A Tooth for a Fang

We at OptimuMM, with the approval of Dreamspinner Press, decided that we will review some previously published books. Our first choice was Liv Olteano’s Leader Murders series. I came up with this title with some recommendations, and after reading the blurb, I said I have to read this!

Well, I had a different kind of expectations from this book, though I’m not disappointed!

Lycans! I’ve never read lycan shifter books before, and honestly, I would have loved to read more about this species. We get some glimpses but not as detailed as I would like too.

The story starts with Rick spotting a real nice guy on the beach. After the first eye contact, things develop really fast. Like really, really fast, so I had a hard time catching up to the story. I had a feeling I was missing something. Liv’s writing style is a get- use-to type, but once you get into that reader-space, you’re good to go. When the summer god offers his hand, Rick takes it and follows him into the sea. Well, that’s ok, but then he received a hand job followed by a bite. And bang! In 24 hours he’s a lycan, to be more precise, a tracker.

And there’s where my problem with this story is. The non-con part. Rick wasn’t asked to become a shifter. Rick wasn’t told what comes with that bite, and he was left totally alone, that in my opinion is a bs move.

Travis aka summer god aka Rick’s alpha is a total douchebag! But turns out, that in Liv’s universe, all alphas are douchbags. Not only does he bring an untrained civilian into a paranormal secret law enforcement agency, but he also doesn’t give Rick an opportunity to adjust and get trained. When Rick wakes up in the hospital, he’s bitten again, making him Travis’ mate.

As the blurb says, there’s a mass murderer going around, but you’ll learn that’s not necessarily a bad thing, well for me at least. The motive behind those murders, in my opinion, was legit and I wonder why they didn’t happen much, much sooner.
If I were Rick, I would cut off Travis’ most tender parts. But then…and actually you see it coming, but because you’re angry with these alphas, you don’t wanna really see it.

The book is from Rick’s POV, who in his last relationship, was abused regularly. There are some scenes when Travis forces Rick with his alpha voice, in some situations that goes against all of Rick’s instincts. But fear nothing, all goes well.

I said this already to too many authors, and I’ll say it to our sweet Liv too.

Dear Liv,

We know that characters take life in your mind, and you cherish them, developing a very intimate relationship with them (as we do too reading your stories), knowing every feeling, every emotion, and every thought of theirs.

But we have a little problem here you see. All this is happening in your mind! We’re not in it!

So a little bit of advice, as a humble reader (well…) when the characters are changing their behavior, legitely, please write a build up to it. Don’t make sudden changes, be kind to us, prepare us (use much, much more lube please) and do the changes gradually.

Thank You
With love, Levi (on behalf of the readers).

Guys it’s a must read!!! (finishing the review with one hand, and the other is already opening book two).

Book – A Tooth For A Fang (Leader Murders #1)
Author – Liv Olteano
Star rating - ★★★★★
No. of Pages – 216

Cover – Moody and Gorgeous!
POV – 1st person, one character POV
Would I read it again – Yes

Genre – LGBT, Paranormal, Crime, Romance


** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine



*Trigger warnings: the story deals with off-page domestic abuse of all forms, as well as mental abilities that could be, and are, compared to the control exercised during rape. It also deals with violent crimes and the sexual abuse of corpses (nothing on page)*



First off, you'll see from my rating above ^ that I really liked this book, so I'm going to start with the negatives and just get them out of the way.

Editing. Gah! The editing. Okay, so it wasn't awful and it wasn't brilliant. It was in that limbo state in between, where just one more edit or one more swipe past the beta readers would have it in tip top condition. What was the problem? Missing words. That is the issue in a nutshell. Persistently, there are sentences with missing words with really screwed with my reading as I tried to figure out the meaning. Sometimes it was clear and the missing word was just an annoyance. But sometimes it was vitally important and made the sentence read awkward or confusing. There was also an issue with grammar (proper placement of commans and semi-colons etc) but the missing words was the real rub.
Examples:
My first summer vacation after a couple years of slavery, aka the corporate world, freedom tasted damn good.
Let's tread the water before going for swimming, you know?
[...] to be one hell of ride.

Obviously, though these instances were really quite prolific, they didn't hamper the storytelling at all. Although I didn't like the use of the word “spazz” with is so ridiculously insulting, I do get that the irritation is personal and not something that all readers will agree with. There were also phrases or words that were used far too often – Balls deep. The smacking of lips. Heh. - All overdone.

Now, onto the positives. Yay.

Rick and Travis were great main characters. I could feel their chemistry and the dynamic they shared right from the start, when they first met. Though I do think Travis' claiming was a douche move, I love the way that Rick dealt with it.

Poor little Rick is a feisty guy, but so emotionally damaged and I like that he shies away from the more emotional side of his relationship with Travis, not wanting to get his fingers burned or his heart broken again. The things that Mitch put him through are devastating, but sadly realistic. As is the way the author deals with Rick's recovery of that domestic abuse. He constantly blames himself, considers it more his doing than Mitch's and tries to excuse the behaviour, even when out of the relationship. Just as many real life abuse victims often do. Being his first serious relationship, on top of that, and lasting for many years has made it hard for him to trust or love easily and he's become guarded. All of that stands as a block between him and Travis.

But, here's the part I like best. Travis never pushes. He's tall, big, gruff and surly, but he's a big teddy bear on the inside. It's so nice to see a big scary guy being used as the healer for Rick's pain, reassuring him that he won't be hurt again, that he has the love and support he needs, whenever he's ready to accept it.

I also really loved the way that Rick dealt with the supernatural element. I mean, the entire concept of the PBI and how it operates is genius. It's so professional, relatable and ordinary, with a dash of extraordinary, that it's something we readers can easily picture and adapt to. That added element however, allows Rick some freak out moments, which are the natural reaction of most people who encounter the supernatural.

It was great how werewolves and lycans were differentiated as two different species and how each species was shown in a very realistic way. The way the “alpha voice” was used to take complete control over a person was disconcerting and I loved that Rick's human nature tackled that view, but also that Travis never really wanted to use it against him, in important situations (like the S&M club). At the same time, the whole alpha voice stuff and the tracker ability Rick had really set these lycans apart from most other books in the genre.

Even the side characters – Amanda, Weiss, Naty, Lora, T – are actually really great to meet and discover. I loved them all. Each was something different, a little quirky and crazy in their own way, with their own problems. It will be nice to get to know some of them better in the future stories. I do have to say that I'm on the fence about Weiss, just as confused about his true nature as Rick is, while I share his sympathy for Amanda. If everything she says is true, with no extenuating circumstances (such as someone outside the mating controlling things) then I absolutely understand why she was pushed to the point of insanity and homicide. It's no wonder she's a little psycho.

Oh, and I really want to meet Garry along the way, to see what he is and how he's living his new supernatural life with the PBI. I also really want to let Rick and Mitch meet again, now that he's stronger, and finally confront his feelings of guilt and responsibility, to show Mitch that it was never Rick's fault.

~

Overall, a brilliant, surprising twist on the werewolf theme.
The crime wasn't predictable (though I'm usually quick to see the 'solution' coming) and the paranormal elements were handled in a very unique, intriguing way.

I can't wait to read the rest of the series and explore where the Leader Murders take us.

~

Favourite Quotes

““Is this the part where you admit to being an alien and that you've infected me with your weird sperm that will make tiny aliens sprout out of my guts?””

“In the span of a couple of days, I'd gone from jobless single guy vacationing on the beach to lycan agent in training with a hot-as-hell boyfriend I couldn't wait to grope. Perhaps my friend Garry had been right and this place really could turn one's life around.”

“I'd never get over how intense he was when he wasn't playing around. I just knew I'd never get over it. Never get over him. Sometimes you just knew while looking into someone's eyes, like you knew while looking into the sky that it would rain. There'd be no clouds, no forecast announcing it, but something in the air, a frisky sort of scent on the wind and you'd just know. I just knew now, looking into his consuming gaze that no one else would manage to give me the butterflies and squeeze my heart like a vise just by looking at me. That nobody else would make the blood boil in my veins and my whole body sizzle. This was the Travis effect, and he wasn't even playing dirty with his weird-ass alpha voice magic trick yet.”

“I felt him smile, the stretch of his lips against mine one of the most beautiful things ever. It was as if our hearts touched where our lips did, this brief overwhelming moment when everything was beautiful, light, soft and sweet – as amazing as our lips touching. His scent filled my soul to the point of overflowing and my heart shuddered as if struggled to keep up with the rush of being here like this.”

Rick Barton macht Ferien. Und er überlegt, was er mit seiner neu gewonnenen Freiheit nun anstellen könnte. An eine Beziehung denkt er nicht; schliesslich hat er sich erst von seinem gewalttätigen Freund Mitch getrennt. Da trifft er am Strand auf diesen mysteriösen und gutaussehenden Fremden. Nach einem kurzen Flirt kommt man sich näher, doch es bleibt ein Intermezzo und danach wird Rick krank. So krank, dass er im Krankenhaus landet und da wartet auch schon der Fremde auf ihn.

Travis Chandler ist Ricks Flirt vom Strand und auch der Grund, dass Rick sich im Krankenhaus befindet. Denn Travis ist ein Wandler, der Rick gebissen und einen Wandlungsprozess in Gang gesetzt hat. Travis ist aber noch mehr. Er ist auch Detective beim Paranormal Bureau of Investigation und er möchte Rick als seinen Partner und Mate gewinnen.

Viel Zeit sich zu entscheiden hat Rick nicht. Travis bietet ihm eine Partnerschaft an und stellt ihn vor die Wahl die Wandlung zum Lycan abzuschliessen. Rick, der völlig perspektivlos ist, stimmt zu und findet sich kurz darauf in einer völlig fremden Welt wieder. Doch schnell kommen Rick Zweifel. Travis ist ziemlich bestimmend und ein Alpha. Hat er also einen besitzergreifenden Lover gegen einen neuen getauscht? Kurz nach seiner Wandlung muss Rick auch schon mit Travis zum ersten Fall. Ein Serienmörder scheint sein Unwesen zu treiben und hat dominante Alphas im Visier.

Unter Travis‘ Anleitung beginnt Rick sehr schnell zu lernen und zu verstehen, doch der Fall scheint äusserst verzwickt zu sein und offenbar bis in aller höchste Ränge zu reichen.

Es geht von Beginn an sehr rasant zur Sache und bereitet auch dem Leser etwas Probleme sich mit dieser Welt der mythischen Wesen anzufreunden. Dabei ist der Stil sehr flüssig und auch sehr, sehr witzig. Der Humor und der Mangel an Längen ist ein großer Pluspunkt dieser Geschichte. Die Protas sind leider nicht sehr tiefgründig ausgearbeitet. Von Rick erfährt man hierbei doch etwas mehr als von seinem Mate Travis, der offenbar Schwierigkeiten hat seine Partner zu behalten. Zumindest wird das immer wieder – auch mal humoristisch – zum Thema gemacht. Neben Lycane gibt es auch Trolle (die stinken ganz fürchterlich) und Vampiere. Ausserdem tauchen noch Elfen und Feen auf.

Rick und Travis kommen sich natürlich näher, denn die Chemie zwischen ihnen hat ja von Anfang an gestimmt. Und Travis mag zwar ein wenig herrschsüchtig sein, doch er ist auch fürsorglich und bemüht. Tatsächlich gibt es auch leichte Anzeichen von einer Werbung seitens des erfahrenen Ermittlers. Rick kann diese erotische Anziehung akzeptieren und geht auch darauf ein, doch romantische Gefühle sollen auf gar keinen Fall eine Rolle spielen. Der letzte Ausflug in die Romantik hat ihm schon gereicht. Doch es kommt nicht immer so, wie man es sich vorstellt.

Mir gefiel die Geschichte – trotz einiger Schwächen – sehr gut. Doch der Humor und die amüsanten Protagonisten haben viel wett gemacht.