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The Mane Squeeze (2009)

by Shelly Laurenston(Favorite Author)

4.37 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0758231660 (ISBN13: 9780758231666)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Brava

series

Pride

review 1: If you don't like this writer's style you would be totally lost.The timing jumped. The 2 MCs were telling there own stories until they met up again. Lot's of background stuff going on with mystery characters.This is definitely a series of books that should be read close together, unless you have a good memory for all the characters querks.For those who love these stories, I actually felt sorry for Brendan. Mitch got him in trouble with Lock more than once.
review 2: Setting: mansion/wedding Long Island, NewYork; Macon River Falls Park; small office in the Kuznetsov Building with lots of under building parking for plumbing trucks; Borough Brawlers Banked Track Derby; his place; Shaw hotel; Theme: falling in love;Characters:Lachlan’Lock’ MacRyrie (of the Clan... more MacRyrie): bear shifter (10 foot / fifteen-hundred-pound, silver-tipped grizzly bear); a Jersey boy; Marines – Shifter-only Unit – retired after 8 years - jessica made friends with him in the first weeks after he left the Marines, when he had trouble adjusting; nickname by Gwen – Paddington and Baloo; Gwendolyn ‘Gwen’ O’Neill - Philly Girl – a Pennsylvania Pain in the A--: tigon (tiger / lion parents); her mother’s daughter – trained to work in salon, and Mom/aunts want her to take over the running of them (not owning); heart is that of a plumber – learned at her uncle’s knee; Blayne Thorpe: hybrid wolf/wild dog (with tiny dog feet); smiley, outgoing – Gwen’s best friend; generally smooths things over, but if pushed, she can lose it and watch out; the two of them grew up having each other’s back as hybrids, often a target; when father leaves his business to her, she asks Gwen to join her as a partner – so running a plumbing business;Brendon Shaw & Ronnie Lee Reed / Mitch O’Neill Shaw & Sissy Mae Smith: half brothers and their wives; doing their best to watch out over Gwen; Brendon insists she stay in Mitch’s suite… but Mitch and Sissy return early… and Mitch is anti-bear; and Ronnie Lee causes Gwen a great deal of pain to make sure she agrees to stay in Brendon’s hotel;Jessica Ann Ward: befriended Lock when he was first released from the Marines (bought him coffee, sat with him, returned to him every day for a week until he started to talk with him); she gave him his first contracts for computer software; and she wants to see him happy;Dr. Iona MacRyrie: Lock’s sister; top neurosurgeon at McMillian Presbyterian in Manhattan; Lock’s last secret – that his sister is a doctor – knowing Gwen feels doctor’s are organ thieves; she’s a bit cold to Gwen;Drs Brody and Alla Baranova-MacRyrie, Ph.D.: the intellectual in his family; wooed Alla in a patient and precise way… she is 3rd generation of Russian pack- Kamchatka grizzlies; he is bear-like curious, generally making a mess of things (like flooding the basement when turns a knob when Gwen working on water heater); she is a feminist scholar – eagerly connecting with Gwen, and her independent ways;Ulrich ‘ Ric’ Van Holtz: Lock’s best friend; handsome; works with Blayne to get Lock together with Gwen; fascinated by Dee-Ann; a tremendous chef - Niles Van Holtz, Alpha of the Van Holtz Pack; enforcement for the shifter’s council; called in to investigate gladiator – like fights, where victims are shanghaied; bodies dumped in Ric’s restaurant’s alley;Roxy O’Neill: realizes that her pack sees Gwen as family, but not pack – and she is happy to see her strike out with Blayne, and with Lock… when she hears the McNelly’s attacked her, she goes after Sharyn again – ambushing her at her hair salon, and shaving parts of her head; Kristan (daughter of Maylin) and Johnny (wolf, adopted son of Jess): hmmm… Kristan ‘seeing’ others… Johnny, in part looking forward to being away from Kristan (college), but jealous; Kristan taken by McNelly’s, and Johnny goes looking for her… hmmmmJay Ross & Donna McNelly & Sharyn McNelly: Sharyn angry at O’neill’s because, in their derby days, Roxy had sex with her mate (along with many others on her team); Sharyn instructs Donna to take down Gwen, she fails twice; jay (Donna’s boyfriend) is kidnapping hybrids – to fight gladiator style in illegal fights;Project: Code Name Bear-Cat: Blayne, Smitty, Mr. and Mrs. MacRyries, Jess, Ric – ganging up to get Lock and Gwen…Lock’s Scottish uncles: Nevin, Duff, Hamish, Calum (Dee-Ann Smith: investigating the bodies dumped… instead of taking job with the Shaws, she’s working for stateside shifter protectors;Summary:Gwen & Lock meet at wedding – he comes to her aid…While at Macon River Falls – Gwen and Blayne attacked by McNelly Pack… Gwen smells Lock ie bear, and runs towards him – figuring he’d scare the wolves… fight, her leg is hurt… he shifted to bat away wolves… and shifts back to naked human and goes to help Gwen – “By the time he made it over to her, she opened her eyes and blinked wide, leaning back. “Hey, hey! Get that thing out of my face!” His cock was right there, now wasn’t it? …”This is the best I can manage at the moment. I don’t exactly have the time to run off and kill an animal for its hide.” “Fine,” she muttered. “Just watch where you’re swinging that thing. You’re liable to break my nose.”And though Lock, like any self respecting bear, looks for the Baloo ease… but Gwen captivates him… and he is playing it smart – not just going for sex, but for a relationship; and his strategy works… both easing into the relationship with their eyes open; Blayne joins the local derby team – hides it from Gwen (tells her she is volunteering at the hospital, where she knows Gwen would never go)… but Gwen follows her, and figures it out. Gwen’s mom was a derby champ… Gwen tried it once, was the target of all – many bones broken – but what stopped her from ever going back was being told she’d always be a target because she was a hybrid… she trains Blayne in the underground parking of their building – and the wild dogs show up, and they have a party… and in the championship game against the McNelly’s team, Gwen joins in… and they win by the skin of their teeth.Memorable Scenes:“…through the synchronized wild dog dancing, the county-wolf line dancing, and the incessant conga lines led by some annoying male lion – Lock had watched her any time she’d come into his line of sight.”“The bear in him could care less about all that… he only knew he wanted the pretty kitty. He wanted to pick her up and carry her back to the closest river he could find and offer her fresh salmon, honeycombs with desperate bees still clinging to them, and never-ending sex. Yeah. Sex. Lots and lots of sex.”Gwen hates hospital, convinced that they all want to harvest her organs… Blayne socks her to knock her out to get her to the hospital. Before going into surgery, wanting assurance that Lock is trustworthy, she asks for something private, that no one else knows – he tells her: “Whispering against her ear, he confessed, “When I’m really stressed out… I play with my toes.” Gwen leaned back a bit and stared at him. . “Seriously?” “It’ really relaxing and very bearlike.” And very weird. And yet… “I’m oddly comforted by this information.His uncles helped raise him, as they thought his professor father was “…kind of a pansy, know-it-all. You’ll need us to give you the basics of life… by his early teens he understood that ‘Pansy, know-it-all’ translated into ‘college-educated.’ And his father’s position as a highly respected university professor of literature and philosophy? Simply a fancy way of saying, ‘no real job.’‘Your father’s saving grace’ was what they called Alla Baranova-MacRyrie, PH.D. Although a third-generation Russian-American, Alla was a direct descendent of the Kamchatka grizzlies of the Russian Far East. Tougher shifters one would never meet.’‘Once he seemed comfortable, he observed, ‘You’ve stripped the trees of their bark quite nicely.’ ‘Yeah,’ Lock mumbled around the honeycomb. ‘Sorry about that.’ Ric shrugged. ‘My father had them imported from Japan for a tidy seven-figure sum, had them featured in that Vanity Fair article on him and the Van Holtz dynasty, and got an award from the Tree Rescue Foundation for his efforts to resurrect nearly extinct trees – but I’m sure he won’t be too upset.’When considering moving to Manhattan, and partnering with Blayne in her father’s plumbing business, she reflects –‘They treat me like family. But where they go, what they do as a Pride – I’m never part of that. I never will be part of that.’ (something Brendon and Mitch don’t get).Lock’s mom - “First the Marines, now computers. All that intelligence going to waste.”… And he didn’t look forward to the day they found out that creating software was only so he could earn money, retire, and finally do what he really wanted to do.”Dad’s curiosity (gets him into trouble) – Gwen tells Lock’s dad – “What did I say? I said don’t touch!’ ‘I was just curious.’ And that only made Lock laugh harder. He’d lost count of how many bad days with his parents began with the sentence, ‘But I was curious!’‘Many of them (Van Holtzes) were known for their superior chef skills among the most elite food snobs. Each Van Holtz pup was taught from very early childhood to cook, with the plan that one day they would work in or manage one of the family restaurants spread across the States and Europe.’After a passionate kiss at her doorstep.. ‘it seems like you’re fighting with yourself there, Jersey.’ ‘I am. Because I want to come up with you, but…’ ‘But…’ she pushed when he didn’t go on. ‘Something tells me not now.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘I have no idea where this is going, Gwen. But I’m not going to wake up tomorrow and find myself dismissed. And I think if I go upstairs with you now..l. that’s exactly what’s going to happen.’… ‘Okay. Then how about a date?’… he pulled her close, his arms tight around her, her kiss moving from gentle to territorial in seconds. And she gave it right back to him.’‘She grabbed Lock’s arm in order to drag him outside so she could slap some sense into his big bear head, but he didn’t actually move when she tugged, pulled and yanked. He simply kept looking at her with those big, innocent bear eyes. His mother tapped Lock’s shoulder. “Son, remember when I taught you how to give the smaller, weaker ones the illusion they’re dragging you places? This is one of those times.’ ‘Oh. Right.’ He smiled and let Gwen drag him out to the backyard.Brother Mitch describes Lock: ‘Oversized, larvae-eating, easily startled, toe-playing, carcass-stealing bears!...’‘You call me Gwenie when you want something and Mr. Mittens when you’re trying to tick me off.’ less

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