Declan and Tori
by Shiloh Walker
(The Hunters # 1)
A couple of things worth mentioning before I get into the review...
a) I loooooove Shiloh Walker, but I admit I've started reading her more current work first.
b) This book was originally published in 2003 under Ellora's Cave. I bought it last year when it was re-released with this beautiful cover, because I'm a cover whore.
c) It's been sitting on my Kindle app for a long time!
When making the decision to start reading a series that already has so many books, in fact this one is officially done, it can be intimidating. But it is encouraging at least for me to know that the stories are relatively short.
I started this book expecting a great story with a little bit of heat. And I got a lot more than I bargained for! From almost the very beginning Ms. Walker was burning up the pages with Declan and Tori! I had to stop to fan myself. I could easily classify this book as an Erotic Paranormal Romance, and it's definitely one of the hotter books I've personally read to date by Ms. Walker.
The plot was great as well. Tori, a human, has the bad luck of coming face to face with a vampire rogue who turns her against her will. She's going through the change and adjusting to her new self and new urges and seeks the help of the only man she felt safe with before, but that also she wanted to stay away, Declan. Turns out Declan is a werewolf, who has known for a while that Tori was his mate, and he is fully prepared to help her in whatever way necessary but also he decided now he gets to keep her forever. And of course he has to protect her from her maker.
As I mentioned before this book is heavy on the romance and the sex, not so much on the world building. Although there is some, I still have a lot of unanswered questions about the world. I think for a short story and what I wanted to read, this book was perfect though.
Of course I have to mention Eli. He's the older vampire Declan takes Tori to in order to learn more about how to be a vampire and to help her, in more ways than one. I loved his character and I'm actually really excited that I get to read his story!
Something worth mentioning, that I wasn't too cool with reading and I almost took a star away from the rating. There is a scene where Tori has sex with Declan while he is...not a wolf, but shifted. Fur, claws, the tongue....yeah. I always run the other way when this happens in a shifter book and I didn't care much for that scene in this book.
