Chase Me

by Tamara Hogan

[EBookObsessed]

In the World of the Underbelly Chronicles created by Tamara Hogan, she presents us with a world of supernaturals (vampires, werewolves, sirens, icubus, etc.) who are all decedents from a spaceship which crashed on our planet of a thousand years ago. They live under the radar of the human race and they are self-governed by their own governing counsel which consists of two representatives from each race.

Chase Me is book 2 of the series. While on her current dig, Valkyrie Second and anthropologist Lorin Schlessinger comes upon a strange box which might just be the key to understanding the supernaturals’ past. When things start to go array at the dig sight, Sebastiani Laboratories sends up werewolf and current head of Sebastiani Labs, Gabe Lupinsky, to supervise the dig and begin testing on the odd metal box. Tensions have always been high between Gabe and Lorin, so neither are all to excited to be stuck together at the secluded dig site. As is easy to guess in a romance novel, Gabe and Lorin’s tension are caused by their underlying attraction to each other and once they give in to that attraction, the pages certainly heat up.

Although Lorin, Gabe and Sebastiani Labs are trying to keep the discovery of this box a secret, the box starts giving off its own signal which is being tracked from space by other supernaturals, and they are quite interested in the vast natural resources to be found on our planet.

I thought the crashed spaceship aspect was a great new twist to a paranormal series and a gives a believable background to the existence of paranormals here on earth. Of course, you would also have to believe in aliens as well, but if you couldn’t, you wouldn’t be reading a paranormal romance to begin with.

What I also found very interesting in this series is that most paranormal stories start with the basic fact that all paranormals are far superior to humans with enhanced senses, speed, healing abilities, etc. This series indicates that although they mostly have greater strength and senses, they are also suffering from genetic defects. This seems to be most prevalent in the werewolf population which has been suffering the effects of inbreeding, since the Alphas insist on wolf-only matings. Many werewolves, Gabe’s family in particular, suffer from genetic weaknesses. Gabe is nearsighted and is suffering from macular degeneration to a point he does not turn into a wolf since he cannot see without his glasses. This also adds to the strain in the relationship between Gabe and Lorin since Gabe’s family is seen genetically inferior and Lorin’s position on the counsel makes her the equivalent to a Valkyrie Princess.

Whenever I try to pick up a book which isn’t book #1 of the series, I always feel a step behind everyone else. But we are given enough of a glimpse into the last storyline so that we can keep up with the many, many other characters who we are introduced to in this series, and more than enough that I feel I definitely want to go back and read book #1 since it sounds like I missed a really good story.

I won’t say this is a “stop what you are doing and pick up this book” story, but between the well written characters, very interesting back story, the genetic twist, and the several unanswered questions, I will be looking out for Book #3.

Received ARC from netgalley.com, courtesy of the publisher.

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