Deceived By The Others Reviews

Deceived By The Others (H+W Investigations #3)

- Jess Haines

Publisher: Kensington Publishing Group

They're here, and they're real. . .werewolves, vampires, mages, and other creatures of the night. For New York P.I. Shiarra Waynest, taking care of Others business started out as a way to stay solvent. But now business is getting very, very complicated. . .
Shiarra's relationship with sexy werewolf Chaz may be somewhat unconventional. Still, after a few bumps, Shia is finally ready to get serious. That means meeting family—or in this case, bringing Chaz's entire werewolf pack along for a rollicking full-moon weekend in the Catskills. Soon after they arrive, threatening notes appear, warning Chaz to go home. Then their cabin is ransacked. Shia starts digging to find out whether it's the work of upstart teenaged werewolves or something more sinister. Yet as rumors about her vampire connections arouse the pack's hostility, Shia has to contend with other dangers. Not just from an adversary about to make his fatal intentions known, but from a threat that's even closer than she knows...

Shia has come a long way since her initial days of prejudice and revulsion at the Others. She’s still a long way from completely embracing them but has learnt to accept that not all of them are evil. Her boyfriend, Chaz for example, as he is also an alpha werewolf. In order to better understand him, she has agreed to go away for the weekend of the full moon with him and his pack in the woods. She is even thinking about signing a contract with him…however, the weekend doesn’t work out to be quite the romantic, lazy weekend they were both hoping for. There is dissent in the pack ranks and someone else seems to stalking the pack and Shia in particular…

After a couple of books dancing around the subject, Shia and Chaz’s relationship is put front and foremost in this story. This is perhaps the most emotional story so far as Shia finally allows herself to commit to Chaz. I have to confess I wasn’t that keen on Chaz in the first book, Hunted By The Others but I got to understand a bit more why Shia liked him in Taken By The Others. Here I felt like I was put through a full roller-coaster of emotions and I now have no idea how I feel! I really don’t want to discuss any spoilers, but let me say that a lot of different elements build up this plot – and some will have far reaching consequences for the series. The story starts slow before moving to the woods and introducing Chaz’s pack, the Sunstrikers. It was interesting to see Shia away from the city, away from Royce and her friends and standing up for herself with the pack.

There’s not a lot of action as such – this is very much about decisions and taking responsibility for them, but there are a couple of exciting moments that will get your heart beating. I liked a lot of the new characters introduced and Shia’s return to the city. However, the behaviour of some of the characters will have wanting to through the book out the window! (But don’t do that as you’ll miss the next bit!) I really hope this means that Shia can start to truly grow up and evolve – as I can’t help thinking she needs to face her problems more and stop hiding away from anything that involves the Others. She is witty and when backed into a corner, strong and defiant. I just wish she could be like that more often.

Overall, this is a good read and I would definitely be keen on reading Stalking The Others pretty soon (one advantage to being so late to read this book is that there is no long wait for the next in the series!). This is a fun series and one that I am glad I’ve continued with!

Recommended for fans of Patricia Briggs and Allison Pang. 8 out of 10