Title: Fighting Instinct (L’Ange #2)
Author: Mary Calmes
Page count: 224 pages
Genre: M/M Romance, Paranormal
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Blurb:
Only a privileged few know L’Ange’s head of security Arman de Soto is a shifter, and even fewer know he’s been systematically killing off a pack of werewolves. The reason for this vengeance is a secret Arman trusts with no one, quite the opposite of his obvious longtime pursuit of the château’s overseer, Linus Hobbes. Despite Arman’s reputation as a loner, the only thing he needs to complete his life is Linus. Predator and prey just don’t mix—but Arman won’t give him up.
Linus has lived alone for more than seven years, sheltered at L’Ange under an assumed name and hiding secrets of his own, including his terrifying attraction to the most dangerous man he’s ever met. Arman knows Linus should be afraid of the predator stalking him, but Linus is still drawn to him like a moth to a flame, no matter how much he tries to deny his instincts. It’s not until Linus’s past and Arman’s crusade exposes their secrets and opens L’Ange to attack that Arman realizes waiting any longer is a risk he just can’t take. So he’ll have to take his quest to the source of the threat in a gamble to protect L’Ange, Linus, and any future they might have together.
It’s been a while since I read Mary Calmes’s very special brand of cray-cray. But after I read some recent reviews, I decided it was time to go in again.
Don’t get me wrong, I usually LOVE this author’s unique craziness. Even though it’s OTT AF, I just can’t stop reading once I start one of her books, her style is addictive. I’m kind of embarrassed to say that I don’t even know the exact number of times I’ve read her ‘Matter of Time’ series.
But I also love her other shifters series, so I was optimistic about this one. I’m glad to say that I wasn’t wrong, I liked it a lot.
Linus and Arman are classic Calmes MCs. They’re beautiful, they’re possessive, almost everyone love them, and they loooove each other. Like really, they LOVE each other.
It’s totally legit here though, since they’re both shifters, everything is more intense. In a totally good way! Most of the time at least.
I dig characters that can’t live without each other, so obviously I enjoyed their crazy-yet-hot connection. I also liked the fact that they knew (and wanted) each other for s-e-v-e-n years before they decided to be together, it made sense because Linus had to get over some major trauma.
I really loved the variety of shifters here. I mean, a stag shifter, that’s new! And a little refreshing after reading about wolves all the time. I appreciated it.
This book is a little more ‘dark’ than her other books. Linus has a really fucked up past. Seriously, when he talked about it – I was like…
It’s pretty horrific, so prepare yourselves.
But maybe that’s why I totally accepted the fact that Arman is some kind of a crazy serial killer. He killed dozens of people/shifters, and it didn’t feel as disturbing as it probably should have. I mean, it was a little romantic… right?
I don’t want to spoil anything, but Arman had a somewhat justified reason for being a little psychotic.
Overall, this is a very entertaining story with crazy-love, mating, all-kinds of shifters, and addictive as hell OTT storyline. If you’re a Calmes fan, you should definitely try this. If you’re new, then make sure you’re in the mood for OTT and not-so-sane characters that love each other HARD.
Now I’m going to read the next book because I’m curious about the next couple. This book gave us a big teaser for their story.
