Title: Placeless
Series: Bay Wolves #2
Author: Vivien Dean
Genre: Paranormal/Shape shifters/ Werewolves/Suspense/Thriller
Length: Novella (123 pages)
Publisher: Amber Allure, Amber Quill Press (October 31st, 2014)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥3Hearts
Blurb: Keaton McGrath had been a werewolf for only a few weeks when he was kidnapped and put into service for anyone willing to pay for his company. Now, a year later and rescued from that life, he’s trying to figure out how to be both human and wolf in a world that doesn’t want him. His only escapes are nightly runs, a chance to let loose the energy of the animal within, but when one of those runs ends with him finding a hurt girl in the park, he can’t control his wolf’s fury when he smells her attacker nearby.
Barely keeping himself from killing the man, Keaton calls 911, and then leaves before he can be linked to the crime scene. His hopes to remain anonymous are dashed when Scotty Trumbauer, a local blogger and independent wolf activist, finds him out. Though Keaton’s warned that Scotty is bad news, the chemistry between them is too powerful to ignore, especially when Scotty leaps to defend him.
Keaton just wants to do the right thing without putting the people he cares about in danger. He has to learn, however, that a wolf is stronger when he’s not alone…
ISBN: 978-1-61124-687-2
Product Link: http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/2052-Placeless.aspx
Reviewer: Prime
Review: I will admit, at the time of reading the book and writing this review, I’ve not read book 1 of the series (Boundless). This is a world that knows the presence of werewolves, but there is a definite fear about the werewolf population. I still understood the story without a problem, although it was easier once I realised that the main couple of Boundless, Elijah and Denny, are linked to bringing Keaton to the point he is at. Kidnapped as a sex slave, he found freedom but now he has to readjust to the real world and his wolf needs the same adjustment to this newfound freedom.
I didn’t feel the thriller or suspense aspect which the publisher filed as part of the book’s genre, particularly considering Keaton’s past and how he stops a sexual assault on a woman in the first chapter (as said in the blurb, too). Keaton seems to treat is past in a nonchalant manner despite telling Corey (the man who helped save him) that he was ready to get the necessary help.
Instead, it seemed he was just happy to move on by getting to know Scotty and also make sure he got out of escapade of saving the woman unscathed. After finishing the book, I’m now wondering if it’s more of a survival mechanism on his part to purposely not think on it. There a couple notable times where his defences fail to protect him from remembering his time locked up as a sex slave.
I have to admit, when Keaton meets Scotty, I was more concerned for Keaton being hurt (his heart mostly, but perhaps also physically again after his traumatic past). I don’t know how to frame Scotty, he immediately brought to mind some sort of hippie, but that is probably because of I’ve gone ahead and stereotyped him once I found out he was an activist for the rights of werewolves. He lost his job a couple of years before over an interview he did, that also set the werewolf cause back as well and now he works on his blog for the cause. The problem is, some werewolves think of him as a pest rather than a help. I found myself chuckling at his second big “scene” with Keaton, but he just seems so bossy and melodramatic.
Scotty doesn’t really seem to appear as much as Keaton’s friends, Corey and probably seen about as much as Elijah, a fellow sex slave from book 1. I can’t tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I suppose it’s just as part of the couple stated on the blurb it would have been nice to hear from him more, but that is limited by the fact that the story is entirely Keaton’s point of view. Regardless, when we do start seeing more of Scotty, I have to say that the relationship he and Keaton share is quite cute.
I enjoyed this book. I think I need to read the first book now! This one kept me interested but some of the politics involved are probably explained in the first book and I’m intrigued, here we find out enough to understand what’s going on.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *