Jorrie Spencer: The Strength Of The Pack

The Strength Of The Pack by Jorrie Spencer
From: Samhain

“You’re right. Not all your lovers are married, Seth. I’m not married. The divorce came through a year ago and I left Derek a year before that.”

He froze. Dammit. She was available. Strangled elation twisted inside him, potent and useless. He had to discard any hope of something long-term. It was dangerous. Nobody wanted a feral human, especially the mother of a normal child. Because he could never have children, a family, a normal life.
She was in his house. Broken rule number two. He looked back at her.

Her palm was pressed against her forehead, though her gaze didn’t leave him. As if observing him would help her, though his surface would reveal nothing right now.
“I can’t believe you’re disturbed by this news, Seth.”
He shrugged, aiming for nonchalance.
Her brown eyes turned liquid with fury. “What the hell was this about?”

He let his own anger form. “What do you think?” he asked, voice rough. He pushed on, ignoring the hurt his words caused. He had to do this right though he could feel a muscle jump in his cheek. “You might have mentioned this little fact about your divorce earlier.”

Her stunned, pale face cut him and he gritted his teeth so they wouldn’t chatter with emotion.
“You didn’t ask,” she said, confused. “I didn’t realize you wanted me to be married. I thought you were interested in someone single. Like I was.” She drew in a long, shaky breath. “I’ve been lonely, see, though that’s stupid to admit.”

She lived in Atlanta, not here. Distance was important. She thought she understood his alarm but she didn’t. His sister had revealed herself to a normal lover who’d felt disgusted and betrayed. Who had betrayed in turn. Who knew what Jamie’s reaction to his real self would be? “When are you going back to Atlanta?” he managed.

“You’re scared I’ll be around to beg you for another invitation. Don’t worry about that.” She spun on her bare foot and headed back to the den, almost running into the doorframe.

He followed, observed two spots of color on her cheeks and wished he could ease her wounded pride, her sadness. She shoved her legs into her jeans and wiped a tear from her eye.
“Jamie, look.”
“Shut up. I’m not going back to Atlanta. I live here now.”
Wariness overrode his guilt. Again. “You lied to me.”
Her jaw dropped. “I did not.”
“You said you were living in Atlanta.”

She shook her head. “It upsets you that I live here? God, Seth, you sure do keep to yourself.” That concern flickered in her eyes, made his gut churn. She was too good and this conversation was going from bad to worse. “I didn’t tell you I’d moved back because I didn’t want to go into how Derek has no time for his son and my parents do. It seemed like too much information, too soon. My mistake, though not my biggest one, I think.”

“That was a lie of omission,” he insisted.
“Don’t make me out to be the bad guy, Seth. If I’d any idea this information was critical, I wouldn’t have avoided it.”
“And I wouldn’t have…” He jammed a hand into his hair, at a loss. Explaining they wouldn’t have made love if he’d known she was available was not going to help. “Why would you go to a bar on your own? Not with a friend, at least?” he asked in exasperation. He’d thought she’d wanted to keep her infidelity secret.

“I’m having trouble connecting up with old friends,” she replied woodenly. “The two I keep in touch with no longer live here.”
He didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry” seemed inadequate.
“I’ve heard of people like you.”
“People like who?” he demanded, instantly alert. She couldn’t know he was a werewolf but her contempt made him nervous.
“Players.”
“Players?” He practically stuttered on the quaint word. Relief. “I’ve never thought of myself as a player. I’m good to my lovers when they don’t lie to me.”
“I didn’t lie. Stop twisting this.”
“I need people to be upfront with me.”
“Yeah, like you were with me.”

If you only knew. He shut his eyes. “Look, Jamie, stop playing the angel here. Or the prude. You were on the prowl.”
“Not really.” Her mouth played at the corner. Regret. “I wanted to pretend that I could be wild.”
“You wanted good sex. You got it. You should be satisfied.”
To his horror, her eyes filled with tears. He crossed to her. “I didn’t mean that. You’ve knocked me for a loop.”
She batted his hands away. “Seth. I doubt you understand what single motherhood is like. I needed to get out of the house. I don’t know how to pick up men in bars!”
“You managed fine. Stop talking like casual sex is an anathema to you. We enjoyed it.”

“It wasn’t casual for me.”
He couldn’t argue. Women, as he bloody well knew, didn’t wear sports bras when they wanted to go home with someone from a bar. He spread his hands before him. “Tonight is all I can offer you. I’m sorry.”

She was picking up her purse now, grabbing her jacket. He wanted to rewind the scene so they could get back to the sex, the cuddling, the kissing. Of course, he’d made sure to destroy any chance of that. He had to. His sweat smelled of fear and self-loathing. He wondered if she subconsciously picked up his emotions because she was staring at him in consternation and bafflement.
He broke eye contact and pulled on his pants.

“Call me a taxi,” she ordered. “Now. I need to get out of here.”

OK, You are a taxi!

Let’s start from the beginning, this cover is the ugliest damn thing I have ever seen from Samhain. There is nothing even remotely sexy about that picture. The putrid thing is creepy as hell.

Jamie Buchner has been recently divorced and has moved back to her home of Cedartown, from where she had lived in Atlanta, to raise her son. While on her first and only night out at a local bar she runs into Seth Kolski and proceeds to go home with him and have mad passionate sex. Then right after that mad passionate sex they have a mad passionate fight as you can tell from the excerpt above.

This argument above would not normally be a problem for me if it did not leave me thinking to myself… What the hell did these guys actually talk about at the bar? It’s not like the writer has to tell me everything they said but… Would it not be sorta normal to ask typical conversational questions of the girl you are so desperately in love with and has suddenly shown up at a local bar and is not wearing a wedding ring? Would you casually at least ask what she is doing in town?

Especially when the last time you “stalked her” as a wolf she was in Atlanta and married with a kid.

Now, after a conversation like this one shown in the excerpt above would you honestly like this guy much? Remember, you were recently divorced from a loser who fucked around on you. See, looking to hook up with another loser so soon afterwards is a problem for me and not the only one I ran into here.

He had her on the floor, ripping off her pants, tearing the foil packet open, covering himself.

“Yeah, well things kind of got away from me.” He never wanted her to know how much. Still, he claimed her mouth one last time, to remind her of what they’d shared. Then he took care of the condom.

Here is yet another example. Notice he uses a condom in one of the only two detailed sex scenes in this entire book, around page 29? Well next thing you know three weeks later she is pregnant. I did not catch him seeing any problems with said condom. He did not seem to show any surprise at said condom having slipped or even broken.

So I have to take this as a sign of special werewolf magic sperm.

Also note I just pointed out the first sexual encounter occurred on and around page 29. I got damn bored with this book and started actually counting, which is not a good sign by the way. It took another 113 pages before we get to another sex scene. Believe me, there was more angsting and inner turmoil going on in those 113 pages than any main character interaction or any real action happening for that matter.

I really should try and say clearly that I am not all about sex. To me the absence of sex is just an easy indication there is an overwhelming lack of significant main character interactions in vast expanses of this story. Most of this book ends up explaining in detail whatever Jamie is worried over not what is actually going on, which unfortunately for the most part not much is going on. So I hope you like all the various flavors of angst.

Jamie starts off with “Why does Seth not call me?” and this AFTER wolf boy acted like a total asshole to her at his house. Why would Jamie be waiting for him to call? It just seemed strange, weak willed and self inflicted. Then the next thing you know they meet at her kids school because Seth is the local elementary school gym teacher and she is all “Leave me alone!”. I was seriously scratching my head with the damn mood swings.

When Jamie finds out she is pregnant with Seth’s kid. (How I ask? HOW?) things get really weird because she keeps admitting to herself that she likes him but then does not immediately tell him that she is pregnant with his child. How does that work? How do you like someone but can not bring yourself to divulge important personal information that will effect his entire life?

Then when she actually tells him (In the middle of an argument where she then is yelling NO ABORTIONS! We will not even discuss it. Being she has such a great record of choosing men I find this to be more than a little stupid.) he does not even ask the one question I would have asked. “Are you sure it is mine? I used a condom you know. Are you pawning your ex-husband’s next kid off on me?” This whole skeptical (Jamie is a basket case of conflicting mood swings.) male thinking and subsequent discussion does not come up till pages and pages later when it would have been an initial response in my mind. After all the freaky erratic behavior she has shown and all.

“I’m feeling wild here, Jamie. I don’t know if I can take it slow.”
“I don’t care. I want you.” She wanted, most of all, to show she loved him, certain these body memories would help him while he roamed the forest alone at night. They kept her company.
He hesitated and then they were together, hands on each other, kissing with a desperation that scared Jamie, though she couldn’t let him know. He should know she loved him and he had to come back to her. Despite his warning, he was careful at the moment of entry, eyes questioning.
“Yes.” Her hands caressed his face. “Seth, I love you.”
He answered with an overpowering kiss. Her mind emptied as he moved and touched her, inundating her senses with urgency. For the longest time she couldn’t think, just feel, and the release from thought was a gift she didn’t want to relinquish.
But she did, after they exhausted each other.
In the aftermath, they didn’t speak right away, just touched. Jamie traced lazy circles on Seth’s back until his breathing slowed and their skin cooled.

Last but not least after 113 pages of Jamie’s self involved angst you get a blow job and a quick fuck and the rest of the book just summarizes the sex scenes as shown in the excerpt above. I felt robbed of the crazy scary animal lovin here! I mean, if you are gonna drag me kicking and screaming though one overly long angst ridden, self involved, problem after another. All being easily solved once seriously confronted, you had better make it all worth my time and effort. Not so with The Strength of The Angst.

This book just hits me as needing a real trimming. There simply was no reason we had to be shown again and again that Derek, Jamie’s ex-husband, was a flake. We did not have to be shown again and again that Seth was good with kids. There was really no reason for all the phone conversations we were forced to listen in on. Why did we even need to go to Jamie’s mom and dad’s? Nothing of consequence actually took place for pages and pages.

All the action seemed to be saved up for the last few chapters and by that time so much nothing had happened I was really over this book.

Grade D.

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Tags: Grade D, Jorrie Spencer, Samhain Publishing, Straight, Werewolf Romance

What I Am Reading ~ Jorrie Spencer: The Strength Of The Pack

The Strength Of The Pack by Jorrie Spencer
From: Samhain

Book One of the Strength series…

Seth Kolski, a werewolf, hides his heritage and passes for normal. Until he meets Jamie.

Since his sister disappeared two years ago, Seth’s solitude has intensified. Despite his deep need to be part of a pack, he sets himself apart, wary of humans who fear the wolf in him.

When Seth hooks up with his teenaged crush, loneliness and physical desire overcome his distrust. Jamie welcomes his attentions, albeit a little shyly, and Seth rationalizes they can have one night together before they part.

For Seth can never be part of a regular family. No normal woman is going to accept his freakish nature, nor his past violence. Especially a single mother determined to protect her family. However, Seth and Jamie’s bond runs deeper than he knows. He cannot return to the shadows. Yet exposure may bring danger to them all.

Damn, I know how you feel there big guy. I have psoriasis and I feel bad for ya but I do not find it enticing to show it off like I am flashing muscle or something. Yeah, I know you are a Werewolf and all that but between you and me no no no no no. Put some makeup or lotion or something on it next time.
Ewwwwwwwwww is not a good reaction when you are selling sexy.

What do other people say…
Joyfully Reviewed
Fallen Angel Reviews
Once Upon A Romance Review
Rites Of Romance Reviews
Literary Nymphs Reviews
My Book Cravings

Tags: Jorrie Spencer, Samhain Publishing, Straight, Werewolf Romance