Miss Congeniality by Shelly Laurenston:

Professor Irene Conridge is a pure genius and sometimes geniuses invent a thing that they shouldn’t invent and that gets them into trouble. Ms. Conridge is attempting to get rid of something that she shouldn’t have invented, but she runs into a pack of hyenas and then a pack of wolves come upon the scene and when she thinks that things can’t get any worse he comes along. Niles Van Holtz has always been fascinated and turned on by Irene. When he leads the pack in rescuing her from the hyenas, and takes her to his home to recuperate, he gets to know the woman for the first time and discovers that he truly likes her. However, the hyenas don’t trust her and think that she should be killed and nothing that he says can change their minds. In order to placate them he marks her so that she is one of them. He doesn’t believe in the fact that by marking a person they are yours and no others and he doesn’t think that the markings will change his lifestyle or hers. However, marking her may change his life more than he ever knew.

Shelly Laurenston has never failed to amaze me with a book and she does the same with this one. She is the only author that can have you burning with need in one sentence and have you laughing yourself silly with the next one. The fact that she does this with a shifter surprises me and I must say that she is the author that turned me into reading about shapeshifters. I loved Miss Congeniality because the heroine is so different from most romance characters. Most people think she’s a shrew but for some reason the hero wants her so bad that he can’t see straight. The fact that he stuck with pursing her makes the book sexy as sin as well as hilarious, you’ll have to decide if you want to jump your partner or grab a box of tissues to wipe up the tears that will be rolling down your face as you enjoy the book.

Wicked Ways by Cynthia Eden:

From the moment that Miranda Shaw delivered cookies to his new neighbor’s doorstep, Cain Lawson has wanted her. He knew that as a shifter he needed to take his time and give her time to get to know him before he revealed himself to her. However, when he finds her with a vampire, he thinks that maybe he should have went for it with her in the beginning. Then he discovers that she doesn’t know that the guy is a vampire. They find out that the guy has been killing women for a while now and when Miranda met him online he thought that she was the perfect target. They have to find a way of stopping him from going after women and along the way if Cain ends up revealing himself to Miranda, so much the better. If he can get her to accept all of him they just might have a life together. Providing they can kill the vampire before he decides to go after Miranda again.

This is the first book that I have read by Cynthia Eden but I was very impressed with it. She caught my attention with the very first words and she never let it wonder. The suspense was thrilling because you never knew what would happen next and the build up to the sexual encounters between the hero and the heroine was almost as dramatic as the suspense. The fact that she made the bad guy a vampire and the good guy a shifter added to the story. No matter how good a shifter is, a vampire is almost impossible to kill and the way that this story unfolds will hold your attention until the very end. I’ll be looking to more books by Ms. Eden because she has moved into my favorite author category with this book.

Reviewed by: Missy