Caleb (Shadow Wranglers, #1) in Alpha Heroes & Spitfire Heroines

Mar 06, 2009 Auntee rated it liked it

Shelves: 2009_reads, paranormal-romance, erotic-romance

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Oh, how I wanted to love this one. I had recently read and enjoyed the author's Tucker's Claim from her Hell's Eight series, and I'm a big fan of her Promises series, so I was hoping that this would be another winner. But after a very promising and exciting start, it just fell...flat. Too many unanswered questions, too much background detail left out, a lot of conversations going nowhere, a lot of terribly unexciting dialogue, and I swear if the hero 'brushes the heroine's bangs off her face' on Oh, how I wanted to love this one. I had recently read and enjoyed the author's Tucker's Claim from her Hell's Eight series, and I'm a big fan of her Promises series, so I was hoping that this would be another winner. But after a very promising and exciting start, it just fell...flat. Too many unanswered questions, too much background detail left out, a lot of conversations going nowhere, a lot of terribly unexciting dialogue, and I swear if the hero 'brushes the heroine's bangs off her face' one more time (I should have kept count how many times that phrase was used)--I wanted to leap into the story with a pair of scissors and cut the darn bangs off!

The story had a promising start. Allie runs a bakery and has the hots for a sexy cowboy who comes in early every day for some bear claws and coffee. She's dying for him to notice her or make a move. While walking home one evening, she's descended on by a bloodthirsty wolf. Another wolf comes to her rescue, fighting the nasty wolf off while she runs home. She feels a strange connection to the hero wolf and doesn't want to leave him, so she heads back to the scene in her car to rescue him. He's lying on the ground near death, and she drags him to her car with the intentions of taking him to a vet. Suddenly she hears voices in her head--the wolf is communicating with her--and it's Caleb (her sexy cowboy) who's talking to her! Caleb's a wolf? He directs her to his ranch while a pack of hungry wolves chase them. It's a harrowing trip and they barely make it.

While at the ranch, Allie discovers that Caleb is a shapeshifting vampire, and has lived on the ranch with his vampire brothers for 250 years. He was turned into a vampire in 1860 (here's where I could have used a lot more details), so it now must be the year 2110? Turns out Caleb also has the hots for Allie, but has been trying to resist her. He doesn't want to 'turn' her, but neither can deny the attraction to each other. So 'turn' her he does. And then they have some awesome sex (or was it that they had some awesome sex and then he turns her?). Anyway, Allie's now a vamp with her own set of problems and worries that comes with it: the excruciating pain that comes with her need to feed, the mental telepathy tricks, the fact that Caleb's brothers get turned on when she needs to feed, and the fact that she needs to know more about this whole vampire lifestyle (I did too). And even though Caleb refers to his 'Allie girl' as his 'wife', is it just lust that he feels for her or is it love? Way too many details were left out--I wanted to know what the brothers were doing for the past 250 years, I wanted to know what they did before they were vamps, I wanted to know why they had no dealings with others vampires, I wanted to know about what special abilities they had as vamps--other than a few little facts about Caleb and the brothers we don't get anything. How do they live? Do they eat or do they just need blood? Who do they feed from? What do they do all day? They have a running feud with the pack of weres who were after Allie and Caleb (the D'Nallys) that apparently the author is going to get into later in the series--it has something to do with Caleb's brother Jared, but that's all we're told.

I also needed to know more about Allie. Aside from knowing that she's feisty, stubborn, impulsive, stubborn, owns a bakery and has six older brothers (I think?), stubborn, and has bangs that are constantly in her face...give me something more. Where did she come from, does she have any friends who are going to miss her when she disappears...what about her bakery? And how did she get all those clothes (jeans) that Caleb constantly rips open with his six inch talons--where did they come from? Did she go back to her house and pack a bag? Does she need to eat anymore or does she just survive on blood? If these little details that help flesh out a character and make me connect with them were in the book, I must have missed them while my mind was wandering. I really had a hard time focusing on the middle of this book when it seemed like everything ground to a halt and nothing was happening except Allie getting excruciating cramps when she needed to feed.

Finally, things picked up a bit when Allie (in all her curiousity) wanted to know if there were other vamps, and she proceeded to head out and find this 'Sanctuary' of vamps that Caleb reluctantly told her about. Caleb goes with her, all kind of evil happens there when they meet up with an old acquaintence of Allie's who has some grand plans for her and a future master race of vampires that he hopes to create. Big bloody fights ensue, with Caleb's former enemies providing some surprising help, but it looks like this fight between Caleb and his brothers and the bad vamps who want Allie and her special 'abilities' for their own will continue on throughout the series. They may have won one battle but they haven't won the war--yet.

I'm hoping that the sluggishness of this book is due to the fact that it's the first book of a new series, and has the burden of establishing the premise and introducing all the characters. I felt the same way about the first books of the Hell's Eight series and the Promises series--neither of those books were my favorites of the series. I'm hoping with the next book, about brother Jared, McCarty delivers a faster-paced, more detailed account and gives me a reason to connect and fall in love with the characters. This one, despite having a few outstanding moments, just didn't live up to its potential for me. I'll give the series another try--I'm not ready to give up on it just yet. 3 stars. ...more

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Oct 10, 2009 Kris H. rated it it was ok

Shelves: paranormal-romance, erotic-romance, vampires-werewolves-shifters-o-my

This was sooooooooo.....not good. Big disappointment. I can just see the publishers coming up with this concept. "Hmmm...weres are popular. Cowboys are popular. Vampires are popular. Let's mush them altogether in a contemporary, paranormal romance. Brilliant!" Not. ...more

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Apr 25, 2011 Bianca rated it it was ok

Shelves: paranormal-romance, vampires

Pretty confusing book! I really had a hard time following the story. I kept thinking I skipped pages or something.

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Dec 27, 2009 Caty rated it did not like it

Couldn't get myself to finish it, wich really, REALLY should give you an idea of how bad this book is.
Vampire cowboys? oh, how i wanted to love them. But nope. Not at all.
Bad story, bad dialogues, and bad characters, i'm seriously wondering if there's anything to love about this one.
I only made it to page 180, but even that was kind of painfull. ...more

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