Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Lavinia Lewis - Luke's Surprise

When werewolf Luke Morgan runs a simple errand with his brother Kelan, the last thing he expects to find at their neighbour’s ranch is his soul mate. The incredibly sexy ranch foreman Mark Malone is every gay man’s fantasy. The only problem? Neither Luke nor Mark is gay.
Unable to deny the attraction they feel for one another, they decide to try and make things work between them. The relationship at first seems all they could hope for but trouble in the guise of Ethan Walker, a werewolf who has his sights set on Luke, threatens to destroy their newfound happiness and the future they have planned together.
When Ethan’s threats turn to physical violence, will they still think the mating bond and blossoming love between them is worth risking their lives for?


Comment: I've had this book in the pile to read for some years but at some point, it just got out of my mind. Last month I remembered it and added it to my December list so here it is. Sometimes, we regret not reading something right away, so good it ends up being, but then there are times we just realize it was not worth the wait and, to me, this book turned out to be one of these cases.

In this book we have the story of Luke Morgan, a young man who happens to be part of a wolf shifter community and his older brother Kelan is the alpha. The brothers have another sibling who lives away but they can manage to deal with the work in their ranch and the neighbors seem to like them and their work.
The story begins, basically, with Luke finding out his mate and he is shocked to realize it's a man and not a woman, since he is not gay.
Mark Malone was about to start a job as foreman in a ranch when the neighbors come by and he realizes his mate is approaching. He is as surprised as Luke because he isn't gay either but after a slight mishap, they decide to give it a go. Others don't find this as fun and the guys can't seem to have an easy time. But will they be happy together?

I still remember that when I first started reading m/m stories, because many were released by specific publishers, the work could be very good and innovative or it could follow a type and trend that wasn't appealing to everyone. Nothing ever is, but if one buys a book from a certain publisher, some expectations exist, mostly because we know what kind of work a certain publisher provides.
Then there are the authors. Some we tend to like, others not so much and so on. This is the first book I tried by mrs Lewis but along with the publisher, I had good hopes for the story. However, as the pages kept going, I got more and more disappointed. 
I realized this book was "inserted" if one can use this word, in the type of M/M books I don't appreciate much, the ones where the plots are simple but underdone and where the characters don't seem as complex as they could.

I think the story wasn't done well. The two guys meet for the first time, realize they are mates but they don't seem to have any kind of visible awkwardness or issues besides a very basic initial "maybe we should just forget this" idea that soon is changed and they go straight to be in so much lust they are immediately perfect to one another.
Besides the fact it's not believable two strangers, no matter how strong the mating bond can be, wouldn't just do something just because, where is the getting to know each other, where are the personality layers that would make these two guys try for something they never had contemplated?
The relationship is too perfect, too easy, there's no sexual tension based on conflicted emotions and the situations surrounding them aren't intriguing enough - or portrayed well by the author - to make this an unforgettable plot.

The elements of the story have several points that will certainly be addressed in the future (the other brother, the pack's members, the community) but although a glimpse here and there would have been great, I don't think having it all at the same time alluded to was a good move. The story feels populated but there are too many things left in the open and this makes for a confusing plot, with elements to explain and under developed.

I think that the word I'd use to describe this story is "superficial". Even having interesting details, and even loving shifter stories like I do, this one is weak, has boring situations/parts and why I should care about the characters isn't there, the characterization felt very weak.
The world created by the author just doesn't seem interesting or engrossing. I confess I don't feel bad about not reading more in the series.
Grade: 3/10

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