Paige Tyler

This was more enjoyable than I was expecting. The rest of the series has been fraught with juvenile romance and I haven't enjoyed it. I love Declan for the most part. My main issue with him stems from the fact he's supposedly been in love with Kendra for years and has asked her out a million times, letting her continuously reject him. Why ask someone out that many times? She clearly wasn't interested being hung up on Clayne - which brings me to Kendra. The first two books have made me near hate Kendra. In theory I like her (she's kind of badass) - right up until the topic of Clayne comes up - then she turns into a freaking idiot. I do like that she was aware that she had hurt Declan by choosing Clayne and at least recognised she was a moron - but I also felt it was a little bit too late to really make me love this. It felt a little bit too much like Declan was just her backup - she's tried it with Clayne and nothing so hey Declan. It's kind of hard to get invested in that.

That said, I did enjoy this. I liked Declan and Kendra and I liked them together. It surprised me - I didn't think I would because of the past rejections. There wasn't anything particularly special about the narrative but it was just fun and it had a few swoonworthy moments and I found it easier to get through the pages. I struggled with the last book. Also was it really necessary to have Derek hung up on Kendra? It was just so utterly ridiculous.

Issues with plot: The bad guy - it's pretty obvious who the bad guy is in this series. Dick is a dick. It's not exactly hard to guess. Just like it's fairly obvious John is not the bad guy which made it somewhat frustrating for the obvious to be ignored. Ivy and Landon being married - surely a secret covert government agency would flag shit like that when it's against their policies - but sure whatever.

I really like Angelo and Tanner. I just don't think I can bring myself to read the rest of the series to find out what happens with them. Plus the epilogues in the last two books spruking Minka just doesn't grab me - even if I do like Angelo. As for Tanner - there's another four books with a bunch of characters I just don't care enough about.

2.5 stars.… (altro)

It depends on what you're looking for. A romance with the slightest touch of paranormal and action? Sure, this is for you. An actual plotline with intrigue and paranormal beyond hey he's a werewolf? Not so much.

Basically it was fine. The world building was pretty thin - the SWAT team also happen to be werewolves - that was pretty much the extent of the paranormal. Like Tyler's X-Ops series, these werewolves are the product of a DNA mutation although differs slightly - in this series, the gene activates when the body undergoes a severe trauma. Gage Dixon, the main heroine, has tracked down a bunch of these people from all branches of military and all over the country to form his own pack. And that was it for the world building. Supposedly they have a myth about The One - their fated mate - but it was never explained where that came from considering no one mentions any other werewolves than the ones in SWAT. It also bothers me when he asks if she has a condom and she asks if he can even get her pregnant. And he says yes but it won't be with fangs and claws or whatever. Here's the thing - how the hell does he know that exactly? As far as I can see from the world building - they're it for the werewolves - there's no lab of scientists or genetic research - so do tell how you know for sure a baby wouldn't be born with an active werewolf gene? They barely know why they've got it. So this conversation bothered me. A lot.

The story outside of the paranormal plotline was alright. It wasn't anything exciting. Journalist investigates squeaky clean SWAT team because she thinks they're hiding something. I didn't really like Mackenzie at all. She was irritating. For instance, why on earth would you try to enter a building that is in the middle of a hostage situation? For someone who was supposed to be smart she was just dumb. She not only almost got shot, but she also distracted the SWAT guys from doing what they were supposed to be doing - rescuing innocent hostages. It was just dumb. And she wavered too much with her supposed rigid morals. She believes everyone should have the truth but then is willing to lie and scheme and manipulate whether with her sexuality or otherwise, when it suits her. It was so hypocritical. Either you're straight up honest and blunt, or you're not. But pick one and stick with it.

Gage was okay. There wasn't really anything I loved about him - but I didn't hate anything either - I just didn't really care. I thought he deserved better than Mackenzie though. So maybe that's why the romance between them fell flat for me. It's hard to root for the couple when you kinda hate one half.

I liked Zak and I mostly liked the rest of the SWAT team. Zak has great advice and is a very down to earth nerd. I loved it. My favourite part was when Zak participates in the hostage training. I loved that he got to participate and "save" himself by crawling out of windows and arming himself with a paintball gun. It was highly amusing. Mackenzie and Gage hear about it at lunch from the boys, but I would've preferred to have that scene written from Zak's viewpoint. But I also liked the idea that no matter how many or how big the stories are that Mackenzie writes every child in the world will still rather meet Mickey Mouse than her. It was a funny and intriguing view. Now if she followed it and realised her story wasn't worth hurting the whole team and the guy she's supposedly in love with - I may have actually liked her. And I also liked the passage about zombies. “Hey,” she practically shouted. “Did you know they make zombie targets that bleed?”
Gage looked around the filing room, then reached over and switched off the light. “Yeah, I’ve seen them. Unfortunately, they’re not suitable for real training.” “Really?” She hadn’t expected him to do more than laugh at how silly bleeding zombies were, not respond seriously to her question. But now he’d gone and made her curious. “Why not?”
He came around and plunked himself down in the chair beside her. “For one thing, they’re too damn expensive. For another, it encourages bad shooting habits. Everyone wants to shoot the zombie in the head instead of the center of the chest.”
She couldn’t help but laugh as she envisioned the SWAT team being pelted with bad press because they were caught preparing for the coming zombie apocalypse.
“I guess I see your point. It could turn into a PR nightmare.”

Tyler, Paige. Hungry Like the Wolf (SWAT Book 1) (pp. 107-108). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.
But it's 300+ pages too much for me to care. 2.5 stars, rounded down to 2.… (altro)

This was okay. The characters were fine, if not all that interesting and the plot was okay. The world building was pretty thin - I kept thinking I missed another book/series/intro - that explained the world but no it seems like the author has just decided to ignore the whys and hows. I mean who is Adam? How did John save his life? The backstory is all hinted at - which would be fine if there's another novel that explains it but there doesn't seem to be one. Plus it didn't really make sense a government agent would be okay involving the Canadian mob. Maybe if he didn't seem to be such a bureaucrat and was carrying his own gun for instance it would seem more likely. 1.5 stars.… (altro)

I don't know. I didn't really get it. Plot and characters were wonky. Landon and Ivy were alright I guess but I didn't really feel inspired by their romance or relationship. It was pretty meh. Clayne is an absolute jerk and his one apology for being a jerk at the end wasn't really enough to redeem him. He almost kills Landon on two separate occasions. He says his Ivy's friend and he cares about her but all's he seems to do is give her a hard time. Plus one part really baffled me.

And Landon?” “Yeah?” He already knew what she was going to say. “Make it work with Clayne. For Ivy’s sake.”

Tyler, Paige. Her Perfect Mate (X-OPS Series Book 1) (p. 243). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.

I didn't remotely get it. Clayne and Ivy had literally no decent civil interactions - why the hell would Ivy care? And Landon didn't even instigate anything - he was always just defending himself from being killed. Yeah okay, it could be referring to Clayne helping to get her out of there - but it also didn't really seem that necessary for Clayne specifically to be there.

Kendra is a very weak side character who makes a few appearances but adds no depth to the plot or her own being. There's a two second scene near the beginning where Declan (some other guy - this was his whole introduction) asks her out and she rejects him as she has apparently been doing a lot. Declan is all hung up on her. No clue why. But she's not interested because Kendra is all hung up on Clayne which also makes no sense and Clayne is hung up on Ivy. It was all very high school to be honest. Plus the blurb for Her Lone Mate reveals that Clayne is supposedly all hung up on Danica? Whoever Danica is. The thing that irritates me is that this series includes soulmates - if Danica is his soulmate - why the hell is he so interested in Ivy for any period of time? Seems to detract from OTP feels. In fact all the characters seem rather flimsy and wishy-washy with their feelings. If I'm going to believe characters are in love I need to see commitment

I've read the prequel and none of the thin plot about Adam or other shifter organisation was mentioned or referred to. There was slightly more information about how Ivy and other shifters are "born". They have past DNA that has mixed and sometimes presents animal characteristics. The whole mate thing was glossed over. It wasn't really explored, explained or mentioned. They've known each other for like three days - it was pretty unbelievable they fell in love. I don't know, just didn't feel it.

The plot was iffy. It wasn't anything new to the genre. Scientists experimenting and creating shifter hybrids is all very standard. It wasn't really explained why Jeff was involved. Or how he got past the psych evals to work with the DCO - I mean the whole thing is built around shifters - how can you possibly run an organisation where a bunch of your staff actively hate other staff for something they can't change? It doesn't exactly scream happy workplace. And why he didn't send them after Ivy to start with - Stutmeir is looking for shifters - she's a shifter - he can identify other shifters in the department - why didn't he send them after them before going after doctors and scientists to create hybrids.

It just had a lot of plot holes, flimsy characters and a hard to believe love story. 2 stars.… (altro)