ACCIDENTALLY WERE?

Review

ACCIDENTALLY WERE? - Anne Douglas

ISBN: 978-1-59632-575-3

November 2007

Erotic Paranormal Romance Single title

Rockville - Present day

When Pearl Gordon, affectionately nicknamed Miss Priss by her friends, finally decides to let her hair down and have some fun, the results aren’t pretty. Waking up to an empty bed, a string of love bites with actual teeth marks, and the local hounds singing a chorus, isn’t the usual way one wakes up from a one-night-stand. Well, Pearl assumes it isn’t anyway, and it isn’t as if she’s ever done such a crazy thing before. Hoping for answers, she consults her best friend Shaun, a fan of all things weird and wacky. Shaun directs Pearl to her neighbor, Rex Dixon, the local vet and, incidentally, a trained human doctor as well.

Rex Dixon, Were-bear and Alpha male, can’t believe the nerve of the little bitch he finds in his waiting room. Prissy attitude or not, Pearl ought to know better than to traipse through town while she’s in heat. Taking her to his cabin is for her own good, it has absolutely nothing to do with his bear side making it clear she’s his mate. Then it becomes clear that Pearl doesn’t even know she’s a Were, how’d he get so lucky as to end up with the task of informing Pearl about her new status in life?

And then comes their mating (hey, you knew that had to be coming, didn’t you?). Can a modern day Goldilocks bait a bear and come out the winner? All I can say is that this story makes for some very interesting bedtime reading.

Pearl is not dowdy, cold and aloof, she just seems that way because it takes her a while to get to know people and warm up to them. After all, she was raised by a mother who insisted on the very highest standards of behavior and decorum. But now all of those characteristics are falling by the wayside as Pearl finds herself with very dominant Were instincts that are demanding all sorts of things, like more time in bed with her mate, that males understand their places in life, and most of all, that Rex needs to acknowledge that she’s claimed him, not the other way around. There’ll be no more of this male posturing around this Miss Priss. Oh poor Rex, he so enjoyed his bachelor state. Okay, so that’s not entirely true, he just never thought he’d meet his perfect mate. But now that he has he’s going through all sorts of emotions, joy, lust, and of course, fear. After all, he and Pearl don’t really know each other, will she be willing to stay with him, raise some cubs, return his love? ‘Cause whether he is ready or not, Rex has to admit that he’s fallen hard for this sassy woman.

Anne Douglas has written a tale filled with interesting characters, including the secondary ones. There’s Pearl’s best friend, the Goth chick who is going to be head over heels when she finds out her belief in the paranormal is at least somewhat justified; the Grande Dame, an Elder in Rockville’s cross species pack, she can kick an Alpha’s butt from here to kingdom come and still maintain her ladylike composure; Rex’s best friend and the head of the pack, Rob. He gets just a little too much pleasure in seeing his friend brought low by a female. The there’s one of Pearl’s few childhood friends, Dave, the owner of the greasy spoon and Jacob, Rob’s younger cousin (he’s a bit of a drama queen, but he’s young, I’m sure he’ll get over it). And lest I forget Pearl’s family, her father, Judge Gordon, and her Aunt Lydia (not by blood, by love); both of them have some decided opinions when they discover Pearl and Rex are an item. Oh, and of course I must mention Vlad the Impaler (not the original, this one’s a dog) once a stray, he now lives with Pearl and he’s a very protective sort once he claims something, or someone, as his.

Spiced with plenty of hot sex, laugh out loud humor, and characters readers are bound to love, ACCIDENTALLY WERE? is a surefire hit. Don’t miss Anne Douglas’s latest, stop by Loose Id and get your copy today.

Lori Ann