Ellora’s Cave, $5.95, ISBN 1-84360-863-4
Fantasy Erotica, 2004

We are back in Shiloh Walker’s The Hunters territory. Jonathan and Lori is a more meaty story than the last two books, with signs of an actual story here and there, so I’m back to being confused again. Shiloh Walker can be such a sneaky author that way.

Jonathan, our werewolf Hunter hero, is taking care of the enclave while his master Eli is away. He would love to do all kinds of graphic kinky acts on our healer heroine, Lori, for a long time now but alas, he feels that she is (and I quote) “too damned innocent for the likes of him and his damned soul”. I hope his bed mates don’t catch on that he clearly thinks of them as not-so-innocent for his almighty alpha male mojo. In this story, a series of mysterious attacks are taking place on the werewolves in the enclave and Jonathan is the latest victim. Lori naturally does her woo-woo thing to heal our hero. You know what the woo-woo thing eventually leads to, I’m sure.

There is more plot in this story than the last two books, which is a good thing except for the emergence of a cast of hastily and even clumsily introduced blatant sequel baits getting together with Jonathan, Eli, and Malachi to bring on the drama. The sex scenes aren’t too silly and they actually take place within a proper context in the story. Which is to say, the author isn’t trying too hard to get her characters to have sex all the time and the sex scenes make sense given the context in which they take place. No scenes of the heroine accidentally stumbling onto the hero having sex with a flailing floozy and getting so aroused that she diddles herself on the spot right in front of them or other ridiculous cartoon elements of that kind.

I’m not saying that Jonathan and Lori is that good. The story line isn’t the most coherent at places. It’s not very interesting either as there are more clichés here than anything else. But still, I like that Jonathan and Lori have a semblance of a personality in this story with Lori occasionally showing some spine instead of being a completely meek and happy human pincushion for Jonathan.

Under ordinary circumstances, this is an average story. But compared to the previous two installments in this series, this one is pure gold in comparison. At least we are getting somewhere, I suppose.