Codes and Roses by Julia Talbot
An Itch to Scratch by Julia Talbot
This is actually the prequel of a short story I read some months ago, The Werewolf Code. I remember that my impression on that story was very good, but it was too short, and I also hoped that the author was willing to write more, above all on how the couple gets together, since it was hinted a very interesting story. Apparently I was not the only one to think that, since here is the story on how werewolf Deke and vampire Kasey meet.
Deke is a vampire bite addicted. Like other people have a sex dependency, Deke has an addiction on the thrill of a vampire bite, never sex is better than when it starts with him in the role of a willing donor. Usually werewolfes are strong Alpha males who reluctantly give up the power; instead Deke loves to take the submissive role in bed; but only in bed, since even if he likes to bottom, he is not a bottom in life.
Kasey is an old and hard to please vampire. He can't imagine to commit to only a man, but when he tastes for the first time Deke, his possessive side takes the lead and he finds himself unable to stay far from Deke for long.
Kasey and Deke are very different and not only as "breed". Kasey is a prim and proper type and instead Deke is a slob. Kasey is a bit aloof, not easy to express his feelings and instead Deke is a pack animals, he is very touchy feelings and he has no problem to voice his needs.
The love between Deke and Kasey is easy and almost funny; there is a lot of sex, but it is always light and joyful. Again the story is not very long, less than 60 pages, but this time I have enough development on the two characters to know them better and to also understand better why they are together and what is the basis of their love relationship.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1535
The Werewolf Code: The Moon by Julia Talbot
Deke is a werewolf, Kasey a vampire. They are PIs and lovers. It's not the first time I read about a pair of werewolf and vampire, but it's the first time that the two breeds seem to cohabitate without problem. Kasey is the mind and Deke the arm. Not that Deke isn't bright, but he is more feral, more instinct, and instead Kasey is cool and calculator: everything can be done at the right price...
They are engaged by a beautiful tall blonde werewolf woman to follow her husband, but soon they discover that Jason, the cheating husband, is not her husband, but a genetic experiment of her father gone mad. Jason has no control, and if they don't stop him, he could spread the virus around.
Unfortunately this is a short story, less than 30 pages, but if only in few pages, the plot is complete and enthralling. I think Deke and Kasey could be worthy material for another book, and maybe also one in which we can read how they meet and became a couple (apparently Deke was a willing donor and Kasey won him on an auction... just let me image that man naked on display...)
Anyway if you like a bit of action and a bit of eroticism (there are one or two scene pretty sexy), The Werewolf Code is a fast and enjoyable reading.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1191
Belling the Cat by Julia Talbot
This is the story of Jonny, the vampire club owner who played matchmaker between Deke and Kasey, and that, if it wasn't for a professional code, wouldn't have minded to take Deke for him. Jonny is an ancient vampire, and maybe he is also a little bored; when he is not behaving like a workaholic, he doesn't know what to do. Living among so many beautiful men and possible lovers left him with a void, no one of them is right for him. When he finds a cat thief on his private room he decides that is time to play a bit: he will make a contract with the werecat, he is free to take what he was searching and in exchange the cat-man will come back to him for six months, every night.
Luc is more used to be a cat than a man, and if Jonny wasn't willing to accept his cat nature, he wouldn't probably have accepted his term. But Jonny is more than willing, and Luc can be a cat, and behave like a cat, for most part of the time they spend together; Jonny is not disgusted, or squeaked when Luc nears him in cat form, or when he wants to groom his partner like a cat would do before napping. Those are probably the most funny, tender and challenging moment of the novella: how much do Julia Talbot dare to push the challenge to overcome the tenderness? it's a quite trickly game of balancing, and I think that not all the romance readers will be up to that challenge. On my side, I didn't mind: what is the reason to read a romance with a shifter character, when that character looses all his animal side in human form?
As I said, Luc is more a cat than a man, and he has a playful nature in both form. His feline side is quite clear in his attitude towards Jonny: once they tight the pact between them, Luc tries to get the maximum from it, even if he was, in theory, the weak partner. But he is weak only since he was forced into it, for all the other aspects of their relationship, Jonny has no interest to tame the cat, and Luc is more a pet than a beast, so there isn't so much to tame in him, maybe only to teach him to not play rough games inside: again a proof that Luc is more pet than man. I wouldn't use for him the word "beast" since it's too strong and wild, Luc's cat is more the cuddling than struggling type.
So yes, if you like a good shapeshifter romance, with a strong accent on the shifter theme, but at the same time, with a funny and playful insight on the genre, Belling the Cat is exactly like that.
http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2159
Amazon: Codes and Roses
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle