Random Romance Sunday: Werewolves of San Diego

The Book: Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks

The Particulars: Paranormal romance, first in a series, Berkley, 2004, In Print

The Blurb:

National bestselling author Eileen Wilks has thrilled countless readers with her fresh and compelling stories. Now, she has created a bold new world where the magical and the mundane co-exist in an uneasy balance--a balance that is threatened by a cold-blooded killer. And the only one who can end the threat is a cop on her own knife-edge struggling with a particularly tempting danger...

Lily Yu is a San Diego police detective investigating a series of grisly murders that appear to be the work of a werewolf. To hunt down the killer, she must infiltrate the clans. Only one man can help her--a were named Rule Turner, a prince of the lupi, whose charismatic presence disturbs Lily. Rule has his own reasons for helping the investigation--reasons he doesn't want to share with Lily. Logic and honor demand she keep her distance, but the attraction between them is immediate and devastating--and beyond human reason. Now, in a race to fend off evil, Lily finds herself in uncharted territory, tested as never before, and at her back a man she's not sure she can trust...

Is It In Wendy's TBR?: Nope, I've actually read this one. Shocker, I know.

Any Reviews?: Why yes. I was still with TRR at this time, and I handled reviewing duties on this one, giving it 3 Hearts (or a C grade).

In the hands of a less skilled writer, Tempting Danger probably would have been fairly mind numbing. The convoluted and confusing supernatural aspects did detract from the story, but Wilks’ heroine is so top notch that it’s a hard book to dismiss outright. With more books planned in this series, one can hope that as the author goes along the reader will become more familiar with the world and the characters she has created.

My whole review is worth reading because, in all modesty, I did a pretty good job on this one. In a nutshell though? Great heroine, vague hero and, while I tap dance around it in the review, I think there was some soul mate garbage that drove me slightly nutty. Seriously. Free will is sexy. Just sayin'.

Sandy handled the reviewing duties over at AAR, and while she gave it a slightly higher grade with a B-, turns out we agreed an awful lot on the content.

For some reason, though, I had difficulty connecting closely with Rule, who seemed all glam and sex appeal. This may have something to do with the fact that scenes involving his family and clan consisted of a lot of convoluted dialogue that sometimes caused me to glaze over - you know, ponderous sentences loaded with all those made-up words so beloved to authors creating their own elaborate paranormal mythology. Still, he's sexy and fun and promises to be an intriguing character to follow in upcoming books.

Anything Else?: I was thinking about this series recently and wondering why I didn't keep up with it. Rereading my review refreshed my memory. All I had remembered was that I really liked the heroine's character. A lot. What I had sort of forgotten was the convoluted mess I had found some of the paranormal "stuff" - and oh yeah, we have a werewolf so obviously there was some soul mates nonsense running amok. Then it's a paranormal, which is not a sub genre I easily gravitate towards.....and yeah. Off my radar it fell.

But.....

Wilks is still going strong with this series, with book seven due out in January. So if you like werewolves, don't mind the soul mate "stuff," and are looking for a good strong heroine? This series might be right up your alley.