Lifemate Connections: Eryn [Paperback]

Having read Keri Arthur's 'Riley Jensen' series, I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately I was very disappointed. This is a very slim novel, probably a longer short story or a novella at 145 pages of text. There is no character development. We are introduced to Eryn as a shapeshifter, co-opted to find a killer. Apart from finding out she is a beagle shifter and yodels at the high point of good sex, she remains a cardboard figure, as does 'Grey' the love interest. Even more unfortunately, the plot can be summed up in a sentence - Eryn uses her abilities to locate a killer and finds her perfect mate.

Given the undeveloped writing, the wooden characters, and the similarities in storyline, I find it hard to believe that this is a new novel by Keri Arthur, and wondered if this was something written early in her career and now published to cash in on her growing popularity.

My advise to would be readers is to borrow this one from your library.

To stop the population boom, world governments limited families to one child, but in several generations of a population decline man outnumbered women ten to one and society changed. Promiscuity was encouraged and places like Lifemate Connections were built to give women a safe place to have sex and meet men who could possibly be mates. This is definitely needed as the population is still in trouble. However, the safe haven of Lifemate Connections is shattered when five women who went there died..

The police are using beagle shifter Eryn James as bait because her blood nose will identify the killer. They buy her admittance to the club where she meets Grey another shifter and the two are immediately attracted to one another. They have mind blowing sex and a connection is formed between them. Even though he is on the police's radar as a possible suspect, she knows he didn't kill those five women just like she knows he is lying to her about something else. Grey wants her to stop but she is determined to find the killer or die trying.

The concept of this story is fantastic; a world where women are in such short supply that they have quality lives. Morality changes dramatically when humanity fears extinction as the need to increase the population comes into play. This is a hot erotic paranormal romance with well defined and believable characters. Keri Arthur writes a marvelous urban fantasy in which the villain is someone nobody could imagine ever existed in a world of otherworldly.

Harriet Klausner

An alternate universe is ripe for one-night stands until love strikes in Keri Arthur's novella.

NOTE: There are multiple typing errors in this 145-page book. Admittedly it's a small publisher, but there are so many mistakes - and even a slightly different name is used once - that it really becomes annoying.

Put simply, it's a paranormal erotic romance with a mystery. Women outnumber men ten to one, though this isn't explained. However, there is a one-child policy, but I'm not sure if that's the reason. Long-term relationships are frowned upon, yet bars are set up for fertile women looking for a life mate. Both women and men are screened for fertility and diseases first. LifeMate Connections is kind of like a brothel, but without prostitutes. In the bar, you can meet people, and if things are going well you can root upstairs (though some don't wait that long). Since there's a lot of unprotected nookie, I'd imagine abortion rates would be high, yet the A-word is never mentioned. Do you only become pregnant when you want to be? Why isn't this explained?

Eryn James is a medical secretary by day who the police have asked to become bait. Five women who've been to LifeMate have been murdered; Eryn looks similar and she's a shifter - though I'm not sure if it was explained how she met the police and how they know she's a shifter. But Eryn's not just a shifter - she's a beagle shifter. Okay, that's something new, and it causes for perhaps unintentional hilarity:

"'Tough. I'm not a screamer.' Though she had been known to yodel on occasion. It was an unfortunate side effect of being a beagle shifter."

The only beagle I know is Brian Griffin, and I don't remember him ever yodelling, so this was news to me. Seemingly it can happen during climax - who knew? The man who might be able to make Eryn yodel is Grey Stockard, who could well be the murderer. Not that this stops Eryn from shagging him - after all, she figures he'll answer her questions while he's vulnerable. But do you really think that someone with great physical control during teh secks won't spill his secrets? Hmm...

The problems I have with this novella are obvious, but the mystery itself is actually quite interesting. The author brings in some originality that saved a story that otherwise wouldn't have worked for me. To say more would be spoiling. Is it worth the high cover price? Not for a novella, dude - try to find a discount somewhere, and then you're talking...

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