Heart by Jacqueline Paige Guest Tour

Heart
Book 1 in the Animal Trilogy

Author: Jacqueline Paige
ISBN: 1615728023 (ISBN13: 9781615728022)

Release Date: November 7th 2012
Format: PDF
Genre: Paranormal Romance

 

Summary
Three women without knowledge of their true heritage...
Three men that have waited for their mate all of their lives...
Hearts and tempers collide with wild passions and animal instincts
in the Animal Trilogy
~
Heart

Torn from her sheltered life, Rayne is alone and scared after she discovers her fiancé is not the man she thought he was. Unable to accept the corrupt world he belongs to, she flees to the furthest possible location she can reach on her own. Nothing could ever prepare her for the journey and what she finds out when she arrives.

Is she strong enough to survive on her own?

The epitome of the lone wolf, Devin stays in the wilderness and far away from people, avoiding the decision of whether to accept his title as leader and alpha of the pack. One alluring woman stirs up his resolve and passion when she disturbs his solitary world. The man inside is tempted in a way he can’t understand but his wolf knows he’s found his mate.

Can he have her without succumbing to the responsibilities waiting for him?
 

Excerpt:

If nothing else she was warmer now.  How long would the rain last?  Do I want to wait it out and then try to find a washroom – in the dark?  Rayne shook her head before she could go any further with that thought. There was no way she was getting out of this car until it was light out, rain or no rain.  How many hours until daylight? 

She debated very briefly whether she could squirm around and reach the purse to get her phone.  Highly doubtful.  Besides being cocooned in the puffy material, the phone was off for a reason and turning it on just to check the time wasn’t worth the risk of Aiden being able to trace the location.  Truthfully she didn’t know if that was possible even though all the movies referenced it being so, but understanding what type of man Aiden was and what he was capable of, she wasn’t taking any chances.

Working one arm free from the bag, she shifted far enough forward to reach the ignition; he couldn’t track the cars clock.  Turning the key, her heart sunk when she noted the time, there were too many hours left until dawn.  She looked out the windshield and froze, her heart jumped into her throat. Afraid to so much as breathe, Rayne stared at the animal a few feet away from the headlight.  Her brain first said dog, but that was no dog.  That was a wolf; it had to be a wolf.  Were wolves that big?  It seemed bigger than in any pictures she’d seen.

She sat there looking at it, not sure if she should honk the horn or just sit and try not to get hysterical waiting for it to leave.  The car may be metal, but the roof was something this animal could probably get through. As she continued to stare at it she couldn’t help thinking it was a beautiful creature. It’s grey and brown fur looked soft and thick, not that she’d ever be able to find out if it was.  It was the way the haunting grey eyes watched her that made her decide not to honk the horn or scream as loud as she could, which had crossed her mind briefly.  Rayne was fairly certain it was as surprised to see her as she was to see it.  Didn’t wolves travel as group?  A pack?  She wanted to look around and see if there were more in the trees, but the logical part of her brain said she was better off not knowing.  Never argue with the logical part.

She was sure she stopped breathing all together when it took a step closer to the car and then turned quickly back towards the trees.  As she was reaching for the keys it stopped and looked back at her for the length of two heart beats before it bolted into the trees and disappeared. 

Turning off the key, she sat in the dark leaning back against the seat while she tried to remind her body how to take air in. In this moment with her heart beating so loud she could hear it, or at least it felt that way, Rayne reached the decision that she was not getting out of the car until daylight, and even then was questionable.  One more conclusion was also not turning the lights on again; her mental state was much better not knowing what else was outside of the car.  She checked to make sure the door was locked, she did know a wolf wouldn’t just walk up and use the door handle, but she felt better knowing that she was locked in and more importantly other things were locked out.

Pulling her arm back into the sleeping bag, Rayne shuffled down as far as she could and closed her eyes.  The sooner she slept, the closer daylight was to getting here.  Over the noise of the water beating off the car, she thought she heard a howl.

Review

Well, this book did have it’s ups and downs. If it wasn’t for Devin, I would have given up on this book. He brought life to it, and I'm glad I manged to finish 'Heart'.

‘Heart’ took place mostly in Timmins, Ontario, but it gets scattered to other locations. For other Canadians, especially those in Ontario, you understand how isolated Timmins is. It's basically an every town USA type of town. For a character on the run, it is a great place to run to. It's about 7 to 8 hours away from Toronto, in the middle of no where.

The plot was great, I actually didn’t mind it at all. The author had an interesting take on the whole shifter world. For example, the shifter world is run by a monarchy system, and our main boy Devin is the prince of this world. This monarchy is called the Alliances, and they look after all the shifters. I haven't seen this idea used much before. Usually there's a pack leader, but there's not a real sense of community and connection. Of course, Devin doesn’t want any part of this world. He just wants to be a lone wolf. Until he meets Rayne. Rayne is running from her ex. When she meets Devin, he realizes right away she isn’t all who she appears to be. Great plot, but too repeative in action. I found myself over looking a few paragraphs because it was just too much of the same thing over and over again.

I found some insistences that didn’t seem logical. For example, how Rayne’s ex reported his car missing. The car is from Chicago, and I understand that the people at the border would know that the car crossed into Ontario, Canada because of the license plate. What I don’t understand is how a cop suddenly shows up out of no where, three hours away from the nearest town, just to talk to Devin about a reported missing car. I can only guess that the car had a lot of tips of the direction it was going in, but then most of northern Ontario is highways with no huge towns. They would have had to post descriptions in local newspapers and media, which mean they would have had an idea of where it was going. Sure, it left Chicago at crossing A, but how to you know if it's heading to Timmins or Vancouver or Nunavut or Halifax? There was also an instance where the bad guys seemed to know that Rayne would be at the Toronto art gallery. Uh, weren't you just looking for her in Timmins? As mentioned before, Timmins and Toronto are about 7 to 8 hours apart. Rayne and Devin had to take a plane to travel to Toronto and back. That's not the same as just happening to be in the same store in the same town as you looked for someone. No logical solution is given to this time-space bend. The bad guys also just happen to show up at Devin's camp.... Then run away with their tails between their legs when they find out that Devin is the leader of the Alliances. Whatdagabah?! There's a huge build up then... Nothing. Very disappointing.

I also had a problem in understanding the descriptions of things. For example, when Devin shifted into his wolf form. I’m reading this, and one minute he's is brushing his hair, and the next he is on four legs. No inbetween of saying that he had turned into his wolf form. I had to do a reread to make sure he was in his wolf form and not his human form. Also, there were a few moments of just the stripping of clothes and BAM, he was at the location he wanted to be. Another weird moment was when Devin’s second, (ranking in the monarchy),  Calum called a cat shifter by Devin’s dad. Doesn’t tell me what kind of cat, and even Rayne described him as a cat. Not lion, or lynx, or jaguar. Just cat. All I can think of is a small house cat. Imagine a house cat chasing a bunch of bad guys... Yeah, scary.

Devin is such a sweet guy, though he doesn’t seem so sweet at first. He’s mean towards Rayne at first, due to his confusion of his reaction to her. Yep, he's confused about how's reacting to her. Buddy, put that hamster back on the wheel and give it a boot. You're clearly not thinking enough. Despite this, I could tell from the start he would be a great person, and he was. He protected Rayne, and tried to help her with what she was going through. He did keep some things from her, but that was because she was starting to get overwhelmed. Yeah, I can see how telling someone that they're destined to be mates would maybe freak them out. Devin's character is well written, and I hated how Rayne treated him. He deserved someone better.

Right from the start of the book, I could tell that Rayne was timid. When fiancé said, “I don’t care if you have to slice pieces off, a little at a time...” the first thing she did was run away. Sure, that would be creepy thing to hear, but what was context? I would have challenged the guy, not run away with my tail between my legs. I would figure that having a fiancé would mean you love him, but Rayne drops everything and runs from him and her life. She is what you call a city girl, she knows nothing of anything else but the city. So how she came to the conclusion she wanted to go camping is beyond my comprehension. During a scene where Devin was saying how he hoped her personality wouldn’t change after she went through her first shift, all I could think was about is that I hoped her personality changed a whole lot. Well, it did change, but not for the good. She got angry. Angry at Devin over him not telling her the truth of who he was and who she was to him. You already slept with the guy, barely knowing him! He was going to tell her, but he wanted to be gentle with it and not scare her! She loves to run and doesn’t deserve Devin at all. To leave Devin behind, thinking she doesn’t want him is the worse thing anyone could do. I understand that discovering that she's a shifter would turn her life upside down, but she goes too far. She's a drama queen in the end. In another moment of illogical writing, Rayne claims that everything she owns was bought by Aiden (ex fiance/bad guy), she even worked in a art gallery owned by him. She keeps saying that she doesn't really know anything about him. She then flips the script and seems to know everything about him! Huge denial, or just sloppy writing? Either way, it just doesn't make sense.

I did enjoy the ending of this book, but the journey to the end can be painful at times. Be prepared to cringe. If you're a Canadian, you'll understand the distance issues.
 

Rating
3 out of 5 Howling Wolves

Author

Jacqueline Paige is a world class multi-tasker being a mother to five adventurous and unpredictable children, a cafe manager and having a colossal imagination that allows her to step outside of reality into a world of paranormal romance —with just a touch of suspense.

Jacqueline lives in Ontario, Canada and avoids the ever changing weather of the region she lives in by creating other worlds to fall into in her stories of all things paranormal.

Her first book was published in 2009 and since then has published ten.  She is always writing and currently has more than a dozen stories in one stage or another of the writing process.


You can find all of Jacqueline’s books at: www.jacqpaige.webs.com