A WOLF AFTER MY OWN HEART

A nerdy shifter and a quirky human become the spontaneous guardians of an orphaned bear-cub shifter in this paranormal romantic comedy.

Lila Kai is used to being new in town, frequently uprooting her life when the mood strikes. For now, she's decided to settle in Lilydale, Minnesota, with dreams of owning her own home and continuing her business as a teddy-bear surgeon—she repairs broken or ripped stuffed animals for children. Moving day is already a stressful affair, but she manages to hit a wolf with her vehicle and stumble across an injured bear cub, which she then takes home. Lila isn't fazed by the cub's transformation into a 10-year-old girl named Sally Smalls or by a handsome, disheveled man named Oz ripping her screen door off its hinges. Oz Adway is a wolf shifter and accountant who has lofty dreams of becoming a caseworker for the Interspecies Placement Agency. Sally is his first case and is having a hell of a time with it; she doesn't believe her parents have died and is scared of entering the foster system. Oz and Lila frequently collide, using Sally as an excuse to see one another, until things start getting dangerous. After all, Lila is a human in a town full of shifters, and there are some who'd prefer it if she packed up and headed elsewhere. She's also an odd duck with a bit of a mysterious past, and her twee eccentricity quickly loses its charm. Oz is just as big of a goofball, tripping over his words whenever he's in Lila's presence. They clearly have fun with one another, but the romantic chemistry isn't there. The stakes on whether they should or shouldn't start a relationship never feel very high, as both are incredibly accepting and flexible. The novelty of caseworkers for supernatural children is the best part of the book.

For a more patient reader.