Phases with Kris Norris

Coyote Savage, Hunger Moon
Snared, Thunder Moon

AUTHOR: Kris Norris
PUBLISHER: Resplendence Publishing


When choosing a new book there are tons of factors that influence someone.   Do you want a short or long story? Romance? Action?  Maybe, a hot story to get things spiced up at home?   For me I like the general romance category – with the couple meeting under unlikely circumstances and having to battle through a bunch of random obstacles to eventually realize that they can’t live without each other and live happily ever after.  So it’s the plot and the subsequent triumph of love that appeals to me.

On the far end of the romance genre is erotica.  My experience with this category is limited but it seems for the most part sex wins out over plot as far as percentage of content in the book.  Moving even further into the erotica category we get into ménage and some of the other subsets that will be featured later this week.  If you’re like me this whole category isn’t something that I would choose to read.  I agreed to review these two today for a couple of reasons.  1) There are several ladies in our group that really love this genre and swear that you should at least try it before ruling it out.  2) These are short stories so if turns out it isn’t for me then at least it isn’t a long story and 3) If I have to be honest I think I was curious – seriously how exactly does a ménage work both mentally and physically.   I just don’t understand why someone would want to.  What’s the old saying two’s company – three’s a crowd.  It just sounds too odd to make a compelling story or to exist long term.  So I thought I would at least give it a shot and see what my fellow bloggers are raving about. 

Phases – In case you missed the write up yesterday is a series of short stories all with one or more shifter characters and each written by a different author.  They are numbered but do not have to be read in order and do not share any characters or plot between them.

Coyote Savage, written by Kris Norris, is book two in the series.  The basic premise of this story is that Sheriff Rebecca Savage is investigating an animal attack on the Mayor’s property, which happens to border the ranch of Caden and Talon.  Her investigation leads her to visit Caden and Talon’s ranch which doubles as a Coyote Rescue Habitat.  They fear that the Mayor staged the animal attack to try to cause trouble in the town for them and subsequently force them to have to close the animal preserve.  They have to work together to solve the case and clear their names.   Along the way Rebecca discovers that Caden and Talon can shift into coyote’s and that their Alpha nature’s have them looking at her with mating desires.

Snared, also written by Kris Norris, is book seven in the series.  This book features Tynen Locke, Veterinarian professionally and a bob cat on the side.  Rogan and Quinn are the town’s rangers and are desperately trying to convince her to give them a chance.  The problem is she knows that they are her potential mates and she worries about starting a relationship with them.  Will they run once they know the real her – fur and all?  To add to her problems there are poachers setting traps all over her favorite running areas and causing the men to place themselves in danger to stop them.

Both of these stories have rich scenery and are very well written.  They are both around 65 pages and are really quick reads.  I mentioned very little about the plots because the plot itself in both stories takes up very little of the actual number of pages.  They both start off setting the stage that the characters have been friends for years and have secretly yearned for more but otherwise there has not been any romantic relationship or development - simply admiring from afar.  From very early on in both stories the characters find themselves hot and heavy in the middle of some very intense sex scenes.  These scenes happen very frequently throughout both books and increase in shock factor as the books progress.  These really reminded me of what you expect from an adult movie - where the plot was merely a way to set the scene of their next encounter.  They definitely don’t leave anything to the imagination as far as the physical aspect of this kind of relationship.  However, I still really don’t understand the mental side of why this kind of relationship would work.  In both stories the characters, due to their shifter need’s, claim to be matting.  It really just sounded like lust to me.  There was no character development past the physical.  This really frustrated me and left me feeling like it was all about the sex and had little to do with feelings even though matting kept being a big topic in both stories. 

So to sum up…  Going back to where I started – I think in considering these books you need to decide what you are looking for.  If you want to read a nice ménage short story just to see what one is like then these are both very well written and very descriptive.  If you are looking for a more realistic character development with more why behind the actions then you might want to choose a longer story.  If you like ménage stories I don’t think you will be disappointed with these.  There are certainly some very hot scenes.  If you are more of a standard romance` fan like me then I have to say I’m glad I tried them just so I can understand where my friends who are fans of this genre subset are coming from but it wasn’t for me.   I just don’t get the attraction of this type of relationship and found myself a little creeped out by some aspects of it.  

Rating:  So I’m going to give these two different ratings – if you have a wild side, enjoy adult films and are looking for something spicy to read then I put these at four chocolate dipped strawberries – if you need more plot and plausibility then bedroom time then I would say two chocolate dipped strawberries.  

These books were given to us by Resplendence Publishing. Many thanks.

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