The Heat

Author: Heather Killough-Walden
Format: e-book (Kindle)
Genre: Supernatural/Mystery
Series: 1st book in the Big Bad Wolf Romance series
Series Order:

1. The Heat (January 2011)
2. The Strip (February 2011)

First Line: "Open your legs."

Synopsis: Lily St Claire is a social worker who decides to move back to her Louisiana hometown. Soon after she arrives she sees Daniel Kane - her best friend's older brother whom Lily had a huge, unrequited crush on in high school. Little does she know but Daniel has always had a thing for Lily but on the request of his sister he's stayed away from Lily ... until now.

Daniel is the new Chief of Police in their small town and also happens to be an alpha werewolf. When he learns that Lily is a Dormant (someone predestined to be the mate of a werewolf) all promises to his sister are forgotten and he sets his sights on Lily. Unfortunately another werewolf who is a known murderer has set his sights on Lily as well.

My Thoughts: When I saw this ebook in the Kindle store for only $1 and it included a werewolf romantic triangle I figured I'd give it a shot. There seemed to be so much potential for storylines! I figured it would be a fun read. I wasn't planning on finding a literary treasure ... and I didn't. This book had a lot of potential but felt like it trudged along instead of gripping me from the beginning.

First off - I found this book excessively sexual. I'm talking too close to written porn for my liking. The first line of the book (see above) should have been a huge clue but I guess I just didn't catch on. There is a time and place for a sex scene here or there but it just didn't fit in with the storyline (or characters' relationships).

This book just trudged along without a whole lot happening. Usually there are several smaller issues that the main characters face until the big climax (pun intended) at the end. With this book it felt like the reader was supposed to assume too much. For example, the romance/bond between Daniel and Lily. I just couldn't buy that, after 10 years of not seeing each other at all then meeting up briefly twice, that they have this beautiful, strong love between them. The reader is supposed to just assume that it's normal that he abducts her, goes all sexual wolf on her and that's supposed to make her fall head over "paws" in love with him. Um, no. Lily and Daniel were hardly in the same room with each other for the vast majority of the book and yet we're supposed to think that they have found true love in each other. More detail was given to the love scenes than describing their relationship. For a book that, I assume, is geared more towards female readers I'd think there would be more romance involved.

From the write-up about this book I also thought there'd be more competition for Lily between the two werewolves. A little competition between the guys would have been a nice addition and add some tension between the main characters. Malcolm Cole (the other alpha werewolf) wasn't involved in this story as much as I would have liked. He seemed like the only multi-dimensional character in the whole book.

I've read that this author has other successful and well liked books on the market which surprised me because this book felt like a first book from a very new author. I bought the second book in this series so I figure I'll see if this series gets better. I may give some of her other books a try before throwing in the towel with this author.

My Rating: 2.5/5 stars