The Mane Event - Book Review

By Shelly Laurenston

Synopsis

Mace Llewellyn. Brendon Shaw. Two tall, gorgeous, sexy alpha heroes who are 100% male—with a little something extra. Lion-shifters, to be exact, who can unleash every woman’s animal side and still look good—make that spectacular—in a suit. . .and even better out of it. . .

NYPD cop Desiree “Dez” MacDermot knows she’s changed a lot since she palled around with her childhood buddy, Mace. But it’s fair to say that Mace has changed even more. It isn’t just those too-sexy gold eyes, or the six-four, built-like-a-Navy Seal body. It’s something in the way he sniffs her neck and purrs, making her entire body tingle. . . Meanwhile, for Tennessean Ronnie Lee Reed, New York City is the place where any girl—even one who runs with a Pack—can redefine herself. First order of business: find a mate, settle down, and stop using men for sex. Even big, gorgeous, lion shifter men like Brendon Shaw. But she needn’t worry, because now that Brendon’s set his sights on her, the predator in him is ready to pounce and never let go. . .

Review

THE MANE EVENT is the first book in the Pride Series and is the spin-off to Shelly’s Magnus Pack trilogy. This book is a little different from her other books in that it contains two stories in one: Christmas Pride and Shaw’s Tail.

Christmas Pride introduces us to Mace Llewellyn (lion shifter) and Dez MacDermot (full human NYPD). Mace and Dez go way back to when they attended the same school as children. Dez ended up getting transferred and the two lost touch for over 20 years. They meet up again when Dez is sent to investigate the murder of one of the breeding males in Mace’s pride. This murder and her reconnection with Mace suddenly thrusts her into the previously unknown world of shifters.

We’re introduced to a slew of supporting characters, most of which will get their own books. There’s Bobby Ray Smith and his wolf pack, as well as Brendon Shaw and his brother and twin sister.

Shaw’s Tail is the story of Brendon Shaw (lion shifter) and Ronnie Lee Reed (wolf shifter from the Smith Pack). Brendon was severely injured at the end of Christmas Pride and Ronnie is ordered by her alpha to remain at his side in the hospital until he recovers.

Looking back, I feel the purpose of Shaw’s Tail is mainly filler and to expand on Mace and Smitty’s new security business. The only new characters to appear in Shaw’s Tail are Ronnie’s three brothers, aka The Reed Boys. Other than that, there’s sex. Lots and lots of sex. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Pulling out a long strip of condoms, he held them up and asked, “Think we’ll need all of these tonight?”
“If you want me bragging about you in the morning’, then you damn well better.”

Not too long after I started reading romance novels, a friend recommended Shelly Laurenston to me. THE MANE EVENT was my first book of Shelly’s that I read, and to be honest, I didn’t get the humour and was not overly impressed. From memory, I didn’t read any of her other books for a long time. I don’t know what made me revisit the author, but I’m glad I did. I checked out her website and realised that I hadn’t read the Magnus Pack series first. I don’t know if that made a difference or not, or perhaps it was because I’d read a few other romantic comedies by then and understood that you can have hot animalistic sex and hysterical laughter in the same book.

I just remembered what else I like about Shelly’s books. The main characters aren’t young 20 somethings, they’re mostly in their mid thirties. Now, there’s nothing wrong with 20 somethings, but most romance books I’ve read feature people in their 20s. It’s nice to see someone writing about an older age group.

On to book 2.