Review: Taming the Lion by Elizabeth Coldwell

Title: Taming the Lion (Lionhearts: Book Two)

Author: Elizabeth Coldwell

Pages/Word Count: 148 Pages

At a Glance: A young, pouting lion shifter and a sexy archaeology professor. What more could you want?

Reviewed By: Jennifer

Blurb: Will he sacrifice everything for the sake of his human mate?

Thwarted in his efforts to become head of the Amsterdam pride of lion shifters, Kaspar de Wit flees to England. He finds himself in Bath, home of the biggest English pride, and begins to make a new life among friends. What he doesn’t know is that he’s moved to a city steeped in bloody ritual. Destiny seems to have drawn Kaspar to the place where he’ll meet his mate–but does something more horrifying lie in wait for him, too?

Jon Fellowes, professor of archaeology at Bath University, is obsessed with the standing stones that dominate the Somerset landscape and the people who raised them. He’s heard tales of strange creatures, half-man, half-lion, that once roamed the land, but dismisses them till he meets the beautiful Kaspar and learns the bizarre truth of his nature. As an ancient rite is revived and terror stalks the countryside, can Jon and Kaspar overcome the natural distrust between humans and shifters to find true love? Or will one of them be forced to make the ultimate sacrifice?

Reader Advisory: This book contains scenes of voyeurism, MM orgies and bloody violence.

Review: Disclaimer — I did not read the first book in this series. I didn’t know it was a series until I started reading, and have a sneaking suspicion some of the mentioned characters had appeared elsewhere before. (By now you should know my MO, haha.) That said, you don’t need to read the first book in this series to understand the second. The characters are different, and while events are hinted at from the first book, they only play a passing role in the first few pages, because after that, Kaspar runs away to lick his wounds.

I loved Kaspar and Jon. They’re just really sweet and I feel for Kaspar. He expects to be made head of the pride until Arjan (from the first book) is welcomed back by his father. Kaspar is young and rash, and so he runs away from Amsterdam to try and make it in the pride in Bath, England. He’s not there long when things just go right for him, including meeting his destined mate, Jon, who happens to be human.

Jon is a sweet, nerdy professor who likes archaeology and local legends. He’s interested in standing stones, and has done research on pagan beliefs of half-lion beings. Little did he know he’d get so intimately involved with one.

I had to laugh at Kaspar. He’s young and he knows he can be foolish. He doesn’t think much about human mates, having just met Arjan’s human mate, Kees, and being confused by the whole thing. But when Jon walks into his life, he realizes fate has thrown him for a loop. His reaction to meeting Jon was hilarious to me, and I found myself laughing as he accepted everything. He was just so easy going about it all.

Of course, the book isn’t all fun and games. There’s a local…group(?) of men trying to resurrect an old god, and they think sacrificing men at the height of orgasm on the standing stones will do this. So, there is a bit of violence and dubious consent. I say dubious because the men are mostly willing for the sex part, not so much with the murder part. Also, giving later reactions, they’re probably drugged, so how much is actual consent at that point?

I’m definitely going to go back and read the first book in this series, and I sincerely hope there will be more in the future. I think I know who the next character will be, too, just based on the brief description, but we’ll see. I do want to read more about Jon and Kaspar, though. I just love their devotion to each other, and I want to see what the pride’s reaction will be when they actually meet Jon.