Wednesday, November 10, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Big Bad Wolf by Suleikha Snyder

 




Big Bad Wolf is the first book in Suleikha Snyder's "Third Shift" paranormal romance series.  I first noticed this series when I accidentally picked up an eARC of book 2 and read that first - which I enjoyed enough to actually want to go back and read the book I'd missed.  Obviously, this review is not going to expect readers to have read book 2 first, and book 1 obviously does not require any prior knowledge of this world from the later book.....okay that's one of the sillier things I've ever typed in these reviews.  

Anyhow, Big Bad Wolf is for the most part highly enjoyable for the paranormal romance genre - featuring at its heart an artificially created werewolf who murdered a bunch of white supremacist gangsters and a lawyer/psychologist who is trying at first to figure out why he did it....as they fall for each other in steamy steamy fashion and wind up on the run. The characters are highly enjoyable and easy to root for, the secondary characters (there is a secondary romance and one other pov character) also work and are often highly amusing and the story never really loses steam and is just the right length at short of 300 pages (in a small paperback).  On the other hand, the sex scenes aren't exactly super done well, so if you're looking for that, this won't fit your niche - but that's really the only major flaw.  

---------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------
Joe Peluso murdered a bunch of white supremacist members of the Russian mob, and was all ready to be imprisoned for a long time....when he almost shifted into a wolf at his first trial, resulting in a mistrial.  Still, he's ready for death, knowing what he's done - both now and on behalf of the military that made him - makes him a sociopath who doesn't deserve to go on.  So his new lawyers, some big firm hot shots working pro bono, don't really interest him.  

Or at least they don't, until one of them happens to be Neha Ahluwalia, an associate lawyer at the firm who also happens to have a degree in clinical psychology.  Neha's goal is to figure out what makes Joe tick, to ensure they can give him the best possible defense.  But what she could never expect is how even one look at him can turn her on....and how one look at her can seemingly do the same to him.  It's a forbidden attraction for both of them, and yet they can't stop thinking about it....

But when the Russian mob comes after Joe, the two will find themselves on the run, with the opportunity to actually do something about it - assuming they can find a place to breath.  And Neha and Joe's hopes of survival may come to depend upon a secret resistance organization of shifters and other non-humans, who have their own romantic issues to deal with...
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Big Bad Wolf takes place in an alternate 2020 where supernatural beings are present and known to be present (if not super common), where the 2016 election resulted in a far more overtly fascist state that resulted in state/federal conflict and underground resistance movements...as well as supernatural-aided Russian and white supremacist gangsters being a major threat.  The story switches between basically 5 point of view characters - with most of the story being told from the perspectives of the main romance of Neha and Joe, but the secondary romance of Danny and Yulia also get time, as does Neha's boss Nate (a gay Jewish attorney who has a good guy vampire Finn try and seduce him for good purposes and gets involved).  

As with any romance, what matters are the characters and the relationship as its portrayed.  This is not really a slow burn romance - as the characters are only stopped from jumping on each other pretty quickly by the fact that one of them is behind bars - by the 1/3 mark, the two are having sex pretty regularly, even in places that seems utterly ridiculous.  And Snyder does a great job showing through their points of view how attracted each of our leads is to one another despite such a romance being ridiculous on its face - the mostly straight laced lawyer/psychologist who wants to do good and the killer shapeshifter who thinks himself damned, even if not for the acts that he is in jail for.  They both are desperate to keep the other safe - Neha by doing what she can for Joe, and Joe by trying to leave her behind...which sets up a conflict that underlies the book....well besides the conflict with murderous shapeshifting Russian gangsters.  The sex may not be great to read, but the romance works damn well and keeps this book highly enjoyable.  

The secondary characters also work really well.  First off there's secondary romance Danny - a cop/security agent - and Yulia - a bear shifter who is the sister of the antagonist gangster, which works really well as Danny is desperate to get Yulia out and Yulia is at first desperate to keep Danny away....until her brother's actions get too much to ignore.  Then there's Nate, the gay Jewish attorney who is working on the case with Neha, who is approached by third shift agent and vampire Finn for information, and who can't help but be drawn in by Finn (this relationship will be slightly expanded in the sequel, but it works well here).  

Again, like i said in my review here, the only real weakness of this novel, besides it not being anything special even if it's fun, is the fact that well....the sex scenes aren't particularly great, with Snyder generally describing the vague what the characters are doing rather than the specifics as to how they are doing them - so even with lots of sex taking place between the characters, it's not something that I think will keep you coming if the rest of the package doesn't work for you (no double entendre intended).  

Fortunately it did for me, and I'll be very willing to keep checking out this series when a third book comes out.  

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