Title: Big Bad Beast
Author: Shelly Laurenston
Series: Pride #6
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal romance, Shapeshifters, Urban fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: eBook, Novel
Year: 2011

I’ve been waiting to read more of Dee Ann’s story since I met her in my very first Shelly Laurenston book. I mean, she’s obviously insanely badass. And I wondered how she ended up with a wonderfully sophisticated man. I love the whole opposites attract vibe that they both have. And now that I’ve finally read their romance – I was NOT disappointed. It was everything that I wanted and more. The perfect, fun opposites attract romance. One with plenty of violence and mayhem (just how I like them).

Although this was a great opposites attract story, it was also one about love at first sight… to a degree. I love how Ric decides when he is not even a teenager that he’s going to marry Dee Ann. And it kind of seems that once his mind is made up, nothing is going to shift him. A trait that is very good with a woman who is just as stubborn and independently minded. The fact that he’s subtle about it and just slowly works on Dee Ann just made it all that much better. Plus, Ric’s love language is food! I love when there’s a couple in which one is just determined to feed up the other. It definitely made me slightly hungry while reading this.

I love that this story also expands on the whole hybrid fighting rings story line. At least one of the key characters in driving this fighting ring is revealed (and receives their comeuppance, as they should). But I get the feeling that there are going to be a whole lot more evil things going on in the background. It was great that this was the more high octane aspect of the plot line. Ric and Dee Ann’s romance actually doesn’t have all too many boundaries, I mean there’s a little bit about the fact that they come from two warring packs, but it’s not too bad. All of this just means that there is a wonderfully violent battle at the end.

There are two major wolf dynasties throughout this series. You get to know about both of them a little throughout the first few books in the Pride series. But it was nice to have them take centre stage and be contrasted in Big Bad Beast. It’s very enjoyable how Laurenston is able to take the idea of different species of shifters, and then different aspects of those species and create such strong, distinct groups. I’m not sure which Pack I want more of now – the Smiths or the Van Holtzes…

<- Beast Behaving Badly

Bear Meets Girl ->

Image source: Amazon