Scales and a Tail, by Stormy Glenn

Scales and a Tail (Midnight Matings #2)

by Stormy Glenn

Published by Siren Publishing

Word Count: 42.000

Blurb:

The paranormal world is in chaos. The elders are tired of their younger people playing the field, causing trouble, and fighting with each other. Everyone who attends the UPAC Conference now has twenty-four hours to claim a mate of a different species. If they don't, they will never have a mate. The spell is cast. There is no escaping the Midnight Matings.

Beauregard Stratford is a bunny shifter. Simple enough, right? Unfortunately, he is the only white bunny shifter in existence. He also is cursed with violet eyes, hyperactivity, a strong weakness for anything shiny, and a penchant for leaving bubble gum everywhere. When he finds himself mated to Sebastian Drakus, a dragon shifter and prince of his kind, Beauregard can't seem to make himself behave no matter how hard he tries. He wants to be good, to make Sebastian proud of him, really he does, but things just keep happening to him? Bubble gum mishaps, getting drunk, not to mention that fact that he is a true bunny and constantly horny. Nothing seems to go right. Can he convince Sebastian he's worth the trouble, or will the dragon prince wash his hands of the whole bunny fiasco?

Review:

Sounds cute, right? I thought so.

I liked the story and the characters, but I had a big problem with the writing and editing. There were numerous repetitions in the text, both things we'd already been told before (sometimes twice), and words repetitions. In one place, for example, six paragraphs in a row start with "Sebastian". There were also a lot of typos that bothered me. I don't mind some, but I get annoyed when there are too many. The writing itself also bothered me. It was very "telling" with very little "showing". This is my first read by Stormy Glenn, but I'm hoping this isn't the best example of her writing style. I'm surprised Siren Publishing didn't do a better job of editing. This is also my first Siren Publishing read.

There were problems with the characters, but they weren't as big as the writing. The Wolf shifter at the beginning - the one chasing Beauregard - sounds so simple minded with his limited vocab. He kept repeating the same lines over and over. It wasn't the effects of the spell, because Sebastian was thinking clearly enough. Appart from that, I did like how Sebastian and Beauregard met and the mating ceremony was hillarious.

The interactions between the main characters were sweet most of the time. I kept waiting to see that first kiss though, but it never happened. I felt it was missing. It also bothered me how Sebastian kept calling Beauregard "bunny" in almost every sentence he uttered. It was cute at first and would have been fine, if it hadn't been so often.

I'm not a big fan of easy acceptances, and there were quite a few in this story. I felt that Beauregard should have been more bothered that Sebastian had slept around before their mating, since Beauregard was raised with high values of waiting before being mated. Beauregard just shrugged it off. I also felt that Sebastian was too quick to realize that he'd been a scum to Beauregard toward the end. It was like someone pushed a button and Sebastian suddenly saw the light. I wish he'd come to the realization more gradually.

Despite the problems I had with the writing and story, I did enjoy it. It was cute, funny, and heartwrenching. I liked the part where Sebastian was in the dog house. I would have given this book two stars if Beauregard had accepted Sebastian too easily (I half expected he would, but was glad that he didn't). The pace was also decent and I never got bored.

Writing/Voice: 2/3
Characters/Development: 4/2
Plot/Pace: 4/5
Heat: 3 (Okay sex)
Stars: 3.5