ARC Review: Kept

Kept
A Coveted Novel Bk 2
Shawntelle Madison

RELEASE DATE: 27 November 2012
Mass Market Paperback, Ballantine Books, 320p.
ISBN-13: 978-0345529176


A funny and sexy new paranormal romance, perfect for fans of Charlaine Harris and Patricia Briggs, Kept features the charmingly quirky werewolf, Natalya Stravinsky, as she navigates the minefields of love and war in the Garden State.
 
Fresh from defending her pack in battle, Natalya Stravinsky, a whip-smart werewolf with a lovable neurotic streak, wants a little rest and relaxation. Once an outcast, she's now eager to rejoin the ranks of her New Jersey pack, and has even gotten a handle on her obsessive urge to hoard holiday ornaments. Yet Nat barely has time to revel in her progress before the next crisis comes howling at her door.
 
Nat's father has suddenly gone missing, captured by the Russian werewolf mafia. And as Nat steps up to save her dad from a mob boss's deadly game, two men step in to play another round for her heart: her gorgeous alpha ex-boyfriend, Thorn, and her new flame, the sweetly sensitive wizard Nick. With her life growing more harried by the minute, Nat must stay cool, calm, and collected . . . or else risk losing everything.  

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Okay, I just want to make it clear that I am reviewing this title from an uncorrected ebook people.  So somethings I mention may have be slightly altered by the time you read it :-P

 

Yeah, my first ARC!  I was so excited to read Kept that I dumped all my other stuff, and jumped right in.  Then I had to wait until I could post this review.

Natalya is an anal werewolf germaphobe who can't seem to keep out of trouble!  Oh, she never goes looking for it, but trouble seems to find her anyway.  When her father goes missing while repaying a debt, somehow she gets tapped to find him.  So, with a rag-tag bunch of fellow therapy patients as back-up, Natalya goes hunting.

 

This is a quick paced, high energy book and it will have you rooting for Natalya as she not only searches for her father, but also has to deal with a hunky ex-slash-pack alpha from her past - and now engaged to another woman - and a truly nasty great aunt... all while trying to get re-admitted into the pack.  This truly qualifies as a bad week in my book!

 

Her friends are using every trick in the book to help Nat find, and free, her father.  However, it is Nat herself that must assume the debt, and undertake the burden of completing her father's task if she is to have any chance of bringing him home to his beloved wife and family - and with his wife due to go into labour any day, even her brother can't help her.

 

With Nat growing ever closer to Nick, wizard extraordinaire and fellow therapy goer, her feelings for Thorn (the ex) are still so obvious that a scent-blind wolf could pick up on them.  The tension between this threesome is so powerful, that I wondered when the other shoe would drop... and then it did.  Add to the mix a rather possessive and vindictive fiance and you've got a potential powder keg .  Erica.  Said fiance, and major bitch, is another nasty piece of work in Natalya's life that she has to deal with.  Good ol' Erica isn't above rubbing Natalya's nose in the fact that she's with Thorn now.  It's deliciously nasty, but so addictive to read.  You just want to punch Erica in her perfect face.

 

Will Nat stay with Nick, the new guy on the scene?  Or will Thorn's continuing presence in her life get in the way?

 

With the underlying themes of family and loyalty to those you love running through the book, Shawntelle Madison has created characters that are a joy to read. I got invested in Natalya, and totally tuned out the rest of the world while I devoured this book.

 

I won't give away any more of the storyline.  Just do yourselves a favour and find a copy - you won't regret it.

 

A great second book in a new series. 

 

 

A big THANK YOU to Shawntelle Madison for posting me some odds and ends  regarding promotional bookmarks and other extras. They are so beautiful.  I was surprised to see that there are trading cards that can be collected for this series too!