Tami Lund, $2.99, ISBN 978-1005766924
Fantasy Romance, 2021
Tami Lund’s Anthony is the third entry in her Dark Moon Falls Wolf Shifters series, and if the author had wanted all along to demonstrate that werewolves do numbers one and two like the rest of us mere mortals, I have to say that she has succeeded very well.
Here, Anthony Remington is a single father, having sired a brat on his buddy’s then-girlfriend. It’s okay, he totally didn’t know back then that she was his friend’s gal, and besides, he and Ben are still bros, and bros before hos and all that.
Anyway, when the story opens, Tony faces the dramatic dilemma of needing to seek a babysitter for his brat.
“I need a babysitter who can keep up with him, who won’t be distracted by their phone. I can’t have someone who’s taking summer classes and thinks they can study while watching him. Because it won’t happen, trust me.”
Uh, he works from home. He says that he has a flexible schedule. So, why is it so hard for him to care for his brat again?
Fortunately, a woman will soon show up to take the pesky brat-raising duties off his hand so that he can spend more time drinking and whining to his bros at the bar.
That’s right, our witch heroine Luna Moran is going to be the perfect mommy and the answer to Tony’s unwanted brat problem. Am I allowed to say that?
She has visions, or the Sight, but she can’t control them because she’s only a mere woman and women are terrible when it comes to self-control. How else can the author make the heroine come off as weak and thus in need of a big strong man in her life, after all? She gets that and she puts out, so it’s a fair trade.
So, she shows up to tell our hero that she has visions of he and the brat are in grave danger. No, the danger is not stemming from parental neglect or anything like that. Don’t be silly, romance heroes are never wrong; they are perfect no matter what they say or do! The danger is… uh… hold on, let me check.
A man. A boy. Both blond. Walking along a trail, packs strapped to their backs, hiking boots on their feet. Woods all around. A stream. Strong current, cold, shallow. Perfect for trout fishing.
Luna watched them, as if she were on the trail behind them. She couldn’t see their faces, but she knew. She knew—
She gasped again and the world changed. She wasn’t in the woods anymore, she was standing on the sidewalk in front of Hot Joy Café, and a handsome, blond man had taken hold of her arm, staring at her face with his eyebrows low over his eyes, his mouth pinched.
Wait, what was that again? Seems to me that she is having a vision of terminal horny horns—for the father, not the boy of course—but I’m suppose I may be wrong. Maybe the trout is supposed to represent mutant killer piranhas that will fly out of the stream to chew on their noses?
Naturally, Tony thinks that her claims of the Sight and danger are all bonkers, although he’d like to bonk her, so Luna now has to trail after them to make sure that she can protect them to the best of her abilities, which isn’t much to be honest. The things a woman has to do to become an unpaid nanny for a hero, I tell you.
In the end, there is some grave danger in the form of someone kidnapping the brat. Since this is a shifter romance designed with the intention of selling all the hot guys to readers, the villain can’t be male, duh. There is only one nasty ho suspect in this story, and I’m sure most folks can already guess whom the villain is.
Oh, and mate-mate-mate, we can’t forget that. Why not? It’s easier and cheaper than actually trying to a find a nanny for the brat, plus Tony gets to bonk the nanny too. A man’s problems can’t work themselves out any better, without any effort on his part too!
Are we sure this one isn’t some male wish-fulfillment fantasy masquerading as a romantic story?
