Jaxson

The Wolf and His Witch!

This is my second book by Alisa Woods, and l'm really enjoying her world building skills. I've listen too quite a few shifter stories over the years, but this is my first wolf shifter who mates a witch, it was a surprising good plot with interesting characters.

Olivia stumbles upon Jaxson when she saves him from being attacked in his wolf form. What she didn't realize, Jaxson had his attackers just right where he wanted them, but he can't fault Olivia for trying to do the right thing. He's investigating why shifters are disappearing. There's an immediate attraction, and pull between them. When Jaxson learns she is looking for a job, he hires her to be his secretary, and to help him find a mate between several eligible shifter candidates. Being the alpha, he is expected to take a mate. His wolf pushes him to mate Olivia; however, he is really just trying to delay mating, and an excuse to spend more time around Olivia. He is keeping a dangerous secret which is the real reason he doesn't want to take a mate.

Jaxson isn't the only one with a dangerous secret. When Olivia was younger, and just coming into her witch powers, something horrible happened, and now she is ate up with guilt. When she learns the truth about Jaxson, and why he doesn't want to take a mate, she puts a plan in motion to free Jaxson from the curse, so he can finally mate. She really comes to care for Jaxson, and is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Dougles and Delisha both did a great job on the narration.

I won a free copy of this audio from the author, and enjoyed it. I liked how this plot uses magic, and it kinda reminded me of the Mercy Thompson world, just not as long, or descriptive, and with dual POV's. For being on the shorter side, it was good, well developed, and really peaked my interest and wanting to listen to the other character's stories.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

3.5 "Spell Defying Love" Story/4.5 Narration Stars

Any additional comments?

3.5 "Spell Defying Love" Stars for the story and 4.5 Stars for the narration.

Reminiscent of a fairy tale like UF/PNR tale, Jaxon is an interesting, quick (just under 6 hours) tale. The debut of the River Pack Wolves Series appears to be laying down the framework for a band of shifter brothers who each have their own secret reasons for being unable to take on a mate and thus assume the alpha role for the pack, even as each book in the series tells the journey of how one brother finds his love match.

The underlying UF/PNR plot in Jaxson is fairly standard (shifters and witches that generally conform to many of the basic UF/PNR conventions we have become accustomed to in shifter/witch romances). In that regard, the witches are notorious for wanting to take on shifters as love slaves and thus feared and generally hated by the shifters--meanwhile a shifter's bite can be dangerous to a witch. Layered into this background relationship is a suspense conflict that evolves around an unknown threat against the shifters. Werewolves are slowly disappearing and the River Pack Wolves, who run a security firm, have been engaged to try and solve the threat.

Jaxson is presumed to be the only River Pack brother that can take on a mate and therefore is the current presiding alpha of the River Pack Wolves. Jaxson, however, is hiding a secret that he believes gives him at most one year to fulfill the political objectives he has for the pack since he can never mate.

It is with this backdrop in place that Jaxson meets Olivia Lilyfield, a woman he believes to be human, but who is hiding her own deep dark secrets. Jaxson doesn't understand why he has such a strong magnetic reaction to Olivia, but though he hires her under the guise of being his mate matchmaker (the person who is supposed to find Jaxson his mate), he can't help but feel the strongest attraction for Olivia. An attraction that Olivia feels just as keenly. But can there possibly be a HEA in the future for Jaxson and Olivia when secrets loom in the midst and danger lurks around the corner?

Enhancing the overall effect of the story is the well performed narration by Dougles Berger and Delisha Forest. Mr. Berger performs the chapters from Jaxson's perspective and Ms. Berger the ones from Olivia's. This style generally works well for this story giving the listener a clear differentiation between the POV being shared.

Mr. Berger and Ms. Forest are also generally adept at producing differentiated voices for each character, although Mr. Berger provides less differentiation among his characters, but nonetheless I had no trouble distinguishing the speaker in the dialogue scenes. Additionally, both narrators do a good job of acting out the mood of each scene.

Jaxson generally held my attention. Perhaps my only observation is that the romance between the hero and heroine had a bit of a love at first sight form of attraction to it. Given the natural animosity between wolves and witches--not to mention Jaxson's need to find a mate to remain as the alpha leader for his pack--I would have expected a little more conflict prior to the resolution on this point. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the fairy tale quality of the underlying UF/PNR suspense plot which held my attention throughout the entire listen.

Source: Review copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

To much romance

I love a good romance as much as the next girl but I also want a good story. It’s like 2 minutes in they are hot and heavy for each other. The tension between them seems forced. Not enough world building and character progression for my taste. To much romance and not much else.

Entertaining Book Over all a really good book

Overall a good book, keeps you interested and entwined in the story from the beginning until the end, narrators could have been a lot better though, they do not match the characters at all but you will enjoy the story

Hot Jaxson

Jaxson is my kind of wolf! I enjoyed the flow of the story and loved that the woman became the heroine!!! Easy light read. Takes you into the paranormal world lightly.

Good narration, overall good story

I find a lot of romance novels to be heavy on the cheesy narration, but this one was not. The plot line itself was good, though it did feel a bit rushed. I didn't expect an epic novel at 5 or so hours in length, but there were a couple of big leaps that could have been smoother, but overall it was a good book to read and one I would recommend.

Good

It was a good over all read. Good characters and a new twist on a shifter series. Looking forward to the continuing the series.

Nice quick listen

This was a nice first book to the series, you quickly fall in love with both characters and are intrigued to see how they find their HEA.

Need More!

This is an odd review, because when I say I need more, I mean it in two senses. First, in that I enjoyed a lot of things about this book and am compelled to continue reading the series. I particularly enjoyed this take on shifters, with them out to the general public. I found the mating bond, as presented in this book, to be sexy and intriguing. I liked Jaxon a lot, and thought the curse laid upon him was a great story problem.

But I also mean "need more" in the sense that Olivia's character arc was poorly presented, and ultimately its resolution was rushed and unconvincing. She went from traumatized half-witch who killed her parents on accident to welcome member of a coven in a blink. It wasn't earned in the slightest, and was a serious plot/character issue with an otherwise engaging book.

My hops is that this is an early book, maybe a bit rough around the edges. It does seem to be the first, although the first of so many in a few short years that my head is spinning with the thought of anyone writing them all! There was definitely enough worthy aspects to this book that I'll give her several more chances.

Great Book

I wish there were more love scenes in it though. I think the book was lacking a little bit of steam