Beast Behaving Badly by Shelly LaurenstonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This has got to be one of the best books I've read in a LONG time! I LOVED this story!!!
o Novikov--part polar bear, part lion, pure alpha male--can't leave Blayne Thorpe alone. He's 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 other neighbors are bears almost as crazy as he is.
I'm going to try quoting here - because let me tell you, These guys had me LOL-ing so much, I even laughed in public while I was waiting for my kids! oh wow!
Jen's ReviewOK this book - We have Blayne and Bo Novikov - And wow! Ok I'm reading these books out of order, but - yeah =
OK Bo Novikov is the star of the Carnivores Hockey Team - he's kind of a .. one person player - when he's on the ice - it's HIS puck, and no one better take it away from him, because he will do WHATEVER it takes to get it back - And he's not very nice about it. Luckily these guys are all shifters and can handle this kind of abuse - but wow.
And another thing- Bo has OCD - if he has something down on his schedule, it's going to get done when it's suppose to get done. not a minute later, not a minute sooner - and that's the way he's lived his whole life.
Ok So Blayne - she's so sweet, funny and really really ditzy! And most of all, she's ALWAYS late! Part of it is because she wears her broken watch all the time.. why? Because it looks cute. Which TOTALLY drives Bo crazy!
But when the book starts off, it's like 10 years earlier- Blayne was at the hockey game, and when Novikov's eyes met hers from the ice, she was afraid. His cold eyes just bored into hers. He has a reputation for attacking fans who get too close, but Blayne didn't do anything wrong. She couldn't figure out why this Polar Bear/Lion Hybrid was targeting her! And she was very scared!!!!
Slowly, not to startle him, she got up and walked down the isle. He followed her on the ice. when she got to the exit, she half expected him to chase after her, but he didn't. and whew - she got away...
So here it is now, 10 years later, and she's back at the rink watching the game, and his eye catches her. He stares at her.. she freaks out, but she's older now, stronger now, and not going to run away.. She'd done her research on serial killers, not that she had proof he was one, but a girl could never be too careful
Finally after who knows how long, he glided back from her, gave her one last hard look, and skated back to his team.
After the game, Blayne headed to the bathroom to catch her breath. When suddenly the hinges of the door ripped off and in walks Novikov. "Now we can talk."
She was staring at him with fear in her eyes. She wanted out of the bathroom. "You'll never take me alive! I'll never let you get me to a secondary location!" She screamed.
Bo shrugged. "Okay."
With a horrified gasp, she stepped back "You're gonna kill me here?"
Should he be entertained by this? Why was he entertained? "I actually wasn't planning on killing you at all"
Her eyes narrowed. "You’re not going to kiss me, skin me, and wear my head as a hat?"
Yep, He was entertained. And no. It wasn't normal.
Ok so instead he asks her to coffee, and as she walks out of the bathroom, she says "God no" - But it wasn't until the wolfdog suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway and spun around to face him one more time that Bo realized he could never assume that the words coming out of her mouth and what she actually meant were one and the same when she admitted "Because I hate coffee!" She laughed" I realized I hadn't actually finished my thought. I do that sometimes. Sorry. Anyways, hate the taste of coffee and caffeine is so not this wolfdog's friend> She gave him a smile so bright that it nearly seared his eyes.
Ok so next we have Blayne talking with her best friend Gwyne. Ok now Gwen lets it slip that Blayne sucks at Roller Derby, where they play in the same stadium as the hockey team does. Blayne just couldn't believe that she was all that bad, but when Gwen tells her that she's not suppose to say "Sorry" when she knocks a girl down, or be polite when plowing into someone.
So Blayne doesn't know how to be mean.. but she knows someone who does.
She has no choice but to blame Bo for everyone thinking she doesn't play well. "What did I do?" Bo asked.
"You're an a$$hole!"
"You don't even know me."
"On the ice. You're an a$$ on the ice and now everyone want to be a$$holes! That's expected now! - and because I'm not an a$$hole, I'm suffering! Your Fault!"
Yeah - she has things mixed up, but she actually believes what she thinks a lot of the time.
But most of all, I really love that they disagree on just about everything! And we get to hear it all from Bo's POV and hear what he's thinking about how crazy her logic sounds!
So, she traps Bo into helping her train with her Roller Derby and become less good, moral, loving Blayne, and more evil, and sadistic and what does he get out of it? She agreed to help him get a social life. HA!
That's the last thing Bo needed - he had schedules to keep, and helping her train wasn't on his schedule.
He agreed to ONE hour, but that was it. And he told her to be on time!
So when she showed up a half hour early the next morning, he got mad at her. Because 7:00 meant 7:00 - not 6:30, not 7:02 , but 7:00 - and so she waited for him.
They trained together and got to know each other. I cannot express how funny this book is though.
There is more to the story though. Someone is kidnapping Hybrid shifters and using them in Pits for fights, like they did for those Pit bull fights. And someone found out that Blayne's name had been sold, so they put a tracker on her to keep her safe.
So when Bo and Blayne were heading out to dinner one night after practice, and someone shot Bo with a dart and dragged Blayne out the door - things pick up pretty quickly.
But I have to say the best part about this book, not just because of how funny it is, but it's when Bo shifted . Now in his human form he's a 7 foot 1 almost 400 lb Gorgeous guy that never smiles, which makes him more scary then gorgeous.
But when he shifts, he's a hybrid breed. Half lion, and half polar bear. So when they describe what he looks like when he shifts - I fell in love with him in a whole new way :)
Gotta read this book! You'll love it!
