When Lila moves into town she expects to meet the neighbors eventually but she doesn’t expect to hit a wolf with her nonbulance, find a bear cub, or have a strange man come into her house. And yet all of that happens a fun shifter mystery. ARC from NetGalley.

Lila, a human or Stable, just unknowingly moved into a neighborhood of shifters. Something that starts becoming clear when she helps an injured bear cub that turns into a 10 year old girl....

Oz is a former accountant for the Interspecies Placement Agency, he’s on his first case since deciding to become a caseworker. He’s chasing down an orphaned cub who happens to be the very cub Lila found....

Sally, the bear cub, doesn’t believe her parents are dead but was convinced to eventually let IPA take her in for awhile. The adults are 100% certain that her parents are in fact dead. But a strange phone call seems to contradict that and sends Sally running again.

Oz is trying to prove himself and get the situation under control but he can’t help but to think there is something he is missing in the case of Sally and her dead/missing parents. The fact that he keeps getting distracted by and can’t stay away from Lila is a desperate issue. Doesn’t help that he has a meddling overprotective sister barely convinced he can in fact do his job and a meddling family.

Oz comes with a sad dark past and Lila comes with a past too and the fact that this Stable knows things she shouldn’t has everyone on edge. And then there’s Sally. What is really going on? Are her parents alive? Is something bigger and more dangerous happening? Can they protect her from others as well as herself?

And the biggest question of all can Oz and Lila overcome everything between them to get their own happy ending? And is Kama-Rupa real? Because it certainly seems like it...

I do so adore Mama Mac’s menagerie of family... Annette and Oz are always hilarious together and I loved getting to see Dev and Caro and everyone else again. I must say that Lila is one interesting character. I enjoyed this book it was another humor filled crazy story to add to the series.

One thing I find odd in the series though is how oblivious they all seem to be that obviously some Stables have to know about them which is part of how they are able to stay hidden. It was was baffling from the first time in the previous book when David introduced them to his friend at the hospital... really how else could they build a secret hospital onto an existing hospital without some regular folks knowing stuff? Seems like their fear has made everybody painfully naive in a weird way. I just find it odd I get why they would fear Stables but a lot of their thinking makes no sense.

I’m just saying though if the next book was to be about Nadia that would be very interesting... also terrifying...

Lila Kai has finally moved into her first house (renting, not buying... maybe one day). And she just hit a ..wolf(?) with her not-an-ambulance. And now there are more animal/people on the road. And one in her new house. Exactly what has she moved into....and is it too late to get her deposit back?

Oz is the wolf Lila hit. He works for children's services and he's trying to find a missing cub, er kid. He tracks her to Lila's house. And now he wants to stay there forever and ever and ever. 'Cause Lila is his. Except she's a Stable (human), and he's a shifter. No way she could be his...mate?

OMGoodnes!! I loved this book so hard. There's lots of snark and witty banter and funny lines and (too many) curse words and just plain fun! I don't like comparing authors because I think it's kind of rude but...if you enjoy Shelly Laurenston's style of snark and humor, I think you'll enjoy this book.

Funny Line:
“You’ve brought me piles of… confetti? Thanks. I was out of confetti.”
“Fairy bread!”
“I’m sorry?”
“That’s what it is.”

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias or favor.

Heat Factor: Barely there (though there is some closed door hanky panky just before the end)
Character Chemistry: “I’m weirdly driven to procreate with you” + antagonism in the mode of grumpy/sunshine
Plot: Non-shifter accidentally rescues child werebear and gets roped into all the were-CPS crime-solving shenanigans
Overall: If you like your books with a healthy dose of absurdity, this checks the box

This book, like its predecessor, runs maybe into smut-adjacent territory. Though at least now we have answered the question of whether or not the story of Annette and David continues: it does not. The protagonists of this story are Annette’s foster brother, Oz, and the Stable (non-shifter) who moves into the neighborhood, Lila. Annette and David do make appearances, though, fear not. There is a romance thread running throughout, as Oz and Lila are both confusedly horny over each other the whole time, and they reveal themselves to each other more so than to anyone else. And Davidson does pull in some closed door sex right at the end, but I would say that the emotional development of the romantic thread is secondary to the adventure plot.

While Oz, like Annette, works at the Shifter version of CPS, most of this book occurs in the neighborhood where their foster mom lives. Lila moves into the Curs(ed) House down the street and, because she inadvertently rescued a werebear cub the night she moved in, she is immediately entangled in all of the chaos surrounding that cub, for whom Oz is the caseworker, and the extended foster family.

I personally like the “What even is this!?” moment(s) to occur as close to the first page as possible because that just allows me to let go and be there for the whole ride, and this book fits the bill. The laugh-out-loud moments didn’t carry through so much as the drama rolled on (the beginning was delightful though), but the absurdity and playfulness absolutely carried through.

Oz is the sunshine to Lila’s grumpy, which I found very entertaining:
“We’ve never had a normal conversation,” he said, and it was kind of cool how he made that sound like a desirable outcome. “Not once.”

Though if snark isn’t your jam (Lila is very prickly to protect her soft inner core), this might not work for you. Also, though the book isn’t riddled with the stream of consciousness style like the first book in the series (there are fewer scenes from the animal POV) (but you can feel the dogishness coming through his wolf there, right?), the...disjointed?...writing style is still a hallmark of this author:

She was just getting the hang of the ambulance when she hit the wolf.
The thing was bulky and difficult to control (the ambulance, not the wolf), and whenever she got it back from its semiannual mechanically induced coma, it took her a few minutes to get the hang of driving it again.
She stood on the brakes
(oh shit oh shit oh shit)
and braced for the double-thump of the tires running over the animal, which didn’t come.

So. To summarize. This is a comedy, even though it deals with conspiracies and crimes surrounding the werecub and her (not?)dead parents. Be prepared for absurdity and snark and crime drama over deep emotional development and angst, though a lot of the outright bananas and laughs are frontloaded. I will say that the drama surrounding the Shifter Supremacist plot was several confusing threads to hold on to, so I guess it’s possible that a more careful reader (a la the people who found a Starbucks cup in that episode of Game of Thrones) would pick up on whether or not it all makes perfect sense, but because I was in the middle of absurd land I just shrugged and moved on.

And I was entertained.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

The complete review is also available at The Smut Report.

✦Review: A WOLF AFTER MY OWN HEART by MaryJanice Davidson https://wp.me/p3d0RZ-bIO
Publication Date: February 23, 2021
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Reviewed by: Reading in Pajamas/ Donna
Rated 3.5 Stars

It is a fun, energetic shifter story, full of interesting characters. I just had trouble with the jerky writing style. (It’s not for everyone.) The sarcastic humor seemed stilted and not always necessary. To me, you don’t need to make a snarky comment every time someone moves. For that reason, I couldn’t believe Oz’s attraction to Lila beyond maybe some kind of a fated kind thing. Oz himself was a likeable nerd without moving into the “hot/sexy nerd” mode. He was the straight man to her sarcastic whit, I guess. I never felt true chemistry between them, and I really wanted to.

I did like the storyline, secondary characters, and the children. They rounded the story out nicely and added depth to it all. It was a fun quick read, just not my perfect cup of tea.

*Review copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

~*~*~*~

Kindle $4.99 https://amzn.to/2NH2Ts5

If you like shifters and MC's with a lot of sarcasm then this one just might be for you. This is the second book in the series, I did not read the first one so I can't tell you if it was better/worse but it is an entertaining read if you don't mind a different writing style.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC to read for a an honest review.

I'm sorry I could not finish this book. The writing style made it to hard to follow. I normally love shifter books but just couldn't finish this one.

A Wolf After My Own Heart by MaryJanice Davidson (BeWere My Heart #2) 3.5 stars

A sequel to last years "Bears Behaving Badly", we meet Lila Kai, driving a decommissioned ambulance and clipping a wolf on her way home. Some kids near the road rope Lila into taking care of a bear cub. After calling animal control and getting confusing answers, she watches the bear cub turn into a little girl. A knock on the door brings Oz Ardway, accountant transitioning to social work/wolf-shifter who works for Interspecies Placement Agency. Oz is looking fro Sally, the bear cub who ran away from IPA custody. This is Lila's introduction to the world of Shifters. Her introduction will be rocky and action packed, but nothing seems to phase her. Together, she and Oz will solve a mystery leftover from "Bears Behaving Badly" and keep Sally safe.

This is a book with fast paced dialogue and a lot of characters from the previous book written in Davidson's signature style; the quips and sarcastic dialogue permeate the whole book. The book was a fun read, buy I liked "Bears Behaving Badly" better. I thought Oz was upstaged by Lila and the other foster kids. I hope this series continues because I would love a story about Nadia.

Thank you Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca for this ARC.

Can her night get any stranger? If you’d asked Lila that earlier, she would have said that knocking over a wolf was strange enough, but now she’s caring for a bear cub!!

Oz has one job to do, easy, except being almost knocked down by what looked like an ambulance wasn’t how he wanted to start his evening off!! He’s usually behind a desk (an accountant) but he’s got his chance to go out in the field and prove himself (I did wonder if he was up to the task!)

The evening just keeps getting stranger and stranger! Phoning the IPA,(Interspecies Placement Agency) Lila is just about to leave a message when Lila comes face to face with a young girl who changes from the bear cub she found! Hanging up the call, Lila immediately consoles the young girl (I found that strange she didn’t freak out!!)

Meeting Lila knocks Oz for six! His wolf is very taken with her, the man seems pretty interesting too, but he’s not here to date, he’s here to take the cub back to the agency and help locate her family.
He’s intrigued and delighted that she gets one over on him (several times) but he’s here to do a job, if only she wouldn’t keep running from him.....

This is the second book that I’ve read of MaryJanice’s, and it’s the second in the Bewere my Heart Series, I don’t think you‘ll miss too much if you don’t read book one (we have plenty of background in here)

I love the author’s sarcasm, the inner dialogue that the main characters have will make you either roll your eyes, or Laugh out
Loud (I’m a laugh out loud fan)
Footnotes are handy, but not always needed.
It’s got the chemistry, it’s got a mystery to solve, and it’s got a wolf that just wants to claim the human!
Sally is cute and will steal your heart, mama Mac is funny and a matchmaker (although she can be a little irritating at times)

Can Oz and Lila protect Sally? Is there a bigger picture to this? And can Oz convince Lila that they belong together?

And now I can’t wait to see if there is a book three!

🦋

I really wanted to like and read all of this novel, but I strongly disliked the writing style. So much so that I had to DNF it. It bothered me that almost every paragraph had a parenthesis with some sort of inner thought, it just bothered me.

Fun book.
MJD pretty much always writes an entertaining story.
I do think the first book in this series was better.
I find the author’s random asides humorous....probably because I have a lot of.....squirrel.....moments myself.

Will her past hold her back ...

This is my first read by the author, and one thing is sure, she has her very own writing style and humor.
I need to find my pace to fully enter it, but once in, it is a much enjoyable read with the romance in the background.
As the second in a series, I suppose Oz’s past was more explained in his shelter sister’s story. So I had to piece together the intel distilled along the pages.
Lila is a Stable from a shifter’s perspective, an human. Still she does not react like any other human. She does not scream nor run away when faced with changelings or crossing path with big wolves. Her view of life and way of attending to it is peculiar as her job as a teddy bear surgeon. Such a beautiful job, bringing back a smile and dreams on a child’s face.
She has her own demons and tragic history, from which she learned to stand for herself and never let other to step on her way.
Oz is so sweet and fun, he knows from the beginning who Lila is for him, yet she is not easy to seduce, so determined to keep people at arms length. Yet with his kindness and many mistakes, he crumbles block by block the walls she has built around herself.
I loved the cute cubs and their attics, Oz’s adopted family and colleagues, they spiced this book with their banters and quips.
Add to it the fun footnotes.
You have hours loaded of puns and snarky teasing and lookout for cubnapping.
4 stars

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 talk of sex and making cub but everything is set behind closed doors.

DNF. Reading this book was like being in the mind of a schizophrenic It was disorienting and fragmented.

My first book in this series, won't be my last. I love the 4th wall breaking feel in the writing and the snarky humor. Great story, full of edge of your seat drama, especially at the end. Can't wait to read more.

Featured on Book+Main Blog in the B+M Loves Recommendation Reviews - link attached

The zany and crazy starts off really fast in this novel. An ambulance that isn’t an ambulance, wolves where there shouldn’t be, crazy pizza delivery guys that really aren’t, kids that aren’t exactly kids, a house that is rumored to be cursed and a heroine just trying to put down roots and have a normal life. She has no idea what she’s in for.

One very unusual, but charming and eccentric detail is how the inner wolf-speak is so different than an adult’s articulated speech. It’s almost childlike, you know, innocent, simple, repetitive and very, very enthusiastic. The author used that technique to good effect whenever the hero was in his furry form.

Another cute aspect of the novel is the building community. Lila meets the main characters of her neighborhood at warp speed, from trespassing, to bear repair, fairy bread and repairs of doors busted of their hinges. Odd hours, odd conversations and Oz loving the fact that Lila is not only capable, but seemingly unflappable, calm and has a gun and not afraid to us it. The teenagers find her cool, little Sally trusts Lila and the adults slowly do the same. I like Lila’s personality, and Oz’s reaction to her is charming and cute. True, he can be formidable, he is a werewolf after all, but when it comes to the heroine, he’s a handsome, well-dressed lovable marshmallow.

Speaking of Sally; she’s a pivotal secondary character that is integral to the plot, mystery and pace of the story. I enjoyed how I was introduced to her, how she won the hearts of all the other characters and how helping her, helped solve a much bigger and serious plot thread.

I startled my hubby so bad when I barked out a huge HA! at the part with the shorty robe. Then I snickered. Those two sentences in that scene totally tickled my funny bone. So, yes, there is a smorgasbord of reasons to smile during this novel, so even though the fires, drama and a bit of suspense is to be taken seriously, the author managed to keep the overall feeling of the novel, upbeat.

There are truly too many points, fun parts, interesting character interactions, dialogue and surprises to do justice in explaining how much I enjoyed the story. There were a few language choices that I personally cringed at, but take them out of the picture, and A Wolf After My Own Heart is a perfect MaryJanice Davidson read. I enjoyed the first book in the series, but I like this one a lot better.

It’s been a while since I have read anything by author MaryJanice Davidson. When I came across A Wolf After My Own Heart, I thought sure why not. The blurb was promising me shifters, romance and humor so of course I am going to give it a twirl. Good thing to because this one kept me very entertained.

I jumped into this series without reading the first book and honestly, I don’t think it impacted me at all. It’s only now I realize Annette and David had their own story. So, let that be a hint to you, the books can be read as stand-alones. But I digress. This story belongs to Lila and Oz. There were moments while reading that I loss sight of the fact this was also a romance. While there are romantic moments (I want a big empty movie theater!) the overall theme was not of romance. Instead it felt more along the lines of a story with a mystery to be solved with a lot of levity injected into it.

Let’s discuss the levity and characters. Lila is a hoot and very patient with everything that gets dumped in her lap. Everything being all the shifters she probably should not know exist. It all starts with her rescuing a stray bear cub. Who does that??? Never mind, obviously Lila does. Which brings all her neighbors to her doorstep. Ones that are not quite human and not the normal shifters I am used to. Wolves and bears, okay. But now there is a kangaroo and Tasmanian devil? What what? Those exist?? They’re all loveable and full of quirks that kept me on my toes trying to keep them with who they belong to. At this point, I knew I was in for a crazy ride.

Crazy and chaotic is how I felt for the better part of the book. The pace is fast and at times I felt discombobulated with all the characters. Don’t get me wrong, I loved them all. It was at times I felt a little overwhelmed in how many they were to take in. I’m sure Lila had her moments as well. Annnd speaking of Lila, her and Oz. There was definitely an instant attraction between them, but it takes a while to make its appearance. Really it felt like it took a backseat to all the chaos that was swirling around them. By the time we finally get to the big Whodunit reveal, I was just resigned to a go with the flow by this point. Was it anyone I would have guessed? No, only because I complete forgot this character existed.

There ya go folks. A Wolf After My Own Heart, the second book in BeWere My Heart by MaryJanice Davidson, is a chaotic ride that, has some romance but overall is simply entertainingly funny and certainly worth reading.

Stars: 3.75

I received this book from Netgalley. I was not compensated for the book other than the entertainment it provided. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have been an avid fan of author MJD ever since I read my first book of hers! I realize that her snarky humor and style of writing may not be for everyone but that is exactly why she is a favorite for me. I just loved both Oz and Lila in this book! He is an accountant who also happens to be one very hot wolf shifter and she is a seemingly unflappable human who becomes exposed to the crazy world of numerous different types of shifters and is able to take it all in stride. The characters we meet are all complex, multi-layered individuals, even the adolescents have so many facets to their personalities. The dialogue is sharp and witty and the underlying mystery has a number of twists and turns to it that it was not all that easy to figure out or to even determine who was a friend and who was foe until well into the latter part of the book. It was a lot of fun to read and I look forward to more books featuring all of the characters in this particular shifter world in the future!

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book supplied to me by the publisher through NetGalley.

A Wolf After My Own Heart is the second book in BeWere My Heart urban fantasy series by MaryJanice Davidson. I haven’t read the first book, but it didn’t matter at all, as this one had a unique plot and plenty of references to the previous book and characters.

The book is set in a small town outside St. Paul, Minnesota, and the world is mostly like ours, but populated with various weres ranging from wolves and bears to kangaroos and Tasmanian devils. They go under human radar, but with their own social organisations like child services and fire brigades.

Lila, a human—or Stable, though she doesn’t know that word yet—has just moved into a huge old house in a quiet neighbourhood. Her very first night, she runs over a wolf and finds an injured bear cub. The first disappears before she has a chance to do anything, but the cub she takes home. Only for it to shift into a little girl. This plunges her into a strange new world of weres, including Oz, the sexy social worker werewolf who’s supposed to look after the bear cub now that her parents are dead.

There’s instant attraction between Lila and Oz, but it doesn’t really go anywhere fast. For all that this is advertised as a sexy romance, anything romantic is pretty much in a backburner, and sexy things happen behind closed doors and only at the very end. This is more of a paranormal mystery, where the characters are trying to find out what happened to the cub’s parents and who is trying to kill her. The mystery unfolds in a fairly haphazard way, with everything happening in the last chapters of the book. The ending is satisfying, but not exactly a happily ever after kind of affair.

I liked the book, but I had some issues. The two point of view characters, Lila and Oz, had similar inner monologues that made them seem like ADDs off their meds; a stream of consciousness with many tangents that were supposed to be quirky and funny, but were only exhausting. It was difficult to tell them apart at times and more annoyingly, the inner monologues were in contrast with their actions. Oz was an accountant turned social worker, reliable but yearning for some action, and Lila was a survival who was prepared for everything life could throw at her. I haven’t read other books from Davidson, but I suspect this is her writing style that trumps the characters’ own voices. This stretched to other characters too, who only communicated with snarky, often really mean comments, which made them fairly unlikeable.

I’m also not a fan of a writing style where a scene starts in the middle, with nothing to indicate who is talking, where, when and why, with the POV character explaining the scene later. It made the narrative very clunky, and required a lot of backtracking. There were also footnotes from the author that constantly yanked me off the narrative and the world. Towards the end, a new point of view character was added to explain the plot, which confused the matters further. If it hadn’t been for the really sweet child characters and some funny moments, this would have been a three star book. But there was something compelling about the setting and the mystery, if not the romance, which left me happy with the book in the end, so it gets four stars.

When I saw that this book was by MaryJanice Davidson, an author I used to SCREEEAAAAM and fangirl about, I rushed to read it. I have fond memories of her Undead series (and even named a car Betsy after vampire queen Betsy!).

To say that I was disappointed with this book is a huge understatement.

I'm not sure what changed. Was her writing always this... messy? Was the story just not done well? Was I way too hyped up with high expectations? Has it been so long since I last read her books that it just all seems weird and jumbled for me?

Whatever the reason, this book just did not hit me like I expected to. The characters were annoying and whiny, the plot could have been executed better (I think certain parts had potential), and the writing was just!! so!! messy!! Couldn't get invested and after sludging through half the book, I had to DNF it. So disappointed but life is too short to force myself through a book that I'm not enjoying.


Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Once in a while, a book comes along that’s weirdly funny, drenched in sarcasm, and hella crazy and, it somehow works!

Moving to a new town can be hard, do you know what's even harder- running over an animal with your decommissioned ambulance, seeing a bearcub turn into a little girl, and getting thrown into a murder mystery/social worker case.

As if this wasn't tough enough for teddy bear surgeon Lila (yes this is an actual profession), she also has to deal with her nosey neighbors who she's afraid will eat her, a bear cub who won't go away, and the mystery surrounding her Curs(ed) house.

Oz Adway has just landed his dream job as a paranormal social worker, and he really wants to make a good first impression. Too bad his first case ran away from him, refuses to believe she's orphaned and keeps giving him the slip by hiding out in Lila's house.

Oz believes Lila could be his love at first sight, if only she would stop pointing her gun at him long enough for him to take her out on a date. This was pure comedy through and through as we follow a murder mystery with a twist, love/lust at first sight, typical small-town meddling, and a sinister plot for shapeshifter world domination.

Things you need to know before reading:
1) MaryJanice Davidson has a very distinctly unique writing style that takes some adjusting as a new reader. Fans of MaryJanice will know her as the queen of dark humor! No one does cynicism or insanely relatable yet highly entertaining inner monologues quite like her.

2) She speaks in italics a LOT, and there are footnotes everywhere. Her characters are blunt with no filter

3) Readers need to recognize that this book may not be for them and, that's totally fine. While some readers will find the dry wit and sarcasm hilarious, others may find it difficult (you can't please everyone).

I love that with any MaryJanice novel, there is a guarantee of unique yet lovable characters and a plotline so intensely captivating that you can kiss sleep goodbye!

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this book.

This review will be published on my blog- Jessica Reads It from 19th February 2021 (https://jessicareadsit.wordpress.com) and will also be posted to my Instagram (JessicaReadsIt) on 23rd (to celebrate the Pub Day).