Pretty Poison by Kari Gregg

Title: Pretty Poison

Author: Kari Gregg

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Length: Novel (153 pages)

Publisher: Kari Gregg (December 14^th, 2013)

Heat Level: Explicit

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4 Hearts

Reviewer: Thommie

Blurb: Deadly poison…or exquisite cure?

Noah fell from an eighth story balcony as a toddler, cracking open his skull and shattering his body. The accident would’ve killed a human, but even shifter blood can’t heal some damage. After the pack recommended a mercy killing, Noah’s family ran. But there’s no outrunning the mating pact formed before Noah’s birth.

Wade, the new alpha, chooses an adult Noah to fulfill the pact. Wade believes the previous alpha was a fool to reject Noah as a weak and inferior wolf, but Noah’s family was wrong to hide him and starve his wolf, too. Human doctors with human medicines are poison to shifter physiology. Now that Noah is fully grown, halting his shift to retain the pins, plates, and bars holding him together hurts rather than helps him, and for Wade, more than Noah’s recovery is at stake.

Noah’s family sacrificed everything to keep him alive. Noah will do whatever it takes to save them—including mate with the alpha who is determined to correct past mistakes and defeat old prejudices contaminating the shifter community.

Too bad some still believe Noah is the true poison…and should be culled from the pack for good.

Content Warnings: Dubious consent, shifter knotting/tying, and Nerf gun assassination attempts. Ereaders (and you) may spontaneously combust–don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Product Link: http://www.amazon.com/Pretty-Poison-Kari-Gregg-ebook/dp/B00HBHRZWG

Review: My God!!! What a shocking beginning. I was astounded at how freaking fast this story began. One moment you’re reading the starting line, Noah getting through his website, the next all hell breaks loose and the terror begins. Make no mistake, those feelings are terror and they damn well reach you, too.

I think what caused this sensation was the unknown. We don’t know why. Why Wade takes Noah? Why he even mates him? And that is what gets all the others emotions skyrocketing. For all intents and purposes Noah is completely useless to the were-shifters’ community. He has a severe accident when a toddler that left him a cripple. Had he been human, he’d die. Had he been human after his partial healing he’d have prosthetics. But his were nature prevents even that much as wolves lose all foreign artifacts when they shift. And shift he did when he was young, uncontrollably, which led to his family and doctors using wolfbane to sedate his wolf and prevent the shifting. So there we have a scrawny non-human yet not shifter either, having no physical prowess and literally unable to walk properly. And I’m not even mentioning his migraines that render him immobile and vulnerable for days.

So the question arises: What does Wane want from him? Is it vengeance from his family for defying were-law in order to save his life? Is Wane that sadistic? Or is there a well-hidden agenda behind his mating with such a powerful Alpha?

I admit it, I love these wolves. I’ve never hidden my dislike for wolves the resemble more lap dogs than the feral creatures they are supposed to be, but Kari manages to create wild and nature bound characters that bewitch you in a matter of seconds. Wade? He is utterly fantastic. There is absolutely no way you can resist this character even at his most caveman apeshit-crazy behavior. He is utterly glorious throughout the read and *sigh* make you wish there was a sequel coming featuring him just for the hell of it. No there is none. This is a standalone book. But, back to these characters, what a lovely bunch. Noah didn’t make much of an appearance with his wolf, neither did he become awfully wild, his years passed trying to balance in between words helped mellow him a lot, though he did nearly snarled at his own sister at some point. But Noah doesn’t allure you with his feral side; it’s his human that makes you melt at his feet. The balance between a complete sex-slut that makes you horny in two seconds flat and the snippy, demanding, I-don’t-fear-your-caveman-act behavior toward Wane, make you wanna grab him and run as fast as you can. Lovely characters!

The plot/world itself is a bit tricky here. There are hidden agendas all right, and there are politics that must be worked upon. The shifters communities exist alongside with humans, though we don’t grasp how humans really react to their existence. Questions, questions, I’m full of questions when it comes to that. When did humans learn shifters exist? How come they didn’t go crazy shooting first asking questions later? Why do shifters keep so much to themselves? You see this was the main problem. Noah’s parents broke the law by letting humans treat their son. Shifters are not supposed to mingle with humans and that concept is so weird because you don’t get to know why? But other than that this is typical (though nothing typical about it) Alpha story, who claims a mate the pack disagrees to and he must keep him safe while maintaining dominance over the pack. Plus it’s the change of an era theme as well, as Noah brings new flair with him and somehow poisons the community from within with his new ideas and liberality. Naturally, some would try to dispose him, though when the time came I was shocked, shocked to my core at the people who tried to get Noah out of the way.

And then, there is the important issue of love/lust/mating. It’s a given that this mating is a forced one. It’s also a given that the sex part in the beginning is a bit dubious regarding consent, though Noah was pretty much into it. However if he was completely free to choose I don’t think he’d have said yes. However, as the story unfolded, the lust between Wade and Noah was also right in your face, so much so that you literally had to fan yourself with their coupling. The intensity between them gets to you and literally makes you green with envy at times, it’s so freaking hot.
It was weird though because there was no forced love there or instant love. The couple didn’t mate and instantly bond or fell in love, no, no. there was a whole of a fight over emotions in this story. Due to their weird beginning, we have an insecure Alpha who needs to claim his mate over and over again. We see Wade trying to actually woo Noah and make him care for Wade as much as Wade cares for him. And we have a Noah whose wolf has been poisoned; starved and crippled resulting in dull senses and thus mellower, more on his guard about what’s going on. It was madness, I tell you. It was terrific to read. Kari Gregg as a penchant for making mates unique. Weird unique. Good weird unique. She also has a penchant for envisioning males that can breed/bear offspring. That’s all I’m saying.

Bottom end, this is one of those paranormal stories that grip you from the start and take you with them in a wild, wild ride. Fast, furious, intriguing, and sensual (in a terrific way) this book is simply wonderful. Fans of paranormal, werewolves and romance will adore this, that much is certain. As for me, it climbed onto my favorite shelf effortlessly and I’m sure to revisit this again.