Shelley Grayson - Shift

Lukas Vance finds a list of towns, and in each one he discovers a murdered 19-year-old who smells almost like pack even though he knows they can't be related to him. He reaches the next town on the list before the killer, determined to get the intended victim out of this situation alive. When he catches the familiar pack scent and sees the guy it belongs to, Lukas wants to do so much more than protect him.
Chris Keenan doesn't know why gorgeous, broody Lukas thinks he's in danger. Lukas says he wants to keep him safe, and when Chris freaks out Lukas is the only one able to calm him down. Chris has been feeling off for a while, and whatever's causing that seems to be related to the list of towns and the murderer who's made him a target. Instead of going to the police, Chris puts his trust in Lukas. But even with Lukas protecting him, figuring out what's wrong with him may be the last thing Chris ever does.

Comment: I probably got interested in this story because it would feature shifters and those are usually my preferable type of paranormal being in fiction.

In this story we meet Lukas and his brother Griffin, as they go on to look for other shifters whose scent is like theirs, although they can't explain why, since the people they are looking for are all college aged and not only are not pack, but some aren't even supposed to be shifters. Sadly, they don't always arrive on time and some of these people are already dead. Things change when they find Chris and for Lukas it's like a shock because he can't seem to be able to avoid the fact Chris makes him feel things he wasn't considering until now. The problem is that Chris and a few others are in danger and Lukas and Griffin decide to help and for that they think the best thing to do is to find out what all of them have in common. As the group becomes closer, danger still lurks... what ill they do when things get out of control?

I was actually more interested in a different book by the author when the possibility to get this one too happened. While deciding to read this one first, I've checked the blurb and labels and got the impression this would be a romance with some suspense but in reality, this was a very confusing story. I'm still not sure about how to explain what I think, but let it be said this didn't follow any path I've imagined.

First, the story is supposedly about "finding a family" as per the author's note at the beginning of the book. The author's aim was to write about characters who find others to be a family, even if not linked by blood and I see the appeal of this idea, especially in books with shifters, where often the notion of a pack or a small community being important, matters. However, the main characters don't seem to have much to link them besides the obvious and the whole family things failed for me after a certain situation...

The thing is, the story is actually a lot more about the brothers learning who smells like them and why, and how to help them escape death.The explanation for this was incredibly unsatisfying to be honest, and I wasn't as impressed with this anyway because by the time the end comes closer and we learn the secrets of this situation, other things had happened, and a few were quite confusing in execution, that I wasn't really certain about what I had read.

I don't really mind this turned to be a story more focused on suspense than romance or any other element, but then I think, why dividing the attention of he reader through so many elements? Why giving so much emphasis on the "family found" when this didn't end up being such a great end after all? I can't explain properly, but I felt disappointed over the author's choices in how to develop this story. Besides, there wasn't much shifting anyway, since the youngsters couldn't do it and there was a lot of talk about how weird the situation was for them.

I wondered if perhaps the romance between Lukas and Chris would be the way to explain some things about shifters and so on, but not really. The idea of "mate, also so frequent in these stories, was never mentioned, although I suppose one can read between the lines. They feel attracted, and it seems they want to be close physically, but as for everything else, not much happens because they are obviously so worried about the shifters being hunted and so on, which means the relationship never goes beyond potential. 

Also, this is a long book and in the midst of all these pages, to have such a weak exposition and then resolution? I really expected more out of this story, even if the romance alone weren't to be that great. The issue is that the rest wasn't great either and I've finished unsure about what the goal had been and why some scenes had been included. I only hope the other book by the author I now have will be better.

Grade: 5/10