User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Disappointing. While I didn't love the first two they were at least fun urban fantasy. The banter in this was not very funny, the plot was sloppy, and I found the romantic pairing frankly uncomfortable. We have a much older, much larger, much stronger man with a shy virgin whom he continually thinks of as fragile and damaged. And even though he is in love with Colin, instead of telling him that he presents their sexual relationship as a favor he is doing Colin, instructing him in how to have sex. The sex scenes are peppered with tips and cautions and avuncular advice and I found them gross (the conversation, not the actual sex, which was pretty vanilla).
The only redeeming feature of this book was the were otter, and he wasn't on page enough to make up for all the scenes with the hideously bitchy country music star. Maybe I would read the next book if it is about Trick . Maybe.
My series rating:
1st book: Not a must-read, but pretty funny.
2nd book: It was okay, there were some interesting things.
This one: I resent the time I spent reading this instead of something else.
Rating: really liked it
I’m DNF this at 20% because I am seriously gonna end up bald if I keep reading it. What the fucking fuck happened and why is this written like the debut novel from someone who read three romance books once and decided their first (and not edited) try at writing one themselves deserved to be put out there, instead of the whatever-number from a decent author? How is this writing the same writing from Sumage or even Omega? HOW DOES THIS BOOK HAVE SO MANY 5 STARS? DID WE ALL READ THE SAME BOOKS? CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT IS HAPPENING?
Will I try to finish this at some point in the future? I mean, Judd and Colin’s story was the one I wanted to read the most, so I wanna say yes, but damn I can’t stand the way it’s written so I probably won’t. I am fucking disappointed, honestly; this reads like a first draft that needs a lot of pace editing and rhythm correcting. There were full paragraphs that had the same sentence structure and length ONE AFTER THE OTHER. I just, ugh. I am very angry and very sad.
Rating: really liked it
This series just gets betterI love this mismatched pack of werewolves, Sea creatures and humans so much.
The world created is a mix of familiar and the supernatural and with a wicked thread of humour tying it all together.
Here we finally get Judd and Colin's romance and it's a beaut. I loved all the various plotlines being juggled together, the unexpected twists and the arrival of new pack members.
Medium steamy, it's still full of the emotional connection at the heart of all the relationships in the San Andreas pack.
Rating: really liked it
3.5 stars
I have some mixed feelings about this one.
I liked the overall theme and vibes it was going for, but it felt distinctly... less polished than the author's other work. Some scenes at the beginning were almost awkward, while towards the end the humor was a bit too over the top, some jokes being dragged on for over a page.
Like the rest of the series,
The Enforcer Enigma was all about affirming people in their right to be themselves, regardless of what is expected of them, particularly in regards to gay culture and werewolf traditions, both in-world and the readers' expectations. I liked that a lot, but at the same time, for me it lacked the last punch to really drive the point home, especially since in other areas is heavily relied on stereotypes.
Still, Judd and Colin grew on me, and I adore the cast of characters. I cannot wait for Lovejoy and Mana's book, and to see more of Trick.
Content warnings include: homophobia, child abandonment and neglect, verbal abuse, organized crime, cop propaganda, sex on-page; mentions of racism, bullying.
Rating: really liked it
This story felt immature and the lack of depth was a total turnoff. 🙁😔
You see, the idea of the characters were interesting, Judd is a 100 and something year old wolf shifter, he has seen things that nobody's else has and obviously is a suvivor. On the other corner we have Colin who has suffered from abuse, so he has a low selfsteem and doesn't know what his true colors are, but he wants desperately to find out.
See? Interesting, then the story developed and nothing good or important happened, Colin kept denigrating himself, treating himself like shit and Judd kept trying, sexualy to help him, with sex! Hello from the outside, that's not all dude, dicks aren't magical! And what the hell is wrong with Kevin selling his brother, and the writer actually usind that as a trope to get things happening? Jesus take the wheel.
This book should have been about growth and self worth, didn't happen. We just got a really confusing plot with a country singer and a Otter shifter, then we are thrown some sex scenes, then a conclusion of some sorts and a miracle: they grow in the last chapter. So yeah, this was lacking.
Isaac and Tank are still my babies! ❤
Rating: really liked it
Definitely a book to be read only if you enjoyed the first two. A lot of the fun comes from watching the pack interact, and seeing favorite characters. The humor is broader and sillier here than in the previous two novels, the plot is thinner, and the romance less angsty and more focused on sex.
Judd, the hundred year old enforcer, finally found the man he wanted as his own, in a young, shy, inexperienced Colin. (In a contemporary, I'd call Judd demisexual, but with a fated mate setup, that's harder to define.) The huge age gap is hard for Judd to get past, and Colin's inexperience and lack of self-confidence is its own barrier. I was hoping to see more of Judd's past informing his present. His comfort with modern ways and modern attitudes made him feel more contemporary, so the weight of those years didn't play out as clearly as it might've. But they are an interesting pair, and did feel right in the end.
The book was almost stolen by Trick, the little otter shifter, so I'll be onboard for his story next, but I hope the focus will swing back to a bit more angst and less humor.
Rating: really liked it
1.5 stars and I think this soured me on continuing this series :(
The pack members have always had such distinct personalities, but all of a sudden it felt like they were interchangeable depending on which character it was most convenient to give the cutesy banter to at any given moment. It was so inconsistent with the previous two books worth of character development that I felt like I was being punished for reading this as a series and not as unconnected stand-alones.
This is especially disappointing since the author created such an awesome pack with unlimited potential for storylines, but what's the point if you're going to play all willy-nilly with your characters' personalities???
Also, I'm not a fan of the all cutesy banter, all the time writing style that this had devolved into by the end, and I don't understand why she changed gears in Book 3 of a series that didn't read that way in earlier installments.
It took me about 30% to really get into this, I enjoyed the next 40% or so once there was an actual plot involved, but by the end I was rage-reading in some kind of time warp that made every page feel like it took an hour to get through. Honestly, by the end I full on hated it, but I made myself hold off on the rating until I could be convinced to round up to two stars in honor of that middle 40%. And because I've been waiting for Judd and Colin to get together since literally the very first m/m romance I ever read. Holy shit what an epic letdown this was.
Rating: really liked it
An OK ReadNeeds more character development and less sex. I do like characters in this story, Colin and Judd would make an interesting pairing, however, I felt like there could have been more between them than just sex. Like an actual date maybe or them just sitting for several paragraphs enjoying each other's company. Instead, any time we see them together, they're either working a job or in Judd's room getting their freak on. Ugh. A whole chapter dedicated to discussing and negotiating sex nearly put me to sleep.
Now for the sad part of this story. Poor Kevin and Colin, they lost in th parental lottery. Their father was a dominant jerk without any real intelligence, but their mother, an Alpha of the worst sort, is absolutely awful. I wonder where Colin gets his smarts from, because it certainly did not come from the PUs!
To make matters worse, mother is the most famous shifter country singer in the county and will not let anyone forget it either. She totally dismisses Collin, who she abandoned as a child, tries to dote on Kevin, to his annoyance, and seems to think her behavior is acceptable.
The best part of the story is Trick, the otter shifter, who runs the coffee shop down the street from the pack house. He's an, uhm, otter delight.
Rating: really liked it
****½
Rating: really liked it
Book 3 in the series and it features a new couple...both are members of the pack who were introduced in the previous two books. I love the building of the world of the werewolf shifters in this series, particularly the alternate reality vibe and the way the author has twisted aspects of real-life such as “Panda rights”. Like the books that preceded it, this one deals with some quite heavy emotional issues, in a way that makes you root for the characters all the way through to the end. There’s plenty of steamy scenes as well as some very hilarious moments. I have really enjoyed this series.
Rating: really liked it
I received an ARC of this book for an honest review.
This book, like the others in this series, is okay. Like most Carriger books the prose is beautifully snarky and terminally delightful--I laughed and smiled a lot. The dynamics of the pack are cute, and the found family and queer aspects makes my heart wiggle happily. Lots of funny visuals and nods to current queer culture, which made me smile.
The characters in this series are hard to distinguish, especially the gay men--their voices all feel similar to me. They're all waspy, catty, faaaabulous gays. Also there are a LOT of characters. So damn many. I love playing count-the-side-character, but if you're coming into the series blind with this one you'll probably be lost. There were a lot of subplots in this book happening all at once...almost too many. Trick stole the show from Judd and Colin, but his subplot with the werebear officer felt a bit forced (although I enjoyed the Otter/Bear joke LOL). It felt like Colin got lost in his own story. The plot itself was kind of slow, although the book started off fast. At the end the book knotted, a bit unsatisfactorily in my opinion, in a neat bow.
[Spoilers]
I also wasn't super comfortable with the objectification of Judd, a gay Black man, in this book. Even though he's on the cover of the book, the plot was very much about Colin and Colin's struggles and backstory. If he was that much of the story, Colin should have been on the cover, not Judd. I would have liked to know more about Judd's backstory, because if he is 150+ years old he lived through some of America and Canada's worst racial discrimination, that would have affected him. He also wouldn't have been super hyped about the police showing up, even if it was a fellow supernatural. I understand not wanting to write too much history of a Black character as a white writer, but it did not feel like his Blackness informed how he interacted with the world at all. This is why this book gets such a low rating from me.
[End Spoilers]
All this said, I'd rather read a book about Agent Lenis, or Miss Trickle and her wife Pepper, or....many of the other side characters, honestly. I probably wouldn't read TEE again, but it was a fun distraction during COVID-times and I don't regret that I did. I'll probably read the fourth book about Trick, since I love him to pieces.
Rating: really liked it
A Joyfully Jay review.
4 starsThe Enforcer Enigma is the third novel in the San Andreas Shifter series. From a plot standpoint, this story stands alone just fine and you can start here. But this is a very pack-driven series and the various characters all show up in each other’s stories, so you will miss knowing their backstories if you haven’t read the earlier books. Like the other stories, this book has a playful, occasionally silly sense of humor (e.g. they use “Instalamb” to post pictures and shifters get red their “Panda rights” instead of Miranda rights). The books tend to be a blend of romance with some often intense moments, combined with the humor. I find the style entertaining, and this book doesn’t have quite the silliness of some of them, but I think the sense of humor has to be a fit for you to really enjoy these books.
Read Jay’s review in its entirety here.
Rating: really liked it
Well worth the wait I preordered this pretty much the nanosecond it was announced. I love and adore this series, particularly The Omega Objection, and was eagerly anticipating more. Despite the high expectations involved, I wasn’t let down at ALL. In fact, I was laughing and highlighting from the very first scene. In addition to the intelligent wit, there’s a good amount of hurt/comfort done extremely well, and all the characters have so much depth that they feel real to me.
I don’t think I’ll be able to resist a reread while excitedly waiting for the next in the series.
Rating: really liked it
This was a disappointment, which is a shame because I really liked the others in the series. There were some good moments and tender feelings, but it just didn’t work for me. The puns and innuendos felt forced.
But the issue for me was that it felt like the author relied on some stereotypes about Black men in the character of Judd the Black werewolf. The author also focused a lot of the writing on some very toxic self-hate, and although I know it makes sense for the character in some ways, it was also hard to read and I wonder if it could’ve been done in a better way.
Rating: really liked it
DNF 47%
Absolutely nothing like the first book (a favorite), or even the second one (not a favorite). Lost interest.
