Wild About You (Love at Stake, #13)

by Kerrelyn Sparks

This is the 13th book in the "successful Love at Stake" series, featuring a band of good vampires and shifters who find true love while fighting the Malcontents.

• ISBN10: 0062107712
• ISBN13: 9780062107718
• Publish Date: 27 November 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Avon Books
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.com.au/9780062107718

Reviews

[EBookObsessed]

In the Wanted: Undead or Alive, we last saw Howard chasing after werewolf packmaster of Alaska, Rhett Bleddyn, who disappeared with some vampire help. We find our why in Wild About You. Rhett Bleddyn like Howard is from Alaska. We learn right away that twenty years ago, on the night of the senior prom, Rhett was responsible for the death of Howard’s first love and during the ensuing fight it was believed that Howard killed Rhett. Howard was then banished from Alaska. Now Howard knows that Rhett didn’t die that night and Howard wants Rhett to pay for what he has done.

While Howard is away, Tino Draganesti lets out a secret to his mother which involves Howard’s dream girl. After a little snooping, Shanna learns that Howard’s dream girl is Elsa Bjornberg a/k/a Amazon Ellie from International Home Wreckers. Shanna has been unhappy about having to leave her White Plains home and move to the Dragon Nest Academy. So she decides to kill two birds with one stone and she invites Elsa and her team to renovate the carriage house on the grounds of the Academy.

When Howard returns from Alaska, he is not happy with Shanna’s meddling, but he won’t turn down the opportunity to get to know Elsa in person and see if she is the same person he has fallen for in his dreams.

Elsa has never felt dainty and feminine until she meets Hot, Hunky, Handsome Howard Barr. She realizes why Howard is so big when she sees him change into a grizzly bear. Howard will have his work cut out for him trying to convince Elsa that he is really a teddy bear at heart.

Elsa is very excited to work with Howard until she begins having dreams right after meeting Howard that are too like the stories that her aunts used to tell her about a family curse. What is worse is that soon Howard realizes that the curse sounds too much like the curse his grandfather tells stories about and both legends end the same—with the beast killing his lover.

Do they have to toss away the greatest love either has known? Neither want to believe that a curse can tear them apart, but should Elsa and Howard resist their feelings for Elsa’s safety or fight together against the dangers facing them?

THOUGHTS:

Kerrelyn Sparks works her magic again. This time for sweet and cuddly Howard Barr. Howard has been around since the first books, always in the background, always as someone the group can depend on and we start to see Howard emerge from the background in Sexiest Vampire Alive when Howard goes with Gregori and Abby on their mission.

I would have liked to see a little more romance between Elsa and Howard since she did spend a lot of time being afraid of the family curse and coming to terms with Howard being a were-bear. This mixed in with the side story of Rhett Bleddyn and Elsa coming to terms with her family issues, we had a lot of ground to cover in the 236 pages we were given and the romance was only squeezed in between all the happenings.

Received an ARC from abovethetreeline.com courtesy of the publisher.

See more at http://ebookobsessed.com

[Linda]

*I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange of an honest review*

Of course, this being one of my favorite series, and the main character being Howard the were-bear - I gave it 5 stars. Loved it!

This and other reviews can also be found on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews

Love at Stake is my favorite series, and Wild About You lived up to my expectations. The mystery that went on from Wanted Undead or Alive was well done, and I was a happy reader indeed.

Howard was actually missing at the beginning of the story, he was in Alaska, wreaking havoc in Brett’s life. Shanna was playing match-makers when she found out that Howard was secretly pining for TV star Elsa Bjornberg, and decided to try to get her home improvement show to refurbish her and Roman’s house close to the school.

We got the back story for Brett’s and Howard’s mutual hatred, and on top of that, we got Howard’s family story, with a myth to boot. Soon, the readers were privy to the fact that Elsa’s family had a family myth as well, closely linked to Howard’s…