Straight Reading from the Library: Stricken by Marcia Collette

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READ THE BLURB

Personal tragedy convinces half-werewolf Alexa York to get away to the town of McCormick, Pennsylvania where she’s charged with protecting Dr. Aiden Joss, physician to the supernatural community. Not only does she need the money, she needs the distraction. Unfortunately, she gets it in spades when Joss’s personal issues and a myriad of dangerously sick patients make her new job nearly impossible.

A mysterious disease is running its way through the New York Order of the Amazons and leaving bodies in its wake. The same warrior who had chosen her clan over Joss has asked for his help. Even though the disease is real, Alexa has reason to believe his ex’s sincerity is not.

Given the other numerous problems she has to deal with that are outside of her job description, Dr. Joss might be the biggest threat to his own safety. But, protecting him comes first. That’s difficult to do when his efforts to find an antidote put everyone in his remote clinic in danger, including Alexa.

READ THE REVIEW

I've read Marcia Collette before, but not this series. Still, even though this was book two, I snapped it up because I'm a fan of her writing prowess.  I wasn't disappointed.

Mostly, she lets us know the important facts from book one that we missed. I likely still didn't catch some things because I haven't read it, but mostly I didn't miss reading it (though I think I'm going to have to go back and do so, just because it sounds like a good read!).

Alexa is a hybrid werewolf, and the pack hates her for her human blood.  She's married to Matt, a purebred werewolf and it's created a lot of strife for them, but Matt's a good guy and sticks by her. Shortly before the start of this story, though, they suffer a loss that tears them apart (sort of).  As a result, Matt's only in this story for a few pages, and honestly, I missed him because I'm a huge romantic.  And that missing romance for our heroine was really the only downside to the book.

The author creates an amazing group of secondary characters here and I got attached to them all pretty quickly.  I love the idea of a doctor who only treats paranormals... certainly made life interesting for all!  Sammy and Joss and Claudia and maybe even a couple of the Amazons ... boy do I hope they show up again in future books. 

There is a whole bunch of action, and the author does a bang up job with it. I think writing a fight scene has to be one of the hardest things to do, but she handles them perfectly. Plenty of clear description and enough of the internal thoughts that I could "see" what was happening so clearly.  The mystery of who was poisoning the Amazons, too, was well handled and kept me guessing for some time.

I feel like a bit of a fan girl, but this is my second book by the author and my admiration is only growing for her.  She's got a great imagination and the skills to translate that clearly to paper.  I only hope the next book has just a little more romance for the primary character .... my soft heart craves it!

4.5 Stars!

READ AN EXCERPT

“Sounds like you’ve already given it enough thought and gave up.”

“Well, what do you propose I do, Ms. York? Put out a want ad?”

“No, but you ask around. Start with people you trust. Hell, I know one guy in Boston who might actually be interested enough to hear your proposal.” That was assuming my husband’s friend, Tate, wanted to risk being ostracized by the Boston Pack, too.

Heck, Matt wasn’t even ostracized as much as he was chased out like a putrid mutt because he’d decided to mingle with a lower, half-bred species like me. Just like Matt who was a lawyer — another skill that was hard to come by in the supernatural community — Tate was a nurse practitioner who worked in a human hospital and was as close to a doctor as the Boston Pack would ever have.

Dr. Joss sighed and started back through the clinic.

I hurried after him and touched his arm. “I’m not letting you off the hook about the drinking, you know. If you care about your patients, you won’t be falling down drunk right before they call you out to their homes. Send Sammy or Macy, but not you.”

“I’ll have you know, Ms. York, I’m able to metabolize alcohol faster than the average human.”

“Funny. Your making out with the carpet said otherwise.”

“When I care for your opinion, I’ll ask for it. In the meantime, you’ll do as you’re told or walk.”

“Finally. A sound piece of advice.”

I left him standing there.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bestselling author Marcia Colette didn’t discover her love for reading until her late teens when she started reading John Saul and progressed to works by Bentley Little, Stephen King and Laurell K. Hamilton. Her reading tastes convinced her to write paranormals where curses cause people to shift into spiders, psychotic and telekinetic mothers are locked away in attics, and murderous doppelgangers are on a rampage. Let's not forget about the hunky werecheetah coalitions who live throughout North Carolina. As long as she can make it believable, that's all that matters.

Born and raised in upstate New York, Marcia now lives in North Carolina with her mom and beautiful daughter. They’re not raising zombies in the backyard. There aren’t any hellhounds living in the den, only a rabbit and a cockatiel. So where she gets her ideas is as much a mystery to her as anyone else.

The best place to find her--when she's not stirring up trouble--is on her blog where she loves connecting with readers.

Links:
www.marciacolette.com
http://marciacolette.wordpress.com
http://twitter.com/MarciaColette
www.facebook.com/marciacolette
www.goodreads.com/marcia_colette
http://www.amazon.com/Marcia-Colette/e/B002BOHDOE/
http://purplesword.com/

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