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This was an interesting read, though reader be warned it’s on the very short side of a novella. The co-authored work is actually two stories, with the main part being one novella, followed by a glimpse of the next installment.

The description of the story does note this and mentions the authors’ intentions to put out subsequent novellas, but I was somehow still surprised at the shortness of it.

That said, there was plenty to like about this work.

First, nothing wrong with a quick read from time to time, right? Also, despite the limited page space the main story had, there was a lot going on. The story starts out with a gathering of shifters and the impending coronation of their new king. This king and his love interest fall into the wolf realm of shifters, but his ‘kingdom’ I guess we can say, encompasses all shifters.

It’s a contemporary, but so far the action taking place is outside of the normal human cityscape, so there’s leeway for the imagination.

This is a super steamy read, which I’m not complaining about at all, and the authors did a great job giving the characters some depth of personality and inserting some back story here and there to round them out. There’s the feel of a full length work with all it’s detail and character/plot arcs that really gets the reader interested in what’s going on. That’s probably why I was so surprised when it ended. Had I been reading a paper copy I would have flipped the page back and forth thinking, wait, that’s it? Surely it continues on the next page…

The story does continue, but we switch to another pair, a lesbian couple as indicated in the description, with the dominant female being a lioness shifter. Same sex romance is not normally on my reading list, simply because it’s not my interest, but again these characters were engaging and the chemistry between them encouraged continued page turns to find out what happens next.

That said, I’m curious if this excursion away from a set couple format might put off some readers? It’s a risky move on the part of the authors, I’d like to see how it plays out.

The second story was alas only a teaser, but I did see that the full installment is available on Amazon. My only fear in this case is that a chunk of pages will be a repeat, cutting things even shorter than the first segment.

It sounds like the authors have plans for several installments, so if each one successively continues the original main story it will be kind of like reading an old newspaper serial. If you enjoy that, this could be great fun. I’m generally too impatient and can see myself getting irritated by it, but to each his own.

I would recommend this novella on the basis of it’s writing and ability to catch the reader. Let me know what you think of this interesting format, I’d love to get your opinion on it!

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