Beast Behaving Badly by Shelly Laurenston

SLaurenston- Beast-Behaving-Badly

SLaurenston- Beast-Behaving-BadlyIn the mood for some hilarious, shape shifter romance?  Well I have a book/series for you, my friend!  This book is #5 in a series, but it’s a stand alone, so we’re all good.  It’s called Beast Behaving Badly by Shelly Laurenston.  It will have you laughing, awing and punching the air with excitement.

Ten years after Blayne Thorpe first encountered Bo Novikov, she still can’t get the smooth-talking shifter out of her head. Now he’s shadowing her in New York-all seven-plus feet of him-determined to protect her from stalkers who want to use her in shifter dogfights. Even if he has to drag her off to an isolated Maine town where the only neighbors are other bears almost as crazy as he is…

Let sleeping dogs lie. Bo knows it’s good advice, but he can’t leave Blayne be. Blame it on her sweet sexiness — or his hunch that there’s more to this little wolfdog than meets the eye. Blayne has depths he hasn’t yet begun to fathom — much as he’d like to. She may insist Bo’s nothing but a pain in her delectable behind, but polar bears have patience in spades. Soon she’ll realize how good they can be together. And when she does, animal instinct tells him it’ll be worth the wait

One thing about Laurenston that I LOVE is that she takes her characters and makes them real, in the sense that she bases their personalities on what kind of animal they are.  For instance, Blayne is a wolfdog, a hybrid.  Imagine a puppy, which has random moments of bursts of energy, like those moments when they just lick you to death with affection.  She’s the sweetest little bundle of fur you’ve ever ran across, trying to befriend everyone and thing she sees and goes out of her way to make everyone happy.  But she can turn on a dime, becoming fierce to protect herself or someone she deems hers.  And when she turns those big puppy dog eyes on you, you are so totally lost.  That’s Blayne, to a T.  Even when she was in human form, I didn’t forget she was a dog and I was giggling at her constantly.  Even when she was forgetting things because she got distracted and leaving messes in her wake,  there wasn’t a part of her personality that I didn’t like, because it all fit with how dogs can be.

The same goes for Bo, who is part polar bear, part lion.  His personality is very animalistic, extremely precise, very dangerous, quiet and predictable for the most part.  I didn’t forget who/what he was at any point but I did get annoyed with the big guy at times.  Too anal for my taste, but that’s how those animals work, or at least that’s how I think they work, LOL.  I’m not saying he was boring and bland, he’s not by any means. It’s just that, next to Blayne, he’s dull, as is anyone to be honest.

These two are at the opposite ends of the spectrum so for me, I’m confused about them being together.  Not that I don’t think it could work, just confused as to how it could work.  He’s very anal, very detail oriented and lives his life by a rigid schedule that is planned down to the minute.  You can’t be early or late, you are exactly on time or he loses what little patient he has.  Blayne isn’t organized, she’s spacey, she’s messy, she’s spontaneous, and she gets distracted easily by the weirdest things.  I would think the two of them together, would be a catastrophe waiting to happen.  BUT, they are cute together, he becomes very tender and loving and she calms down just enough to know what’s going on around her.  It’s the extreme of opposites attract in Beast Behaving Badly.

As far as the story itself goes, there could have been more danger.  I didn’t find there to be enough angst over her being kidnapped, it was more of an afterthought for me.  I like it when you see the bad guy a few times, he knocks you around a little before the big show down, because it amps me up for the fight.  You don’t have that in Beast Behaving Badly, so I was never afraid of the bad guy or thought he/they could pull off his plan.  Other than that, I enjoyed everything about the storyline.  The writing was at a great pace and there was enough going on to keep my interest from start to finish.

Beast Behaving Badly was a refreshing read with its humor and distinctive, vibrant characters.  While it wasn’t a heart tugging romance, it was touching nonetheless.  I highly recommend giving this book/series a try.

Read order:

The Mane Event
The Beast in Him
The Mane Attraction
The Mane Squeeze
Beast Behaving Badly
Big Bad Beast
Bear Meets Girl
Wolf With Benefits

About Nikki R 120 Articles
SAHM of 2, happily married bookworm, blogger and aspiring author. If I could read/write all day, every day, I would. Luckily I have a very understanding, and patient, husband who lets me get away with it as much as possible. Now if only the kids would understand my obsession, and the house would clean itself, then I'd be all set.