Book Reviews

Book Blurb

A Premier lion shifter, Hugh Landry dedicates his life to leading the Berk pride with strength and confidence. Hundreds of people depend on Hugh for safety, success, and happiness. And at over a century old, with more power than can be contained in one body, Hugh relies on a Siphon lion shifter to carry his excess force.

When the Siphon endangers himself and therefore the pride, Hugh must pay attention to the man who has been his silent shadow for a decade. What he learns surprises him, but what he feels astounds him even more.

Two lions, each born to serve, rely on one another to survive. After years by each other’s side, they’ll finally realize the depth of their potential, the joy in their passion, and a connection their kind has never known.

 

Book Review

My enthusiasm for this book began when I read the blurb. It caught my attention with its concept that paranormal power gets strong enough in some shifters to basically kill them unless they find a way to get rid of it, like an overflow, or in this case, a Siphon. That idea opens up a whole bag of potential issues, and it’s exactly these problems that get addressed in one of the most creative and imaginative stories I am aware of in this genre. It’s got great characters with emotional and other issues, an intriguing story idea, and a plot that kept up the tension from beginning to end.
 
Hugh is a Premier lion shifter, and very much in charge. He leads the pride, solved their problems, and has hardly any time to himself. When “the Siphon” who doesn’t even have a name, just a function, Hugh sees it as an attack on him and the pride, and an inconvenience rather than the cry for help it is. Hugh knows he has to solve the problem, and even though he has not a single clue in the beginning, he is a fast learner and willing to make changes.

Johnnie is a very special shifter as well. As a Siphon, one of the very rare lion shifters born with the ability to take a Premier’s excess power, he has always been treated differently. Because his ability is so rare, he was protected – meaning totally isolated from everyone else in his birth pride. Nobody even sees him as a person, and that doesn’t change when his pride merges with Hugh’s. His attempted suicide is, for him, the only way out, but it also has consequences he never took into account. He learns as much as Hugh once they begin communicating, and I loved watching him gain that understanding.
 
The relationship that develops between the two men is fascinating. Both know they are meant to serve, yet they do so in a very different way. Their interdependence and what it means to them may not be clear to them until they start communicating and thinking things through, but it is the basis for some enlightenment that feels cross-cultural. What seemed obvious to me from the start is not clear to them at all, and the explanation about their shifter nature getting in the way was very interesting.

If you like shifters and exploring the world they live in, if lions are your thing, and if you’re looking for a story that shows deep understanding of shifter/human nature, stars two amazing characters, and makes for a wonderful, if very unusual love story, then you will probably like this novel as much as I did. It’s definitely going on my “to reread” shelf.

 

 

 

 

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Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novel, 56233 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	13-March-2015
Price	$4.99 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-johnnie-1763151-145.html