Kendall McKennaRezensionen

3.5 Stars

I would say that this was one of the more angstier of McKenna's works. She continues to write what I assume to be a realistic portrayal of all things military, and she always does this well. Despite the story not being smack dab in the middle of a combat zone, she does touch on the ramifications of war on its soldiers and how they cope (or don't) with PTSD. Overall fans won't be disappointed with the palpable UST between the 2 MC's, and the frequent smex is of course, good. This was another win in my book.

synopsis:
adam doesn't know a lot about werewolves, but somehow ends up becoming friends with some when he is driving trucks in iraq. the wolves at the camp are running amok, and when adam learns that dawson, who is his older brother's personal aide, is being sent over to deal with a pack that has gone wrong, he's angry at what he feels is his brother's interference. he's unwillingly attracted to dawson, mostly because of the association with his brother and the feeling that he can never measure up. when dawson arrives, things immediately change for the wolves, as dawson tries to bring order. as adam and dawson get to know one another, adam starts to feel that maybe he does deserve to be alive, and that maybe he can be a contributing member of society.

what i liked: i liked seeing adam grow past his hurt and pain from when he was younger. i liked seeing his relationship with his brother slowly knit together. i also liked that adam wouldn't let dawson tell him any myths or legends, but made him just say what he meant. i liked how strong adam became mentally, and i liked how much dawson believed in adam.

what i didn't like: the editing. i also didn't really like how much time adam spent agonizing over whether or not dawson liked him, instead of being as straightforward with dawson as he wanted dawson to be with him.

Upped to 5 stars per resolution.

synopsis:
lucas has never dealt a lot with shifters, but his platoon is augmented with shifters, and then he gets the true alpha of the marine pack. lucas doesn't know how to deal with him, and his commanding officer doesn't really provide support, so lucas does what he can to be dominant but understanding. he doesn't understand his reaction to noah, the true alpha. as the two get to know one another in combat situation, lucas has to overcome his human sensibilities and realize that wolves think and react differently.

what i liked: i liked noah and lucas together. i liked that lucas was willing to learn and didn't think that he knew everything about wolves. i liked that wolves were not a secret society, and i liked the relationship between humans and wolves. i liked that noah was so protective, and i liked the build in relationship between all the characters, not just lucas and noah. i liked the story and how the strengths of the characters shone through.

what i didn't like: the commas. oh, my, goodness, the, commas. so, many, unecessary, commas. just ridiculous. i would usually put this in the editing/grammar section of my review, but it really is the only thing that stopped me from rating this 4.5 stars or higher because it annoyed me so much

2.5 stars

Read as part of [b:Semper Fidelis|24058781|Semper Fidelis|T.A. Chase|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1419444335s/24058781.jpg|43656495] Anthology.

Sergeant Noah Hammond is a Marine, but he's also a werewolf. When Noah is assigned to Lieutenant Lucas Young's platoon, he finds himself both drawn to his new commander but wanting to challenge him at every turn. Lucas doesn't have a lot of experience with shifters, but he's not about to let his authority go challenged without a response--and he can't ignore his own response to Noah's presence. The two find a balance that works, just in time to ship out on their deployment. The connection between them is intense, and it only seems to grow as they face the challenges of combat together.

I don't know. This all seemed a bit forced to me and almost superficial. I normally have no problem getting into military stories or shifter tales, and with this being both, I expected I'd enjoy this quite a bit. I guess it just wasn't my cup of tea...

2.5 stars

More of the same issues I had with previous books.
- It was too long because of unnecessary descriptions. Because of the interchangeable use of names and surnames of new characters, half the time I couldn't figure out what's going on.
- The relationship between the 2 MCs was all sex no substance. I think they had one good talk in the entire book.
- I'm sorry everyone, but the dirty talk was repetitive and the sex scenes put me to sleep. I skimmed most of them.
- The kidnapping was a lazy way to make Adam finally give up his resistance to the relationship.
And as someone who has tortured himself with guilt over the course of several years, he was "healed" too easily. It was too close to magical dick syndrome for my taste.

On the bright side, the military jargon wasn't as bad as in the first book, and I did enjoy the first 20%.

½

This book was...boring. Mainly the parts with Jeremy and Tim. I couldn't feel their relationship, nor their love. It was all about leaving hickeys and sexing like rabbits. Don't get me wrong, sexing is a good thing, but in this book it felt like the writer used it in place of good old conversation and making a connection. So in the end, it was an insta-lust book. And I admit to skimming the sex pages, because they usually put me to sleep.

I did love the parts of the book concerning werewolf culture. I think not enough attention was given to that, and I would love to see more development on that plan.

Re-read March 23, 2015
Still 2.5 stars. It was fun, even though Lucas was beyond dense and poor Noah suffered so much.½

65% in and I am seriously wondering why wasting even more time on this.

Why did I bother reading SotW at all? I am a freaking masochist, that's why, but even then, I can't stand this book anymore. I don't give a flying bird if something or someone might prevent "Tim and Jeremy's mate-bond". Whatevah. The only question I really want answered - is this the same Tim, A Walking Werewolf Encyclopedia, from volume one? I mean - what the hell happened? Why is he so clueless?

Not going into other faults that plague the story and the writing or else I won't ever shut up.

Because I have already invested so much in this book, and I am not talking about the steep price, I am going to round my 65% to the nearest hundred and claim the books as "finished". I need some kind of a reward for the boredom and eye-rolling I went through even if it were for my masochistic perverted purposes.

1 star

Kinda sorta liked Jeremy. Maybe. I don't know.
Hence half a star upgrade from one on Booklikes and Leafmarks.

1.5 stars.

Unimpressed.

There is a very disappointing amount of military action, considering the location as well as the length of the book. The story reads like a manual on werewolves, mostly werewolves' mating/sex. The language is dry and heavy with unnecessary details and peculiar military terms.

HUGE pet peeve: specialized language and/or foreign language.

I am not a native speaker. I suspect a few of these words/abbreviations might be well known to those who grew up in the US, but then again, a lot of it is still a mystery to even your average American, who has nothing to do with the military - I know, I asked around and bugged the hell out of my husband and friends.

The book is not reader-friendly.

The author should have provided a list of military terms and their translation, but since she didn't, this is for those of you who is not "in the know":


Useful links:

- US Marine Military Ranks, Lowest to Highest

- List of US Marine Corps acronyms and expressions

- Glossary of Military Terms & Slang

A few take outs:

- NCO: Non Commissioned Officer

- Victor: Military Armored Vehicle

- Ka-Bar or K-bar: combat knife

- seven-mike: seven minutes

- oscar-mike: on the move

- Gunny: nickname for Gunnery Sergeant, improper to call a Master Gunnery Sergeant this

- RTB: return to base

- LPC: Leather Personnel Carrier. Combat boots or any shoes for that matter.

- OCS: Officer Candidate School or Officer Cadet School

- klick: kilometer

- BLUFOR: In military wargames, blue is generally used to represent friendly forces and red (though sometimes orange) to represent enemy forces.

- IDE: Improvised explosive device.

- EOD: Explosive Ordnance Disposal (Specialist Jobs).

- CP is, obviously, Combat Post, still took a sec for my mind to decypher. That's a sec that took me out of the story.

- five-hotel: Five Hours? HOTEL - military phonetic for the letter 'H'

- three-golf: (Have NO frigging clue - Mrella). GOLF - military phonetic for the letter 'G'

- MCRD: Marine Corps Recruit Depot

If you speak military, good for you. If not, I hope the list helps.

Like the previous book in this series, this one really caught my interest. There is just something in the way this author pulls me into the lives of these guys, makes me a part of their story, that I admire.

Like the first book, we have very strong characters. I still love the fact that the shifters aren't your arch-typical stereotype. While there was an instant kind of attraction, there was no "magical bond" that just "clicked into place when they gazed into each others eyes". They had to work for their relationship. There were misunderstandings, problems that needed to be solved or overcome, just like in the first book.

The military aspect was still present in this book, but wasn't the focus as much as it was in book 1. Where it was included, it was again well-rounded and made easy to follow. I have to admit I love that in these books. There was also a more sex in this book...a lot more sex lol! Very sexy and boy, did it get hot in here at times, but to be honest, there was nearly too much of it by the end.

However, that is only a minor gripe in what really is becoming a favourite series of mine

After reading the two previous books in succession, I had to continue with this one. And boy, am I glad I did.

This is another really strong story, adding to what has become one of my favourite series. I'm a real sucker for strong Alpha males. And honestly, what more could I want here? All of the characters that play a part in this book are strong, sexy men with great personalities. All are alpha males, so there are clashes, issues that need solving. There is no instantaneous, miraculously disappearing problems in these books. Neither is there any long drawn-out, overdone issues either. That is what I really love about these books.

Now I just have to wait for the next one to come out... and there's no date on that yet! *pout*

This rating is based more on the length of this story, than the quality of it. I have to admit I felt a little cheated. It is extremely short, seems to end very abruptly and honestly, seems very unfinished. I honestly hope that the author uses this as a prequel to a much longer story for these two guys.

I'll admit this book surprised me. Why? Well, I suppose for starters I was expecting a fairly traditional shifters tale. Did I get that? Definitely not. There wasn't the typical "mate" identification. There wasn't the instant bond/link/understanding that seems to be so stereotypical of this genre. There were also other differences in the whole that made this book hard to put down.

Was it perfect? Well, no. There were a few instances where I honestly asked myself WTF? But that was overridden by the fantastic descriptions of the locations, the additional details in the extra characters in the story and the detail in which the military aspect was told. Add to that the hot, super sexy MC's, the sinfully hot encounters between them and you can see why I'm so happy with this book.

PTSD and the personal consequences of warfare are not an easy subject to deal with. Not for those who suffer from it, and not for their loved ones who are faced with, essentially, different people when they come back. Kendall McKenna does an excellent job showing the types of situations and reactions couples may have to deal with when one of them is affected. The result isn’t easy reading, but I found it well worth the effort, and one of the best stories in the ‘Semper Fidelis’ collection.

Marine officer Jamie may have made it back to his lover Tucker in one piece, with only a few physical scars to show for his year-long deployment, but his mental state is a different story. I didn’t understand his reactions at first, but once I realized what was going on, the things he did were as fascinating as they were scary. Nobody who has never been through the kind of hell Jamie had to endure while fighting the Taliban will be able to fully understand what it’s like, but this story gives an excellent, if painful, description of some of the consequences.

Tucker does not know what to do about the changes he sees in Jamie. He tries his best to deal with them, but he is in way over his head. Like any partner of someone suffering from PTSD he does eventually have to deal with his fears of losing Jamie – and the only way out is for him to make sure Jamie gets professional help. For their love to survive under these circumstances requires a minor miracle.

A lot of the more factual information about PTSD and some important details are missing due to how short this story is, but if you’re looking for an emotional sketch, a somewhat shocking description of some of the consequences of warfare, give this short story a go.


NOTE: This book was provided by Pride Publishing for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.

Who doesn’t like hot military men? And I liked the guys in this collection of stories a lot because they were struggling with their emotions—not something you get to see very often in reality unless you are close to a man in uniform. And while military PR people all over the planet would probably cringe at seeing their elite’s innermost secrets revealed like this, the undeniable truth is that they are human, like the rest of it, and deserve to be loved for who they are.

The story settings range from the frontlines, be they a storm at sea or a desert full of hostiles, to the home front, where some men go through heavy adjustments when returning to civilian life. They cover the kinds of issues military men face, including having to deal with loss, PTSD, and leaving loved ones behind for long periods of painful separation. Above all, they show the kind of courage and determination needed to become a member of the very elite of the military: Marines, members of the Coast Guard, or Naval officers. All of the men in this anthology love deeply, and are ready to fight for that love. So, if you are so inclined, sit back and enjoy what the authors have come up with for you.

Anomaly by S.A. McAuley
In a somewhat amusing confrontation of “man against machine”, this story focuses on Galen, a Marine known for his ability to detect drones, and Zach, a man determined to design a drone offense system that can beat any human. Galen is pretty sure about his abilities on a professional level, but he is equally insecure about his skill for attracting the kind of man he is interested in. Zach isn’t exactly a man magnet either, or so he thinks, and I found the resulting “dance” between two men who are normally awkward and somewhat nerdy very entertaining. Their antics, be they chats or interactions in real life, went from cute to hot, and the developing relationship gave me hope for more.

Always Ready by T.A. Chase
Suspense on the high seas is the focus of this story, and Coast Guard rescue swimmer Dean is out to save lives while exploring the possibilities of sharing his life with the man he has fallen in love with. Phil is a fisherman, and makes a living braving the Bering Sea on the family boat. The descriptions of icy waters, people potentially freezing to death almost before they can drown, and the desperate determination of the Coast Guard to save them before it is too late, held my attention. Dean’s reaction to the news of Phil’s ship having capsized was a little too professional and distant for me, but it is entirely possible Dean was just trying to protect himself. Don’t read this unless you’re snug and warm and far from any ocean!

A Ring and a Vow by Devon Rhodes
In this wonderful sequel to ‘A Ring and a Promise’, Marine officer Owen and Naval aviator Cary are back. This time, they intend to bridge the gap between the two arms of the service on a more permanent basis, and I loved watching them go through the necessary steps until they got to the “I do” that has been eluding them for years. Neither Cary’s nightmares nor time restraints imposed by uncertainty about the next posting can stop them from forging the future they have both been waiting for. This is a sweet story without major drama, well, unless you count wedding preparations and dealing with flower arrangements and relatives. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how Owen and Cary were doing!

My Marine by L.E. Franks and Sara York
Marine Sean Kelly works in intelligence, so falling for an Afghani translator isn’t exactly something he planned for, nor does he want to succumb to Akim’s charms. Unfortunately he can’t help himself, and even the resulting mental anguish is pretty theoretical in the face of Akim’s attributes. And then the enigmatic man vanishes without a trace, and Sean is left wondering what is going on. It turns out Akim has a well-kept secret, and it leaves both Sean and him needing to deal with some pretty basic “can I trust him” considerations. While this isn’t an intense and emotional thriller, I found it to be a pretty tension-filled short story.

Soul Sick by Kendall McKenna
Marine officer Jamie may have made it back to his lover Tucker in one piece, with only a few physical scars to show for his year-long deployment, but his mental state is a different story. I didn’t understand his reactions at first, but once I realized what was going on, the things he did were as fascinating as they were scary. Nobody who has never been through the kind of hell Jamie had to endure while fighting the Taliban will be able to fully understand what it’s like, but this story gives an excellent, if painful, description of some of the consequences. A lot of the more factual information about PTSD and some important details are missing due to how short this story is, but if you’re looking for an emotional sketch, a somewhat shocking description of some of the consequences of warfare, give this read a go. It isn’t easy reading, but I found it well worth the effort, and one of the best in this collection.

Safe Shores by Morticia Knight
This is a great story about two men who have never really emotionally opened up to each other even though they’ve been together for three years. Partly this is due to the small town Kirk lives in, has always lived in, as a fisherman, it isn’t exactly gay-friendly. But not everyone is a homophobe either, so Kirk is beginning to think about telling Coast Guard officer Shane how he feels about him. Interestingly, Shane is in the same place, and the result is explosive. In a sense the increased intimacy prepares them to better deal with the catastrophe of Kirk’s teenage son getting lost at sea in the midst of an awful storm. Shane is the only qualified rescue swimmer around, and he is determined to save the kid’s life. Emotionally explosive and very hot, these two men will never be the same after going through their fears together. And what a perfect ending!


NOTE: This book was provided by Totally Bound Publishing for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.

Reviewed here along with [b:Brother in Arms|17284064|Brothers In Arms (The Recon Diaries, #1)|Kendall McKenna|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1359095014s/17284064.jpg|19092070].

Another great book by [a:Kendall McKenna|5771850|Kendall McKenna|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1358622884p2/5771850.jpg], but not my favorite of her works. While I really enjoyed the military aspects of the story, much like I did in her fantastic [b:Strength of the Pack|17258293|Strength of the Pack (The Tameness of the Wolf, #1)|Kendall McKenna|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358531696s/17258293.jpg|23858530], which now lives on my fuck yeah, 5 stars shelf as one of my favorite M/M romance books of all time, [b:Brother In Arms|17284064|Brothers In Arms (The Recon Diaries, #1)|Kendall McKenna|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1359095014s/17284064.jpg|19092070] relied too much on the military aspects of the story and gave us far too little of the wonderful interaction between MCs Kellan and Jonah. I had heard from other folks here at GoodReads that this was the case, so I actually waited to read this book until the sequel [b:Fire For Effect|17403478|Fire For Effect (The Recon Diaries, #2)|Kendall McKenna|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361352257s/17403478.jpg|24239761] came out, and I'm glad I did. But while [b:Fire For Effect|17403478|Fire For Effect (The Recon Diaries, #2)|Kendall McKenna|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361352257s/17403478.jpg|24239761] contained much more interaction between our heroes, the main focus was still the military storyline.

There is definitely a place in the world of fiction for a military suspense novel that includes two main characters that happen to be gay. I'm sure several have already been written and are readily available to the public. It just so happens that I would prefer not to read this kind of book with all the other books available to read. My preference is to read a M/M romance novel set within a military suspense theme backdrop. I got that with [b:Strength of the Pack|17258293|Strength of the Pack (The Tameness of the Wolf, #1)|Kendall McKenna|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358531696s/17258293.jpg|23858530] and loved every second of it. But I didn't feel it here or with the sequel. But, again, [a:Kendall McKenna|5771850|Kendall McKenna|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1358622884p2/5771850.jpg] is a wonderful author and even if I am disappointed that these books weren't what I had hoped, I can still recommend them and be very glad that I read them. Riveting storyline, fascinating, fleshed out characters, incredibly hot sex scenes.

I have a GREAT idea! Ms. McKenna can make it all up to me by writing a third sequel concentrating just on these two cute boys and putting their careers in the background. Maybe a family drama? Medical emergency? How 'bout it? I'd love to read these boys again.

If I could give this book 6 stars, I most certainly would!

August 2013 edit: Even though it hasn't even been a month yet, I re-read this again this weekend. Loved it even more! The ending is what stuck out to me this time. It was so incredibly perfect. While I would gobble up a sequel if one were written, I don't think I'd be disappointed if one weren't. I'll sing it from the rooftops. This book is perfection.

The third book in [a:Kendall McKenna|5771850|Kendall McKenna|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-F-50x66-2a9d702c2a0f483c9f7dd119cc28a9a7.jpg]'s The Recon Diaries series tells MC Corey Yarwood's story. (The first two books in the series concentrated on Jonah and Kellan, so this could be read as a stand alone. Jonah and Kellan make appearances, but their roles are explained well enough where I believe you can easily follow the story. This book is, in my opinion, far superior to the other two.) Corey is suffering greatly with a nasty case of PTSD and self medicating with alcohol when he meets up-and-coming actor/musician MC Sean Chandler. Sean Chandler is the kind of guy straight woman and gay men everywhere fall asleep at night dreaming about. Kind, considerate, sexy, motivated, and he is all about getting to know Corey, PTSD baggage and all.

As the story progresses, we get into a whole lot of what has caused Corey's PTSD and while that was riveting and highly enjoyable, I kept turning the page hoping they would get back to his relationship with Sean. We really didn't learn a lot about Sean so I'm going to take that as a sign that Ms. McKenna is planning on giving us a sequel at some point. *please*

As far as the love story between our two heroes goes, this one could not have been more perfect. The emotion between these two men literally took my breath away. I actually stopped and re-read their first kiss three times because it was so powerful and emotional. The conversation they had before they made love for the first time? Made. Me. Cry. I kid you not. And I'm not one of those mushy, sappy book readers! Yeah, I like my M/M romance with emotion, but I also like my military men to get down and dirty and to fuck like animals! And these two did, While making me cry. I guess only [a:Kendall McKenna|5771850|Kendall McKenna|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-F-50x66-2a9d702c2a0f483c9f7dd119cc28a9a7.jpg] can make me do that, because she made me do that in [b:Strength of the Pack|17258293|Strength of the Pack (The Tameness of the Wolf, #1)|Kendall McKenna|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1358531696s/17258293.jpg|23858530] too.

[b:The Final Line|17927956|The Final Line (Recon Diaries #3)|Kendall McKenna|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1368677485s/17927956.jpg|25128039] is on my fuck yeah, 5 stars list and on my favorites list. I can recommend it to everyone. I absolutely LOVED this book. Read it and enjoy. It is perfection.

[a:Kendall McKenna|5771850|Kendall McKenna|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-e0ba3b90c110cd67123d6a850d85373e.png] has done it again with her second installment of the Tameness of the Wolf series [b:Strength of the Wolf|18221991|Strength of the Wolf (The Tameness of the Wolf, #2)|Kendall McKenna|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1375412130s/18221991.jpg|25655222]. This book has everything we've come to expect from Ms. McKenna. Real military drama. Complex, interesting, three dimensional characters. An exciting, edge-of-your-seat plot. Off-the-rails, ridiculously powerful, emotional sex between the MCs. You get it all with this installment. Unfortunately, I believe this book will be best read when the entire series is eventually available. This will not deter from my 5 star rating, but there was not a natural progression in this story, a definite beginning and end, that could have easily made it a stand alone with basic knowledge of the characters and their place in this universe. There are a lot of unanswered questions we are left with at the end, and that is fine because we do know we are getting a sequel (up next are Terrell and Kai's story) but many of the questions have to do with Tim and Jeremy. It left me feeling a bit cheated and unfulfilled. But I still loved every word and every moment Tim and Jeremy were together. Their chemistry was incredible and made for a perfect pairing. And it was such a delight to have favorites Lucas and Noah, from [b:Strength of the Pack|17258293|Strength of the Pack (The Tameness of the Wolf, #1)|Kendall McKenna|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1358531696s/17258293.jpg|23858530], along for most of this ride.

So, loved the book, 5 stars, but while the first installment [b:Strength of the Pack|17258293|Strength of the Pack (The Tameness of the Wolf, #1)|Kendall McKenna|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1358531696s/17258293.jpg|23858530] made my favorites shelf and my fuck yeah, 5 stars shelf and is hands down my absolute favorite shifter story ever, [b:Strength of the Wolf|18221991|Strength of the Wolf (The Tameness of the Wolf, #2)|Kendall McKenna|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1375412130s/18221991.jpg|25655222] didn't make any of these lists/shelves. But if you have read and enjoyed [b:Strength of the Pack|17258293|Strength of the Pack (The Tameness of the Wolf, #1)|Kendall McKenna|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1358531696s/17258293.jpg|23858530], this is a must read and I can highly recommend it. I get shivers just thinking about the bite marks! *shiver*

OK, so super delicious short wolf shifter story from the Goddess [a:Kendall McKenna|5771850|Kendall McKenna|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-e0ba3b90c110cd67123d6a850d85373e.png]. Short, a touch of angst, hot sex, thank you ma'am! But this is actually a collection of 3 short stories of 3 different species of shifters set in the same small state park in Kentucky. Unfortunately, Ms. McKenna's story, Devil Dog, Bad Wolf, didn't compel me enough to want to read the other 2 stories by the other authors. The draw here for me was Kendall McKenna. LOVE HER!

You will have to look at other reviews for the other 2 stories, but thumbs up on Devil Dog, Bad Wolf!

Full review tomorrow, but late night wrap-up:

Absolutely fucking loved the book! Best sex Kendall McKenna has done to date. 5 stars, favorites shelf, fuck, yeah shelf, highly recommended.

Amazing blend of military/werewolves. Completely new. 4.5 stars.

Amazing blend of military/werewolves. Completely new. 4.5 stars.