Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: ArMaDillo Packin’
SERIES: Kontra’s Menagerie
AUTHOR: Charlie Richards
PUBLISHER: eXtasy Books Inc.
LENGTH: 81 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2020
BLURB:
Ronald Oleander, Ronnie to his friends, has been looking forward to this road trip for months, ever since he’d aced the test for his motorcycle license. With the wind on his face, he follows Noah and Adam—his older brother and his brother’s mate—through winding back roads. Their destination is a small town in Wisconsin where they’re meeting up with Adam’s old biker gang. Ronnie has been warned the place is homophobic and never to go anywhere alone. Except, when he arrives, the first thing he notices is an enticing smell. Ronnie wanders around the back of the diner to investigate and finds a pair of humans pounding on a smaller guy. Breaking up the fight, he sends the jerks packing. When he focuses on the beaten man, he discovers he’s the source of the smell—and is also not only a shifter, but his mate—Hector Ramirez, an armadillo shifter. At barely twenty-one, Ronnie didn’t expect to find the other half of his soul so soon, and he doesn’t feel ready. Still, he can’t deny his instincts. For better or worse, can Ronnie accept not only a mate but figure out a way to stop the people after him?
REVIEW:
Note: While this is book 28 in this series, it can be read as a standalone. There are spoilers for some previous book in the series, but it won’t detract from the story.
Ronnie is a young moose shifter – very young – as in only 21. He’s excited to be hitting the road with his older brother Noah and his mate, Adam. They are on a motorcycle trip, which happens to be Ronnie’s first. He’s loving it! He’s wanted to get out and explore the world and this is his first big adventure. They are going to meet up with Adamn’s alpha, Kontra Belikov, and his band of guys in Wisconsin. But they’ve been warned the town is not hospitable to gay guys, so they need to keep a low profile.
But when they arrive in town, Ronnie smells something that calls to him. And then he discovers a fight where two guys are wailing on a smaller guy. And that guy is what smells so good! Unbelievably at such a very young age, Ronnie has found his mate in Hector, an armadillo shifter. But as much as Hector wants to stay with Ronnie, he’s running from trouble and he doesn’t want to bring that to Ronnie – or anyone else’s doorstep. He’s honest with Ronnie and Kontra and the rest of the guys, that they might be better off if they just leave him and move on, but of course no one is having that. They all declare their loyalty and that they have Hector’s back – he’s family and pack now. Hector is overwhelmed because he’s NEVER had this kind of support ever and he’s stunned by the way the whole pack interacts.
When the decision is made to clear Hector’s name and get him back to his family to see his sister, his only family member he has any contact with at this point, everyone is on point. Hector is again beyond grateful for the whole group as they defend him, help him and set things right. All of the guys help in some way – whether it’s defending Hector from a homophobic jerk bent on destroying him or setting his sister free from her situation and schooling Hector’s roll, it’s a group effort. With all that settled, hopefully Ronnie and Hector can get on with their lives.
I liked Ronnie a lot – he was such a good guy and took such good care of Hector. Poor Hector was kind of shellshocked to be around a) so many shifters not of his kind, b) so many gay couples, and c) a good Alpha who wasn’t bent on punishing this pack. As usual Kontra and his menagerie jump in with both feet to make things right. I always love seeing Kontra school bad alphas and this one is no exception. I also learned that a group of armadillos is called a roll! So again, something new surfaces in each one of these books. It was also fun to visit with previous couples from this series 🙂 Yes, I know the formula for these books, but I love that about them. I enjoy seeing the couples get together and learn about each other. My only complaint was that this one felt a bit short – I would have liked more time with just Ronnie and Hector. I really liked the ending and I hope we get to see more of Hector and his sister in future books.
RATING: 
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