5 shifter romance pairings that make me go "WTF?"

I read romance novels of all kinds: Historical, erotic, contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, chick lit, sci fi, medical, thriller/suspense/mystery, medical, LGBT, cowboy (because WHY NOT, RIGHT?).  Short ones. Long ones. Medium ones. I like romance novels. I wouldn't say I'm a particularly romantic person, but I love happy-ever-after moments. It's a feelgood thing, I suppose. And I have a particular fondness for paranormal romances. Shifter romances, specifically. And by 'shifter' I mean shapeshifters. Mostly werewolves, or werecats (don't ask, just go with me, here). They usually involve werewolf/human, werewolf/werewolf, werecat/human or werecat/werecat (and sometimes different species of werecat ending up together - don't look at me, it's a legitimate thing in paranormal romance). Just lately, though, I've come across shifter pairings that make up their own wtfery category. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying they're horrible. I still read them! But I had that moment, however brief, where I went "QUE?!" with all of the titles listed below. BECAUSE THE PAIRINGS OMG. Don't take my word for it, read the rest of the post and you'll see what I mean.

Have you come across any strange shifter pairings you'd like to tell us about? (Or recommend).

1. Hedging his bets by Celia Kyle and Mina Carter
Honey loves running her bar and grill, catering to humans and shifters alike. But there are two things that dim her love of the place: cocky assholes who think they own the world, and cocky assholes who think they can flex their muscles and wreck her bar when throwing a temper tantrum. Unfortunately, the drop-dead gorgeous, hotter than hot, shifter man she secretly loves is both. Blake wants the curvaceous, gorgeous Honey in his bed. Now. He’s lusted (but not loved, let’s get that straight) after the luscious woman for months. True, he looks like a bad-boy biker mixed with a player and, yeah, he’s broken a few things in her bar… But only because the guys were hitting on his girl. With no hope of winning her over in sight, he does what any red-blooded werehedgehog would do in his position. He lies.

NOT held by Auckland Libraries. Available as an eBook from Amazon.com. The hero is a werehedgehog. A FREAKIN' WEREHEDGEHOG! I came across this book by happy accident when looking for something-or-other online (as you do - or maybe just as I do) and was all la-la-la-la-la-la-la *click* Wait, what? *scrolls back* He's a WEREHEDGEHOG? Because that's how I roll. Once I became aware of this title (I bought a copy from Amazon), it made me curious about what other kind of odd pairings (or maybe not 'odd' so much as 'out of the ordinary' - werewolves being the ordinary bahahaha) there might be. Et voila! This post was born.

2. Accidentally on porpoise ; Porpoiseful intent / Tymber Dalton
Two books in one. Accidentally on porpoise: Sean didn't expect to run into Mr. Right in his boat. Although when Emery claims to be a dolphin, Sean wonders how hard he got hit. Emery finds Sean hunkier than the piece of tail he's been chasing. Unfortunately, there are some willing to hurt Sean if Emery won't let him go. Porpoiseful intent: What do you get when you mix a hurricane, a houseful of dolphin shifters a pair of oblivious human parents, a vengeful ex-lover, and an alligator shifter with a warped sense of humor? Sean and Emery are about to find out when vengeance returns...?

NO WAY. Ohemgee. A dolphin - they're DOLPHINS. That's a new one on me.

3. Doe and the wolf / Eve Langlais
What happens when a predator falls for his prey? Bounty hunting is the perfect job for a maverick wolf; flexible hours, decent pay, the thrill of the chase. But Everett never counted on a doe stopping him in his furry tracks. Dawn was a prisoner of Mastermind and ended up experimented on, against her wishes. On the run from Furry United Coalition agents, she ends up in the arms-and bed-of a lupine bounty hunter. Instinct tells her to run when she gets a chance because everyone knows not to trust the big, bad wolf, but her heart begs her to stay. When the result of genetics gone wrong rears its mutated head and threatens both of their lives, will they manage to survive and discover if a wolf deserves a happily ever after? Looking for help in recovering a fugitive? The Lone Wolf Agency can help you. We specialize in huffing and puffing criminals back where they belong, behind bars. Also: Lion and the falcon, and try the eBook anthology that includes Bunny and the bear, Swan and the bear, and Croc and the fox by Langlais.

Okay, so at the risk of sounding dumb...wouldn't he want to eat her as a snack??

4. Beast behaving badly / Shelly Laurenston
Ten years after Blayne Thorpe first encountered Bo Novikov, she still can't get the smoothtalking shifter out of her head. Now he's shadowing her in New York - all seven-plus feet of him - determined to protect her from stalkers who want to use her in shifter dogfights. Even if he has to drag her off to an isolated Maine town where the only neighbours are other bears almost as crazy as he is. Let sleeping dogs lie. Bo knows it's good advice, but he can't leave Blayne be. She may insist Bo's nothing but a pain in her delectable behind, but polar bears have patience in spades. Soon she'll realize how good they can be together. And when she does, animal instinct tells him it'll be worth the wait.

I heart Laurenston's Pride series and, out of all of the male shifters, Bo Novikov is one of my favourite characters, but I'll never get over the fact that he's half polar bear/half lion. Which, not coincidentally, makes me all WTF?? And then I try to avoid the mental imagery in my head because yikes.

5. A tiger's claim : with a special novella: Winter eve / Lia Davis
A tiger's claims: As the Alpha's only daughter Shayna Andrews has always been treated like a rare gem, protected like royalty, and she's suffocating. Her longing to be independent has driven her to sneak out one evening after dinner. After relishing in being able to run free without an escort, she finds herself face-to-face with the enemy, miles from home, and nearly loses her life until a lone wolf comes to her aid. Travis Hunter's main objective is to destroy the Onyx Pack--a group of drug using, murdering rogue shifters. His seek-and-destroy plans are put on hold when he rescues a female from a brutal attack. The beautifully exotic tiger shifter, Shayna, stirs a passion he thought died with his long-lost mate. When Shay's first heat cycle slams into her, Travis has no choice but to submit to her needs--and his own. But there is always a price to sleeping with the Pack princess. Not only will they have to face her Pack, Shay and Travis will have to deal with a mating that is beyond a single night and could have consequences more than either of them had thought. And when Travis finds out Shay wears the enemy's brand, things will go from bad to worse. Warning: One alpha female who doesn't take no for an answer, a wolf with more on the line than just his heart, and a combustible attraction that's sure to cause more than one sweaty night.

A tiger and a wolf. QUE? And yet I know I'll read it, still.

5 romance novel covers/characters/titles that make me go "QUE?

"Love makes you do the wacky."
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I'm an unabashed romance reader. Of all kinds: paranormal, historical, contemporary, LGBTQ, erotic, Mills & Boon, fanfic - you name it, and I'll read it at least once. Sure, sometimes I get brassed off by ultra-alpha heroes and appallingly ditzy heroines and dubcon-as-love or stalking-as-love. Really, let's not go there. (Even though in my head I've gone there already and am seething at the very thought of it). And absolutely I get ten kinds of mad about how sometimes, in romance novels, I'll almost-but-not-quite willingly accept behaviour from heroes that, in real life, would see me slapping a trespass order on someone. So, sure, I love romance as a genre, but I'm not blind to what I perceive as some of its faults/quirks/whatever you want to call it. Discounting the above, I'm a fool for picking by strange/funny seeming plots, covers and titles. Seriously. The odder the better, probably. I read the synopsis and go "Wait, what? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" and then request it. Because I'm an idiot, obviously. Or I see the title and think "NO YOU JUST DID NOT!" and, yeah, I request it. Or look at the cover in all its 3D terrible-ness and say "COME TO MAMA!" and, omg, I request it. These five below are all examples of this. And you know what? I'm not even embarrassed. (That should be a romance hashtag, I swear to Hades. I can see it now: #notevenkidding #notevenembarrassed #notevenashamed).

PS: I miss working in the same office as Danielle and Natalie :( Every 'new books lists are posted' day we would amuse ourselves by reading aloud from the romance lists and rolling our eyes, shaking our heads and, in my case, hooting with ribald laughter before promptly ordering ALL OF THE THINGS. Because I'm mature like that.

Top 5 most challenged books of 2012 (US)

"One man's vulgarity is another's lyric."
- John Marshall Harlan, Supreme Court justice, 1971

I am endlessly fascinated by the American Library Association's frequently challenged book lists. In fact, I was casting my eye over the 2012 list just this morning (hence this post). It's one of those love/hate things with me. I love that people are thinking about wider issues when it comes to books. I adore that these are being discussed on such a big scale. I heart that a lot of the books that are listed are ones that I've read (and sometimes even enjoyed). I hate (and I really do try not to use that word at all) that people feel they can think for me, that they better know what I should find offensive or questionable or inappropriate. This doesn't sit well with me. I feel like I should be the only one who can make that judgement on my own behalf. (Or, you know, The Office of Film and Literature Classification).

Where I come a cropper is in acknowledging that I'm not a parent, and 4 out of the 5 books listed below are kids/teen books.

I happen to think my parents did a good job at raising me. Admittedly, that's bias talking because, naturally enough, I happen to think I'm awesomeness personified. Or pretty darn close to it. I'm not a parent. Mostly because the idea of having children fills me with fear. The thought of being responsible for another person that isn't myself, and putting their care and well being ahead of my own, is just plain scary. I don't want to do it. I'm not sure I could do it. (In fact, I'd prefer to be a tan Peter Pan forever, please and thank you). I'd like to think that I'd be the epitome of grace under fire as a parent, however I'm not about to test that theory any time soon.

So where am I going with this? As a child, my parents let me read as widely as they could. I had read Plato's Republic by the time I was 9 because dad said I'd enjoy it. (I didn't, but I appreciated the thought). Robert Ludlum's espionage stories were my go-to-comfort-reads around that time as well (OH! The feels I got from The Parsifal Mosaic). Louis L'Amour instilled in me a lifelong love of cowboys and First Peoples' history in the US. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina infuriated me beyond my imaginings (more so than War and Peace) because WHERE WAS MY HAPPY ENDING, DARN IT? Kafka's The Trial became a story I never forgot. (And one that one of my lecturers would refer to constantly throughout my three years as a tertiary student umpteen years ago). My parents never told me what I could or couldn't read. They never set those limits. If anything, they would take note of what I was reading, and find more just like it. I think that is, in large part, why I am who I am today. It never occurred to them to stop me - or my friends, or other school mates/fellow library users of my age - from reading whatever we wanted to. I asked my mum about that once when I was in high school. Her response was "You're my concern - not anybody else. As for other kids, let their parent be the parent." And that's kind of my attitude, too.

Perhaps this is why I've never fully understood why anybody would want to ban or challenge a books. I understand people wanting to object. I understand people wanting to raise awareness, or wanting to correct misinformation in a book. (Or a film, or anything else for that matter). I most definitely understand why some people would protest about certain books over others. I wouldn't go so far as to say that censorship offends me. Certainly, though, it scares me. The idea that someone believes that they can think for me, that they better know what I should object to, is somewhat unpalatable to me. I have to say, I'm not likely to ever want to challenge or ban a book. What other people choose to read or watch is none of my business. I've got enough to worry about juggling my own neverending pile of THINGS and STUFF in the way of books/music/films, thanks. Doesn't anybody else?

(Note: Wow. This post intro ran away from me and ended up being somewhat disgruntled/ranty sounding).