Cross by Elle Thorne – Book Review

Barely after dark series (Mating Fever) Book 1

Pages: 108
Genre: Shifters Romance, Paranormal Romance, Romantic Fantasy
Buy it: Amazon

Synopsis

(From Goodreads)

More of Mae Forester’s nephews! Grizzly bear shifters steam up the pages in these swoon-worthy paranormal romances. From trespassers with hidden agendas to curvaceous women who are ready to take a chance, the stories in this collection will capture your heart.

Cross del Cruz is a former Compliance Enforcer with the Shifter Council. He did his duty. He enforced the Council’s will around the country and even out of the country. Stress the word former, because all he wants now is to be left alone. He’s been living in his cabin on Bear Canyon Mountain Range, overlooking Bear Canyon Valley and enjoying the solitude of the forest. The quiet. The simplicity. The drama free environment that doesn’t involve other shifters. Not even family.
Except now Mae Forester, who has dubbed him as one of her “nephews” has decided she needs his help. He can’t turn Mae down, not when she gave him and his brothers a home during the worst days of their lives.
He didn’t expect Ariadne Fueller. Who could ever expect that curvy spitfire. She flipped his world upside down.
Before meeting her, Cross never would have called his existence lonely—until he met her.

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Rating

2/5

My Thoughts

There were a few grammar errors and spelling mistakes. Usually I don’t mention them, but it was a little too many to ignore. Elle’s writing style was easy to read and had a narrative with detailed explanations. I became committed to the story quickly due to Ariadne that was running away from something and we didn’t know what it was at first. The mystery was good. I, however, did not stay committed to it due to the content a little further on in the book.

The storyline started off good and was shrouded in mystery but then it all ran out very quickly. It felt like the story beats came crashing together and left me saying, ‘Wait…what? What just happened?’ And then it was all over after a very graphic sex scene. I was left feeling unsatisfied [excuse the reference].

I mistakenly didn’t notice the sub-heading above the authors name and saw the picture and then read the blurb. The story of people changing into bears peaked my interest as I like fantasy novels about werewolf’s and vampires. If I had read it, I would have seen that the theme was about ‘mating’ and that was basically what the book was about. I hadn’t checked the book reviews on Goodreads beforehand either, otherwise I would have seen that the author warns about the graphic sex scenes.

The story only kept me guessing in the beginning, the rest was quite straight forward. The world of shifters living in the mountains and towns around the mountains left a beautiful image in my head but that was it I’m afraid. The baby dear named Buck was cute but I didn’t get how it moved the story forward. It didn’t make sense because bears usually kill them and I didn’t see the point of that story beat besides him being shot because of Buck. It was quite cute though.

I did not relate to the protagonist, Ariadne because I knew nothing about her. I didn’t know her hope’s or dreams or what she wants in life, just that she was running away and in danger. She became someone’s mate that she doesn’t know from a bar of soap and that was it. No questions asked about what it would mean to her to became ‘couple-bonded’ or anything so I felt nothing towards her.

I didn’t particularly enjoy the dialogue because a lot of it was inner dialogue which got a little boring. The little that they did speak, I did understand. They hardly had any discussions before they were inexplicably attracted to each other and then proceeded to jump into bed together.

I enjoyed the shifter side of the characters, that was interesting. I thought Mae was an old lady due to her raising Cross and his brothers but towards the end of the book she seems to be a young brunette. I struggled to see the characters play out in my head the way they usually do when I read a book.

Things I should warn you about in this book is that firstly, there’s lots of swearing and using God’s name in vain. Also, this book is basically about sex. The sex scene was extremely graphic, so if you like that, then you will enjoy this book.

This is book 1 of a series called Barely After Dark and it’s sub-heading is Mating Fever. It’s called Cross which is the first main male character. The other two is Lance and Judge (Cross’s brothers). This first book was only 108 pages long. This story ends with Cross and Ariadne’s story and the next one will be other characters.

I got this box set through BookBub and it was free at the time that I got it. I have never not read the rest of a series that I got for free but I will not be reading the other two books in this series boxset as I like books that are about more than just the sex and that are a little less graphic.

Have you heard about this book? Would you like to read it?
What do you think about it?

That’s it from me for now…

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