This was a new-to-me author I was lured to with the most enticing of recs, "If you like Shelly Laurenston's snarky shifter romances, you'll love this one." Sadly, this was a huge case of "It's me, not you" leaving me with a very rueful, reluctant DNF. I should have loved it. Sarcasm and shifters are a must-have combo for me, but the cutesy but disjointed writing style left me cold. Wait, no. It actually left me with a tremendous headache.

First, the switching between Oz and Lila's POVs was not fun. I don't have a problem with switching POVs or first person but man, the run-on internal monologuing not to mention the practically free versing of Oz's wolf thinking was so exhausting to parse. Think teen tiktoker meets e.e. cumming:

She was she was she was here! Here in this old house that smelled like dust and (lemons) something sharp, something would hurt his eyes and nose if he ate it and if she was here and he was here then she was safe but the other, the other (cub) girl, she was out in the world, out of his territory, but maybe maybe she would come to the house of dust and sharp smells and by now he'd prowled around twice and there weren't any predators (there's me)...

I like cute, I like funny, I love snarky. But the writing style was a bit too forced, too much showy, and just not enough tell. I usually try to do everything to avoid DNFing, especially an ARC, but life is too short. So I closed my kindle and wished Lila and Oz well in the world of wealthy werewolf accountants and lost shifter cubs and old rental houses.

I'm a little torn on this book. I liked Oz (he's adorably smitten) and Lila (who is surprising resilient and unflappable) and they make a good team with a nice mix of humor & heat. the secondary characters (including the kids) add without overpowering the story. there is lots happening from start to finish that it sometimes feels a little like a crazy frenzy is happening on the pages. Alas for me, the writing style, which helps create that crazy frenzy feel, was part of the issue. it isn't a style that will work for everyone, it took me about 1/3 of the book or so before it stopped feeling distracting to me. there was also some minor continuity issues that caused me to double back in the reading to confirm. all told, I'd recommend this story to someone looking for a fast paced fun story with interesting characters with a slight bend toward sarcasm but with a caution in regards to the writing style.

Don't make the mistake I did and start this book the night before beginning a new job because you will not sleep. I loved this book so much. It was laugh out loud funny and the characters were amazing. There was not a single one who was one-dimensional. The story was engaged and I didn't want it to end. I can't wait for the next book.

A Wolf After My Own Heart is a funny, outrageous, paranormal romance full of action. Lila Kai is a teddy bear doctor that drives a decommissioned ambulance and is looking to start over in a new town. Quickly Lila finds herself out of her comfort zone and in the thick of runaway shifter cubs and the shifter equivalent of social services. Oz Adway, former accountant, is in the midst of his first case as a social worker with his cub charge who keeps running away and hiding out in a stable's house. Cool and collected under pressure, Lila helps Oz face down the bad guys and help a little girl. Fate demands the couple together no matter how much they pull away. The story is sweet, sexy, and fun for an entertaining read and a series that will always keep you coming back for more.

4.5 Stars

I loved this book even more than the first one in this series. I suggest that you start with the first one if you are interested in this book, just to get you up to speed with the series. However, it is not absolutely necessary since this book has plenty of back-stories.

This book is filled with the author's marvelous and wacky tropes that long-time readers have come to know and love.

Oddly there wasn't a lot of 'steam' in this novel (some, but it wasn't the main focus), just humor and action.

If I have any complaints at all, it would be that I cannot wait until the next book comes out! Please, MaryJanice, write faster!!!

*ARC supplied by the publisher, the author, and NetGalley.

Lila's pretty normal life - if you can called a woman who sets booby traps in her house and works as a teddy bear surgeon normal - falls apart when she moves to a cursed house next door to shapeshifters. Suddenly Lila's taking care of orphaned shapeshifter children and trying to figure out what's happening with Oz and to make matter's worse, someone keeps setting things on fire.

In true MJ Davidson style, this book is a fun and funny romp with manic shapeshifters, a quirky heroine, adorable children and snarky teenagers. It was an enjoyable read, though I now need to hunt down the first book in the series, since there were parts I didn't follow well since I hadn't read it.

3.5 stars

Lila unknowingly moves into a cursed house in a shifter neighbourhood, where she ends up with a bear cub in her house, and meets Oz, an ex-accountant, now social worker, who is trying to find Sally, the bear shifter. From here, all sorts of things happen, and we slowly discover what Lila has been through, as she opens up to the people around her.

I enjoyed the different characters in this book, and actually loved Lila and all her sassy remarks. That was the best part of this book, for me, and gave me some laughs. However, the story itself I found to be a little confusing at times. I'm not sure if reading the first book may have helped? My own fault, as I didn't realise this was book two in the series.

A Wolf After My Own Heart by MaryJanice Davidson was an advanced reader copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This was my second book that I have read of Davidson's, the first was about a mermaid and I loved it. I loved this one too. Lila Kai is a fierce and sarcastically awesome Stable who gets thrown into the deep end of Shifter drama. In so doing she meets some great Shifters, Oz, Annette, Mama Mac and the cubs. I loved Davidson's humor, sarcasm and style of writing. This book had me in stitches and wanting more.

This author usually entertains so many with her writing but I struggled with this book. I think it's because it's not much of a romance because honestly there is zero chemistry or progression between Lila and Oz. Lila is a human who doesn't realise that she's just moved into a shifter neighbourhood. Oz is the Were who bumps into her when chasing down a runaway bear cub. Their interaction from the offset just felt to me stilted and just plain odd. Now that could be because Lila isn't exactly the most normal female around but it takes a while to really get to understand her background and motivation. Speaking of background Oz too didn't make sense as he's rich, an accountant and now apparently a social worker ! Numerous supporting characters join the story but for me too many times the writing felt jumpy for want of a better description.
There is an interesting storyline here but if I'm blunt I've read about shifters who are crazy, weird and often violent before particularly I'm thinking of Shelly Laurenston who also writes about hunting and kidnapping shifters but her recent books have much more of an impact than this. I'm truly sorry that I cannot rate this higher and probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't previously read the aforementioned author.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

Another enjoyable MJD book. If you love her banter and wit between the heroes and heroines you'll enjoy this one. Featuring a temporary orphan cub, at times pushy hero and heroine who just isn't having it. This was a nice change of pace from other titles I've read recently and is an escape from all the world things.

I came into this series late, feel like I should have read the previous books first. Did enjoy this one, the paranormal is not one of my favorite choices. This story had a lot going for it, the story line is interesting and the characters are a double whammy, liked them all with their quirky twists. Grab this one. It is a fun read.

Lila, a human is in a romance with Oz, a shifter. This is classic MaryJanice Davidson! Packed with humor and romance, this book has me wishing the next in the series was already released.
This is a great get comfy and read all afternoon book. The reader will laugh out loud with Davidson's writing about these two characters.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Excellent, loved this better than book #1 for some reason. Classic MaryJanice humour all throughout. Looking forward to more in the series.

There's so much going on in this book. I am a fan of the author's so, I was not surprised to find the characters so multi-dimensional. Shifter social workers are a new twist but intriguing, to say the least. The growing romance will have readers cheering. The affection between foster parents and foster siblings is lovely. I enjoyed how a mortal got swept up in the paranormal world and accepted things so easily. There's always humor with this author, which adds greatly to the appeal.

A quick read full of paranormal fun and suspense featuring a human, Lila, as she moves into a cursed house, starts a romance with a shifter, Oz, and calmly accepts a host of other interesting paranormal residents. Lila's sense of humor caused me to laugh out loud while reading at times and the suspense, arson, and murder plot kept me guessing. One of my favorite things were the hilarious footnotes. Recommended.

Lila and Oz In A Wolf After My Own Heart by Mary Janice Davidson.
Another hilarious paranormal offering from Mary Janice Davidson. My experience is that this will cater mostly to my millennial audiences/patrons. And those patrons can’t wait to devour her next books. This installment follows were animal Oz and a new love interest Lila, a human or Stable, because she can’t shift. Together they must find a placement for a young were bear whose parents may or may not have died in a plane crash. The story turns a quest to foil a violent inter-species war, as these things do. Asides and witty wordplay abound. I would recommend this to my patrons.

MaryJanice Davidson's writing is one of the reasons why I love vampires so much. Shaped by Tokimeki Tonight first and captured by Buffy the Vampire Slayer next, a quick google search was all it took me to find her amazingly funny Undead series. The world was a dark place back then, one where Amazon didn't deliver American books on my front door, so I used to buy her novels on eBay, pay ridiculously high shipping fees, and then wait for a good month before being able to read them.

It was my very own pilgrimage, a vampire-friendly version of the Way of St. James. Waiting was excruciatingly painful, but it did my impatient self good. And her books were good too, in that lighthearted, funny way a 20 years old girl would love. They made me want to read more about vamps, and that curiosity gave me the chance to discover masterpieces such as The Hollows --I know, I'm obsessed and I mention it in every review. It is great, read it--.

So, let's fast-forward to 16 years later. Imagine my happiness when I spotted her new novel on NetGalley. I kept all my fingers crossed in hope they'd give me the chance to read the ARC, and I felt blessed enough when they did (hence this spontaneous review). As soon as I got the notification, I downloaded the book and began reading, but after the first couple of pages I could already see that I was off to a rocky start.

Here are my thoughts. Be warned, they contain spoilers.

The truth is that, despite how much I wanted to love this book, I didn't like it. Since the main characters go through a lot throughout the story, I expected some growth from them, and yet they were unchanged, with the sole exception of being in love. And yes, we could argue that Lila spent her life moving from one place to another and this time decides to stay, but that's exactly what she wanted to do in the first place: she had already chosen to settle and even talked (offstage) to her landlord about buying the house. Same for Oz's arc: when we meet him he is on his first case as an IPA agent --basically social workers for shifter kids, also known as cubs-- and that's exactly where his story ends. Sure, Oz is handsome, super nice and rich, but he is also boring. Nobody is perfect, so where are the flaws that make him, and these characters in general, relatable for the reader? Where are all the emotions?

Yes, I know this is a paranormal romance story. I know the genre is what it is, and let's be honest, we love it anyway. I tend to look for these kinds of stories when I'm in need of something light, cheesy and generally heartwarming. And it is also true that all the great romance stories have a lot of conflict in them, which makes them automatically interesting. There's something incredibly attractive to characters experiencing conflict, am I right?

I started this book having already figured out Oz --like the werewolf from Buffy! I keep finding Buffy references lately-- was going to be Lila's romantic interest, and I expected a lot of drama given the fact that she, a human, just moved in in a neighborhood completely populated by shifters. Or that he'd been assigned his first cub to protect. Or the fact that when he broke into her house to find the aforementioned cub she pushed him down the stairs, locked him in her basement and then left for a whole day without even calling the police.

Drama, you say? A human would have been seriously injured, and yet Lila, who doesn't suspect he is a shifter, just doesn't care. At this point, instead of hating her guts, Oz is madly in love with her, and he asks her out for lunch in order for his sister to search her house. This might have caused a massive feud, but what we see is just a little bit of conflict that leads to nowhere. Every attempt at being apart is only shown as a passing thought, because they love each other and that's the way it is. Possibly because they're both lonely, or perhaps because they are soulmates according to a shifter myth.

Some things are easy to believe, and others, like this one, require a lot of effort, because they are counterintuitive. I've never bought into the soulmates trope, but I'm ok with reading about it if the characters don't just accept it. As I said, this is not the case, and as a consequence I didn't find Oz and Lila's relationship steamy at all. It felt like they didn't even know why they liked each other, which is incredibly sad.

Another issue I had is how the POVs were handled. We have both Lila and Oz as narrators, but toward the end of the story another (secondary) character becomes a narrator in order to give the readers some background information on a battle that took place ten years before. Was it really necessary? Honestly I'm not really sure. I'm generally okay with multiPOV stories (ASOIAF anyone?), as long as they are balanced: every character, every chapter, needs to move the story forward. Backstories? I'd rather have the main characters discover what happened on their own instead of having a not-so-relevant character explain it. In this specific case, I feel it took the focus away from a story that would have worked perfectly if only the narration had been less fragmented. The plot was interesting, and I'm sure it would have made a really fun and compelling read because all the right elements were there.

If only.

Since we are talking about fragmentation, I need to point out that <strong>the formatting</strong> of this book made it really hard for me to read it --it took me five days to finish it. Five! Go ask Tissie how much it bugged me that I had to constantly stop and reread!--.

Quite often, perfectly linear sentences were interrupted midway through only to
(why are you doing this to me?)
start a new line
(why why why why?)
to include thoughts. Lots of thoughts. Often puntuactionless thoughts.

I found it annoying. Most importantly, I noticed it broke the flow of the story. I kept getting confused and distracted, and I had to go back a few sentences and reread to find the strength to move forward. Such a pity, if you ask me: the parts where this weird formatting doesn't occur are super easy to read and very engaging. While this narrative expedient is often used in fan fictions, I just can't deal with the lack of proper formatting. Call me old all you want, but proper formatting and punctuation exist to make reading easier, not harder. I get the need to express feelings, I love feelings, but I feel it could have been done in a less obtrusive way.

All these elements ruined my book experience, and it is incredibly sad. I wanted to love Lila, to ship her and Oz. I wanted to feel concerned for Sally, or scared for her future, but it never happened. I'm what I'd call an emotional reader. I need to jump into a story and run toward the end, letting every scene, every plot twist, every feeling hit me in the gut. Sadly, when I have to start, stop, then start again, then pause and so on, it is incredibly difficult for me to empathize with the characters, and all these points are exactly the reasons why I feel this book would have benefitted of a little more polishing.

In conclusion, I really wish I had liked this book more and I feel crushed I didn't. I was hoping for a quick and fun read; instead I almost felt like when I was five and I'd discovered Santa wasn't real. It could have been a solid 7, but as it is I don't think I can rate this book more than 5/10. I hope I'll like the next one MaryJanice Davidson writes more.

Lila just wants to move into the new place but she has to deal with a wolf she hit with her car, a young bear cub that she finds and a stranger who shows up at her door late at night looking for Sandy Small a missing child. Oz works for the Interspecies Placement Agency and his search for a missing cub leads him to Lila's door. Their is something different about Lila and it's not just her being human.

Fun story with really interesting characters through out the book. It was fun to read a story unsure of the outcome and the surprises that came up. Though I received the story free for my honest review of it I would purchase this book and will for my library.

Lila has had a rough life but this tough cookie is in for a rude surprise after her decommissioned ambulance hits something. When she gets out to investigate she finds an injured bear cub, so she does what any sane person does, she picks the cub up and brings her home until animal control can come. Oz is a former accountant and newly appointed IPA case manager on the case of a newly orphaned bear cub when he meets his destiny, although Lila has no idea that they’re meant to be together. Quickly we find out that there’s more than meets the eye with this “Stable” aka human, and unfolds an interesting adventure. This story is a hilarious paranormal romance with a blend of drama, intrigue and romance. Lila is a strong female lead and Oz is lovable. The supporting characters, especially the children are also endearing and full of mischief. This is book two in the series and although you do not have to read the first one because the author so kindly provided enough background details, I highly recommend the first one. 4.5 stars. I received an arc copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher for my honest review.

Orphans running amok, shifters everywhere, and a teddy bear doctor just moved into town. The story follows Lila Kai who has just moved into town when she hits a wolf with her car and stumbles upon a cub turned into crying girl. She immediately goes out of her way to help the girl. Then we have Oz, a “accountant” of sorts who is a wolf shifter and is responsible for rescuing and being part of the “social services” for shifter orphans. He gets hit by Lila Kai’s car and is immediately drawn to her. Thus begins the story about orphan shifter shenanigans and two people helping these kids and a bunch of other things.