Pack Challenge (Magnus Pack, #1)

by Shelly Laurenston

• ISBN10: 1599982714
• ISBN13: 9781599982717
• Publish Date: 1 October 2006 (first published 1 November 2004)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Samhain Publishing Ltd
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 228
• Language: English

Reviews

[mitabird]

2.5 stars

I really struggled to finish this book. I didn't warm up to any of the characters. I thought Sara was harsh and a bit crass. I know she had a tough childhood, but my goodness, she needed a major attitude adjustment. Her friends were no better, IMO. Zach was OK, but I got tired of his "I don't want her, but I want her" musings. Everything in this book was just a little over the top for me. I have the next book in the TBR pile, but I'm not sure if I'm going to read it yet.

[thebookdisciple]

Pack Challenge is book one of the Magus Pack series by Shelly Laurenston. I read my first Laurenston book last year (Hot and Badgered) and fell in love. So, when I saw Pack Challenge was in the Audible Romance Package. I didn't love it as much as Hot and Badgered though....

Sarah's mom died when she was very young and her father was killed in an animal attack when she was a preteen. Sarah then has to live with her horribly unpleasant grandmother, who was keeping a very big secret! Sarah makes friends in the town, gets a job, and is just sort of surviving through life. Then, she meets Zack and his MC Club friends. But there is something...different.

Zack was grouchy and surly. He hates his pack's alpha female and is next in line to become alpha. However, he needs his mate in order to do so. When he meets Sarah, the sparks are there and he fears she is the one. He really doesn't want a mate or kids and he certainly doesn't want Sarah! But, you know how it goes with fated mates.

I didn't LOVE either character really. They were both a bit flat. Sarah was strange (and not in the cute quirky way) and Zack was static as a character. His stand offish nature didn't really work for me. I normally love a pouty man bear, but Zack didn't make me love him. The plot had a lot of potential-Sarah doesn't know what she is, the pack has to not only tell her but save her, and it all has to happen under the threat of attack. I think the potential wasn't fully realized though due to the static characters. I will admit I am interested enough in the side characters to keep reading though!

 

•   POV: 3rd


•   Tears: no


•   Trope: shifters, fated mates


•   Triggers: none


•   Series/Standalone: stand alone


•   Cliffhanger: no


•   HEA: yes

books by authors like Eve Langlais, Milly Taiden, Celia Kyle ...then you will probably like Pack Challenge!

 

Pack Challenge

 
See full review on The Book Disciple

[Linda]

This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews
Pack Challenge is fast paced, a bit mysterious and plenty hot and quite humorous at times.



Pack Challenge was my introduction to Laurenston's writing, and I definitely want more of her stories. I enjoyed her take on shapeshifters, and I really loved Sara from the beginning. Both her snarky relationship with her friends, and the way she interacted with the other characters made me laugh sometimes, and roll my eyes a little other times. The universe of these shifters was well done, and I am very curious as to what else will happen with the Magnus Pack in the future.

The chemistry between Sara and Zach was off the chart from the beginning of Pack Challenge, and it was especially funny to see Zack try to resist the siren call Sara unconsciously made for him... He really should know better, as he had been a shifter for a while - there is not way to resist fate for the wolves.

While I enjoyed most of what happened in Pack Challenge, there were also a few things I could have done without, especially the way Sara talked herself down by calling herself a slut and a whore... To me, a woman with a healthy sexual appetite is neither, and I think it would have made the story better if Sara had owned her attraction to Zach fully from the start.

The narrator did a good job, both with the male and female voices, and with the different accents, too. She brought the story to life, and I will keep an eye out for her in other stories in the future.



At this point, if they were any closer they'd be fucking.

For a girl raised as human, she was funny when she wanted to be.

"Sharks?" "What?" "They're the ultimate killing machines." "I can't have this conversation."

[Melanie]

3.5 stars.

I enjoyed this story, but I was expecting more humor, along the lines of Ms. Laurenston's Pride series. This story has bikers, werewolves and lion shifters, what's not to love?