Title: Stalking the Hygienist
Series: Paranormal Dentistry for the Fanged and Friendly Series, #2
Author: Jackie Nacht
Genre: Paranormal Romance / Shifters
Length: Novella (62 pages)
ISBN: MLR1020140
Publisher: MLR Press, LLC (April 17th, 2014)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥2.5~3 Hearts
Reviewer: Thommie
Blurb: This lion shifter will go to any length to get his deer shifting hygienist, including going to the dentist. Bring on the nitrous oxide!
Beauregard made a mistake… a horrible mistake. Now embarrassed he focuses on what he loves most, working as a hygienist at Paranormal Dentistry for the Fanged and Friendly.
As soon as Sergei saw Beauregard coming up to his meat counter, he fell hard for the deer shifter. The only problem is Beauregard is running from him. Being the lion shifter he is, Sergei decides to take matters into his own hand and goes hunting. However, Sergei never imagined he would have to face his worst fear and choke down a salad. What’s it going to take to make Beauregard his?
Purchase Link: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=JNSTKHYG
Review: Paranormal Dentistry for the Fanged and Friendly comes back with book two and Beauregard’s story. Now for those of you who didn’t read the first book, this is a series that while each and every installment can be read as a standalone, it would be better to read them in order, so that you can get a better grasp of the town these stories are set and the shifter community that exists there. It also helps with each couple as we first meet them on other installments and then their story comes forward.
So we met Beauregard on book one; he is the deer shifter and hygienist working for Dr. Gunner Samuels. In book one, we saw him obsessed with Dallas the bear and frankly, I thought they would hit it off. But fate has other plans for our dear deer…
Sergei the lion and the local butcher knows he is Beauregard’s mate, he feels it in his soul, but the obsession Beau had for the bear has put their relationship back quite a lot, as now his beloved deer is refusing to even go out on a date with him out of fear that he’s going too fast again.
Sergei has to literally stalk his prey and not let up the pressure until Beauregard gives in.
This series is basically the light to this author’s darkness. This novella is one of the sweet and fluffy types Jackie Nacht writes, with lots of fun and games, bantering and chasing and playfulness in the mix. The key setting is (from what I’ve understood so far) a carnivore with a herbivore coupling. A satirical effort or an attempt of endearing the complete opposites, the couple you think, “no way are those two going to be together, such as a lion-sifter and a deer-shifter.
It also has that fated-mates vibe, but written in a weird way. What I mean is that while the “bond” exists, it isn’t the focus or even a reason to force the mates into a bonding; it’s more like a path to show the most compatible couplings, and incentive to make them come closer a bit faster. However, on both books, the fated-mates concept was very subtle, it faded under the humor, and games the couples have.
As for this particular read I liked it but found that it was missing things and it also was in need of a bit more polishing and proofing. What it was missing was the scene of Beauregard and Sergei’s first meeting. One must read the first book in order to get that first time feeling, the chemistry between them two and a feel of Sergei as a person. While their first interaction was mentioned here, it was a bit vague and I would much have preferred it as a flashback or memory in order to give those sparks. Ah, and that is the key word, because yes this couple was fun, and yes they were funny, and yes they were playful and at times their antics made me smile, but there was that spark missing that rendered their lovemaking a bit flat, a bit bland, a bit unreachable. What can I say, I need my smut to be intense and this wasn’t. It was soft and snugly and it happened a bit too fast methinks.
Overall, though it was a good read, a fast one too, one of those that don’t require lots of thinking and doesn’t challenge, simply exists to give you a sweet vibe and take your mind out of anything heavy. Recommended for those who love sweetly, snugly, paranormal romance.