unsure future together, or will one of them crumble under the pressure?

REVIEW:

Twelve books in the Whitedell Pride series and three books in the closely connected Gillham pack series, but you know what…I’m not even hesitating to call Troy my favourite book by Catherine Lievens so far.

Oh my gosh, where do I even start? As you can read in the blurb our main character, Troy, was once human, but was kidnapped by the Glass Research company and experimented on in their secret labs. His DNA was spliced with that of a mythological avian shifter and now he finds himself living with a bitch of a harpy inside him. He was rescued by the shifters of the Whitedell Pride, which is where he meets his mate, Emery. Emery is a Krsnik, fifty percent vampire, fifty percent white leopard shifter but one hundred percent badass in one pretty little package. The two men don’t hesitate to claim each other as mates, but neither was prepared to discover the extent of the changes to Troy’s body.

Firstly, there’s no way that I can write this review without talking about the pregnancy. Sorry if that seems spoilerish, but any fan of the series has known that this was coming. It wasn’t really a surprise. Mpreg is something that’s usually a great big let down for me. I love the idea of it, and a good blurb can sell it to me, but inevitably I’m left a little disappointed with the execution. So as much as I was looking forward to this book, I was kind of worried about it too. I love this series and Catherine Lievens is one of the nicest authors I’ve come across. Was I going to have to tell her that her book was just…meh? Holy shit, no! I think that this is the best mpreg story that I’ve read. One thing that makes it stand out for me is that there is actually an explanation as to how a male can get pregnant. Now I’m not an mpreg snob, if an author wants to say that some males of a certain species can simply get pregnant, then fair enough. But I loved that this author explained how the scientists had made it possible for a former human to be impregnated, what the female genes had done to his body, and how the labor played out.

My favourite part of the story, however, was Troy. Actually, I didn’t like Troy for much of this story. He switched from needy, whiny, somewhat manipulative prick to raging bitch at the drop of a hat, and poor Emery copped most of it. Emery was almost too perfect but honestly, nothing but perfection could have countered the emotional ups and downs of a mate like Troy. But as much as Troy needed a good smack down, his behavior was all pretty understandable. This man had been kidnapped, practically tortured, experimented on, turned into a monster (in his opinion) and now suddenly his female side has allowed him to be knocked up with an egg. He doesn’t even know what the hell is growing inside him. As horrible as it sounds, I loved that Troy wanted his “baby” to die. It was maybe one of my favourite parts of this series, which is notable, because so far everything else I’ve loved has had more of a happy/positive tilt.

This addition to the series has only strengthened my Whitedell Pride addiction and I’m so excited to see that the next book out is Nysys, my very favourite character.

Mpreg fans, you might manage to read this book as a standalone, but you definitely won’t enjoy it as much without having read the rest of the series.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Extasy Books

Amazon

ARe