It’s official–I. Love. This. Author!
Book Title: Past My Defenses
Author: Wendy Sparrow
Release Date: 6/23/14
Genre: Suspense with a Paranormal slant
Book Synopsis:
Vanessa is the fastest Lycan around. In wolf form, the only threat she can’t outrun is her allergies. After a feline dander-bomb takes her down, she wakes up naked in a cage staring at a hot park ranger who had no idea what he’d trapped. But ooooh, he smells so good. Mine.
Dane hoped to tame the silver wolf in his kennel, but all bets are off with the deliciously sweet Vanessa on two legs. Her temper makes his pulse race, and he can’t escape the feeling they belong together.
They’re hot as a forest fire even before they scent-match, but Glacier Peak’s Alpha considers Dane a danger to the pack. Meanwhile, Lycans are being poached, and Vanessa has been targeted. Dane will have to keep her close to protect her, but with Vanessa in heat and mad to mate, who will protect him?
Review:
Wow, I loved this story. My family didn’t so much love me reading it in the car today (not while I was doing the driving, obviously. But I wanted to be reading it then, believe me) because I kept giggling like a fool, but whatever…
Wendy Sparrow has definitely written a werewolf (they go by “lycan” in this universe) story with a twist here. Our heroine does have super speed and fantastic hearing, but she also suffers from near-dibilitating alergies and has a relationship with her four(!) air purifiers that borders on unnatural.
Seriously. She’s taken down by a housecat in the first scene. (I was going to say “common housecat”, but I’m not entirely convinced he is.) She’s allergic to marshmallows. (According to the author’s note, so is Ms. Sparrow. My condolences…) Though I do love the fact that Dane puts her list of allergens on the fridge. And memorizes it. And they put the list to good use…more than once.
“What are you doing?” he asked, smiling against her skin.
“Listing out my allergies so I can keep my hormones from taking over.”
He shouldn’t keep going. They were meant to be paying attention to their environment. Plus, now “ragweed” had joined the list of words that couldn’t be said in mixed company. They should stop. He pulled back enough to drag his shirt off.
“You stopped on sesame seeds,” he said.
“Carrots, celery, cumin.” Cumin was said on a long moan. She made spices she couldn’t have sound even more forbidden.
“You forgot coriander.” He groaned as she bit his collarbone.
“I didn’t forget coriander. I just hadn’t gotten there yet.” It earned him another bite.
Oh, hell, they should really stop. “You were listing the Cs in alphabetical order.”
“I was just listing them.” She pressed herself closer to him. “Fennel, kiwi.” She tipped her head back and those nails scraped down his back again. “Coriander.”
Coriander was on the list of inappropriate words now.
Ms. Sparrow’s sense of humor really shines in this novel. Even though I will readily admit that a simple conversation or two could have resolved most if not all of Vanessa and Dane’s relationship woes in–oh, the second chapter maybe–I so thoroughly enjoyed reading the rest of the novel I didn’t even care. Plus, the “whodunnit” at the end isn’t completely obvious, which made it fun (though that individual was on my short list of suspects, I wasn’t at all sure until the big reveal).
Please tell me this is going to be a series! I need more from this universe. And I really, really want Jordan to get a HEA too.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A-
I recieved a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
Excerpt:
“Why do you sleep with earplugs in?”
He tossed them on the small table beside the bed. “I don’t normally. You snore like you’re trying to swallow sandpaper.”
Her mouth dropped open. Oh, no, he didn’t just say that. “I do not!”
Leaning back, he grabbed his phone off the same table and punched it on. “You do. It was so earsplitting, I recorded it because I’ve never heard anything like it.”
The horrible guttural noise made her hands jump to her own ears. The allergy pills had done the job and now her better-than-average hearing was assaulted, offended, and even stung from that…that…that horror. It was like a tree falling—a tree felled by Satan. That sound was evil. In some way, it was evil.
Dane grinned as he stopped it.
Pointing at his phone, she couldn’t believe she had to say it, but… “That was not me.”
He laughed.
He. Laughed.
She was so out of here. She spun away and bolted. It was an unfair advantage for a Lycan to be on school track teams, but she’d ignored that and taken Oregon by storm ten years ago. She hadn’t lost a second on her four-and-a-half-minute mile. And she’d only perfected running away from what life threw at her since then.
Yes. Hell yes.
Finally, her inner wolf was siding with her. Even a wolf wouldn’t stay in the room with someone claiming they snored loud enough to cause sterility. Bastard.
“Vanessa!” he yelled after her.
She made it to the trees at the edge of his property, fifty feet from the house, dressed in only a flannel shirt, which was going to hit the ground as soon as she was out of sight and could push the change.
“Vanessa!” he called from the front door.
Nothing he said would make her turn back. She was going to scrub his scent from her skin, from her nose, even if she had to use bleach. There was nothing…
“I know what you are!”
She stopped. Except that. Damn him and that infernal ace up his sleeve. Turning back, she yelled, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dane, but you are a rat bastard.”
He grinned at that and shook his head. “And you are beautiful when you’re pissed.” He took a few lazy steps forward and leaned against the beams of his front porch. He hadn’t bothered with a shirt. If he had, she’d already be home. The noon sun filtered through the branches and brushed his skin with even more gold. He wasn’t half bad himself—and curse her frantic hormones for noticing that when she was so furious with him.
Author Bio:
Writing is in Wendy’s blood…which is also about thirty percent Mountain Dew and twenty percent chocolate brownies. Wendy has been telling tales since she was a child with varying amounts of success. Her parents clearly anticipated her forays into the paranormal because she heard “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” so many times she could have written the screenplay at age five. She lives with a wonderful husband and two quirky kids and is active in Autism and OCD support networks. She can usually be found on Twitter where she’ll talk to anyone who talks to her and occasionally just to herself.
Author Website:http://wendysparrow.com/
Author Blog:http://wendysparrow.com/blog/
Author Twitter:https://twitter.com/WendySparrow
Author Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/WendySparrowAuthor
Author Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3346109.Wendy_Sparrow
Schedule:
June 23
Book reviewed at Literary Addicts
Guest blogging at Joyfully Reviewed
Guest blogging at My Book Addiction and More
Book reviewed at All Things Romance
Book featured at Happy Tails and Tales
June 24
Guest blogging at I Smell Sheep
Book featured at Escape by Fiction
June 25
Book reviewed at Miriam Smith
Guest blogging at Urban Fantasy Investigations
June 26
Book reviewed at Romance for Every World
Book reviewed at What I’m Reading
Book featured at I Heart Reading
June 27
Book reviewed at In My Humble Opinion
June 30
Guest blogging at In the Pages of a Good Book
Book featured at Lisa Loves Books
Book featured at Becky on Books…and Quilts
Book featured at Book Nook Nuts
July 1
Interviewed at I’m Shelf-ish
July 2
Book reviewed at What’s on the Bookshelf
Book featured at RhiReading
Guest blogging at Suzanne Johnson
July 3
Book reviewed at Book Lunatic Ramblings
Book reviewed at She Hearts Books
Guest blogging at Literary Escapism
July 4
Book featured at Sapphyria’s Book Blog
Book reviewed at Snarky Mom Reads