REVIEWED BY CINDY
TITLE: The Night Owl and the Insomniac (A Shifter U Story)
AUTHOR: J. Leigh Bailey
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 189 Pages
RELEASE DATE: July 3, 2018
BLURB:
Long nights lead to intrigue… and infatuation.
Chronically ill with a mysterious condition, Yusuf “Joey” Franke escapes his smothering family and doctors by moving halfway across the country to enroll in Cody College. Not long after arriving on campus, some of his symptoms disappear, only to be replaced by debilitating insomnia. Joey spends his nights wandering the halls of his dormitory and hanging out with gregarious and affable Owen, who works the night shift.
When he suddenly shifts from a sick college kid to a massive Asiatic lion, Joey discovers another side to Cody College—it’s a haven for shifters like himself… and like Owen, a part-time great horned owl. And being a shifter is hereditary, which means his parents have some explaining to do.
When Joey and Owen investigate, they discover more than they bargained for—a family deception, a dangerous enemy with international connections, and a love that might be too new to survive the backlash.
REVIEW:
There’s a lot to like about this story. I read the first book in the Shifter U series and I enjoyed it a lot so I jumped at the chance to review this one.
I love shifter stories, and the world the author has built for her characters is intriguing. I found myself wanting to know more about not only Joey and Owen, but also about the other shifters who surround them. There’s a lot of room for more stories here (just saying J. Leigh Bailey) and I hope we get a few more in this series.
It was easy to feel sorry for Joey in the beginning. I almost felt like he pushed his way to college so that he could die the way he wanted to…only the opposite happened and he had a hard time figuring out how to feel about it. Watching him work it out, along with dealing with all the other revelations that are thrown his way made cheering for him second nature.
Owen is sweet and supportive without being overbearing and he’s the kind of person I wish were easier to find in life. He does his best to help Joey find himself and gives him the space he needs to learn about his new life….and the secrets of his old one.
The premise of this story is intriguing and the twists and turns along the way kept me hooked enough to sit down and read it all in one go! It was a little predictable, but it didn’t really matter because even if I knew where it was going, I couldn’t wait to see how it got there.
It’s a pretty fluffy story, but it had enough angst to keep an angst-lover like me happy and you just can’t beat the happily ever after I demand in my stories.
All in all, it’s a story I can recommend that will leave you smiling…and waiting for more!
RATING: 
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