Furbidden Attraction

Raven Falls #1

by R. O'Leary

Shot and left for dead, shapeshifter Jack needs to find out who wants him out of the picture… preferably before the sexy veterinary tech he kidnapped manages to escape again.

Louisa moved to Raven Falls to make a better life for herself. But “better” isn’t working out so well. Her apartment is a dive, her boss might as well be possessed, and the sweet dog she brought home isn’t actually a dog. Not that the exceedingly attractive naked man in her bed isn’t a step up—but it would be nice if she knew who the hell he was… or how he got there.


Jack has always put his clan first and his desires second—until Louisa. Her dark curls and warm, vanilla scent ignite a fire within him that he can’t quite shake. Sure, he can transform into a seven-foot monster, but he deserves love as much as the next guy. Knee-deep in a dangerous investigation, memories missing, and a bullet wound in his shoulder, Jack doesn’t have time to dawdle with a certain brunette… even if she is waving a baseball bat in his face.


Unless he takes her with him.


Kidnapped and pissed off, Louisa wants nothing to do with the sexy shifter and even less to do with his secret world of monsters and nightmares. But the longer she spends with Jack, the less she can deny the odd pull between them, or that he might just be the “better life” she was looking for all along.

Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal, Shapeshifters, Paranormal Romance, Supernatural, Werewolves

358 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2019

About the author

R. O’Leary lives in North Pole, Alaska (no, really). When she’s not spending half the year freezing to death, she’s writing about shifters and aliens and anything else that strolls through her head. Most of her day is spent in pajama pants, chasing the pack of corgis that have claimed her living room as their own.

Furbidden Attraction is the first installment in R. O’Leary’s new paranormal romance series.

Reviews

[Ursula · Rating 1 out of 5]

The blurb reads: “ Louisa’s life is an absolute mess”. So were the first two chapters of this book.
So many TSTL moments and not sure, but are employment laws so appalling in the US ? (I know workers do not have any of the protections we enjoy in Australia). Surely expecting an employee to put in 12 hour days, including working through the night in a vet clinic doing stock inventory, is illegal? Or more hyperbole from the author? The hero was a dog/man shifter who swung between thinking the heroine was adorable, and then weird. He deliberately knocked her out by bashing her with a lamp to the head, FFS! Got to 5 %. Just ridiculous.

[lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF: 30%

i wrote a long review and then this awful app deleted it, so i'm just going to summarize:

1. the FL is stupid and the portrayal of the veterinary industry is godawful.

in what world can a worker at an animal clinic bring a patient HOME with them?? much less a patient that just underwent surgery and should be recovering? keep in mind, as far as the FL knows, this is a dog that a. suffered a gunshot wound and b. underwent surgery and should be recuperating in a clean, safe environment.

so what does she do? she brings him home, of course. let's ignore the fact that her constant jostling could reopen wounds. let's also ignore the fact that she, for some reason, feeds him a PB&J sandwich... as if she doesn't work at a clinic where there's most certainly dog food available. i know that's just a result of the author not wanting to force the ML to eat dog food, but it's lazy writing.

also, the "mean boss" thing was so overdone (why would they even hire the FL if they hate her that much??).

and then when the "patient's" "owners" (the ML's friends) arrive to take the dog home, the FL is somewhat rude towards them and says that the dog has to stay a few more days for observation. girl, what are you observing???? you're toting him back to your apartment every night, so i'm not sure why it'd be any different if the "owners" took him home... but anyway. anyone with any experience working in a clinic should know better than to act the way this FL does.

2. the ML smashes the FL over the head with a lamp and kidnaps her, but if course the FL still finds him attractive.

also, the phrase "expanding cleavage" is used.

[Cat H]

DNF@31% p108 Chapter 10(Louisa)
TikTok really hyped this book up and I’m just not feeling it.
I just don’t really like the writing style and I’m bored.
Im just gonna go find something that fits my mood more.

[Millie]

dnf at 9%

I can feel my brain cells getting up and walking out of my head

[thisisabooktracker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter

DNF @ 57%

[Coco.V]

🎁 FREE on Amazon today (3/9/2019)! 🎁

[MCrawDRKRead · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF @ 15%…did not hold my interest, juvenile and corny 😵

[Luna ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

»You smelled nice.«
»You kidnapped me because I smelled nice?«
»Really nice.«

★ ★ ★

❥ 𝑳𝒐𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒂
She was sweet and confident.

❥ 𝑱𝒂𝒄𝒌
He is hilarious and I liked him.

✥ 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌
This book was so funny.
The tension and plot lacks so this is no five star read. It could have been done better but I liked Louisa and Jack. Sadly these two didn‘t have any tension and their love story is so fast without big emotions.

plot: 2/5
spice: 1/5
humor: 4/5
couple/tension: 2/5
world building: 4/5
happy end?: yes

keywords: shifter, fantasy, insta love, mates, werewolfs, humor, multiple pov

[Romancing the Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cackled, I swooned… it was a wild ride.

You know, I picked this up as a joke. And here I am deciding if I am going to let it ruin my entire reading schedule so I can devour the series.

📔 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼: Furbidden Attraction, book one in the Raven Falls character series by R. O’Leary.

📚𝗧𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲: Shiter romance, romantic suspense, romantic comedy.

📖 𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘀𝗶𝘀: Louisa cares for a hurt dog at her veterinary clinic, only to find that dog turning into one very fine looking man in the morning. But humans aren’t supposed to know they’re surrounded by shifters, and Louisa has a lot to learn.

🌟 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: I picked this book up off of a TikTok video. And we all know the success rate with those. So I had low expectations.

But the banter! Louisa and Jack stole the show. They were funny and spicy and oh so relatable. Louisa reads like you or I would if we were kidnapped by a 7-foot tall shifter. A decent amount of panic, some curiosity and an unabashed realization that she likes her kidnapper.

And you’ll fall in love with Jack in all of his himbo glory.

Overall I really enjoyed this one. I’m probably going to make time to at least read the next one, because I loved the characters so much. But for now, knock me over with a feather: I really enjoyed a book called Furbidden Attraction.

𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 3/5 🌶🌶🌶

🆓️ on KU

[Heather Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cover and the title of this entertaining book give off the vibe that this will be one of 'those' novels... the kind that you read for simple enjoyment only, not expecting a plot or any sort of depth. There is nothing wrong with those books, I read plenty of them, but THIS is NOT one of those novels.

Far from it. Despite the cover and cringe worthy title, this book is flat out hilarious - and quite interesting plot wise. It ebbs and flows, dragging the reader through a brand new world with new rules, different mythology and a creation story that leads to the drama and angst suffusing the world today. In this pain and loss, drops a human... and a shifter who just happens to change into a dog.

It's delightful, hot, intriguing and far more emotional than I was expecting. And this is just BOOK 1! While a HEA is attained for these two star crossed lovers, the metaplot is still brewing, leading to other HEA's and far more action.

Pros:
~ Surprisingly complex.
~ Good use of Multiple POV.
~ Great Character Development.
~ Downright hilarious - the interactions between characters are sooo funny!

Cons:
~ Need more info on Louisa, who is she really?
~Horrible cover and title for the content, but still funny.

Perspective
~ Third Person, Multiple POV

Ending Type
~ HEA, Episodic for series

Rating
~ R (Mature content)

Romantic Dynamic
~M/F

Character Age Range
25+

[Amani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can explain. Lots of red wine and tiktok. Bad cover and silly book title aside it still was cute and fluffy..pun intended.

[Sarandah chrysalis]

DNF. Characters couldn’t stick with one personality

[Sprout · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay SO FRICKEN CUTE.

If you are a fan of the golden retriever type guy who is head over heels for his girl - Jack is the ONE besties.
Lou is so funny and witty and is a great character as well - made the banter top tier!
Love the romance between them and they were so dang cute together, I ate that shit up. Spice was pretty dang good as well, I kinda wish there was more of it tbh. Lil lackin but what was there was fantastic.

The found family aspect of the book was *chefs kiss* and all the side characters were great. Everyone was pretty interesting and made me want to know more about their stories.

The plot was great, never felt bored, the pace was top notch. Had a third act break up though “to protect her” which I was disappointed about because those are AWFUL but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ whatever, I still enjoyed this one regardless.

Overall, banger of a book. Def check it out.

[Maggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Over hyped on tiktok. Good plot concept, just couldn't get into the writing style.

[Izzy SM · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the characters (Louise’s banter with virtually everyone was hysterical), the plot is cute and interesting and has a touch of suspense and spice.

I had some fun reading this, along with some frustration, because the writing style is not good:

A) So choppy that it’s headache inducing. Everything is written in super short sentences without any transitions and thus the reading does not flow at all… it’s like riding through a seriously bumpy road.
And it really takes away hotness from the spice.

B) Third person POV ( I rest my case) AND arbitrary and confusing transitions every other page between the MC’s POV.

[Karina · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF @ 65%, 3.5 stars.

This was fine. It was cute. I gave it my best shot as a palette cleanser between heavier books, and then eventually just decided I didn't really care what happened. The plot is pretty predictable, I'm sure I could read the last chapter and understand the whole book. This isn't really meant to scare anyone away: if you want something light and fluffy for the beach or the plane, this is perfect.

I was brought to this book by Tiktok, which sold it as "a woman living with a dog finds out he's not a dog!" and honestly I was hoping that part of the story would consume more of than a few pages, but oh well. Also, he full on hits her over the head with a lamp and knocks her out, all while claiming he's obsessed with her. Seems like an insane action.

The FMC is annoyingly juvenile. Says things like "girly bits", and has a perpetual annoying inner dialogue running. Trying very hard to be twee and cute, and it only works sometimes.

[Sydney M Neblett · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the doghouse

I think I just found my new favorite series! The author did an amazing job with this adventure. The characters are fantastic! I love how well developed and believable they are, and the emotions that I felt like they were my own. And I enjoyed the witty repartee between the characters, even the bad guys. It helped to lighten the mood when the story reached a super intense moment. By the end of the book I was completely invested in the characters, and in seeing what happens next. The story was so well written, with smooth transitions and danger and excitement at every turn, that I just couldn’t put it down until the very end. And with an epilogue like that, I can’t wait to see who finds their HEA next.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I loved this. This dealt with some serious issues while staying light and fun. There’s a mystery around why women are disappearing and the main investigator is injured. And that’s how they meet.

The banter between them is on point! They are so funny and the chemistry was fantastic! I can’t wait to read more of this world.

No OM/OW drama. Mentions of racism and blood purity from the villains. The main characters and their friends have great interactions.

My only annoyance was how often her hands and feet and body were described as small. It’s not a big deal but it just annoys me the authors continue to write small women as the norm.

[Dominique · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so funny and I truly enjoyed Louisa and Jack's relationship. Full of snark and so much banter between them! Loved it!

[dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, I've lost the motivation to read by the end of this year. So, I practically avoided this book as much as I could, making sure to stay on TikTok, when in bed, instead of reading, and focusing on my essay whenever I was awake.

I cannot say I remember the plot of this book well enough to produce a decent review of it, especially since I started it when on my period and feeling needy. I remember enjoying various aspects of the story, but ultimately, I was eager to finish reading the book. And the werewolf world is a world I have not read of recently, so I forgot most of the rules.

With that said, the sex in this book was enjoyable to read, to say the least. But the chapters and characters were a bit messy.

In terms of recommending it to others, I might, if they ask for very specific shapeshifter NSFW content, since this caters on that part.

[Tracy Wilkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Furbidden Attraction: A Cursed Romance is book one in the Raven Falls Cursed Romances by R. O'Leary. This is my first dabble with this authors work, and I was excited to get into it.

It has been a long time since I read a good shapeshifter story, and from the blurb, I had a feeling it was going to be a good one.
Jack and Louisa were a dynamic pair that sizzled, amused and tantalised me. An exciting story that was not lacking in all the good juicy bits. It was light and airy, it was dark and glorious. The story was energetic, adventurous and full of drama. Engaging with the characters was effortless, and the story glided along effortlessly. 4 stars.

[Breanna Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun, light hearted novel. Lots of fun banter and the plot wasn’t super deep or high stakes. It was exactly what I needed after the last book I read, but it was kinda flat. The characters were funny but that was kinda it. It didn’t go deeper than that, which is fine, but just fyi.

The FMC took all of the news about supernaturals way too easy. Her entire world view changed and she was like, okay let’s roll with it. Also, she was very cool with being kidnapped for the most part. It was all such a surfaced level book, so it wasn’t such a big deal, but that should be noted.

[Lexi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank god I finished this book it was so poorly paced in my opinion but I finished it it’s done and I must move on!!!!

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

SOOOO CUTE. It was a fun time 😫🤪

[Sunny]

Yet another example of why it is dangerous to let me have a kindle unlimited account and access to tiktok book quotes.

[Jacqueline J · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light and fairly amusing story about shifters. Worth the read.

[Lynn's Romance Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun Paranormal Romance! 4.5 stars

Louisa is down on her luck. She moved to Raven Falls, Maine for a fresh start but is far from welcome in this small town. She has a horrible boss, nasty apartment, and about to give up on fitting in. When injured dog Jack is brought into her work, she builds a great relationship with her furry friend. That is until a handsome man wakes up beside her and claims to be the dog, he is absolutely crazy, right?

Jack is injured and dropped at a veterinary clinic. So, when he can't immediately change back to human, he decides that Louisa, the girl that smells like cookies, is not going to leave him in the kennel overnight. After changing human in his sleep, he freaked out Louisa, the girl he should leave behind, does the wrong thing, and takes her with him.

Louisa is done with being bossed around. She is ready to take an active role in her life and it shows in the escape attempts, witty banter, and hijinks that she gets into with Jack. There is a healthy amount of sexual tension between them but with the kidnapping and the danger Jack is in, they are hesitant to go full speed into a relationship. Great plot twist with the investigation angle that Jack is working. There is one minor plot point that isn't wrapped up fully which hopefully will be resolved in the next book (it might be part of the plot that carries over or part of the aha moment at the end so not sure if it was supposed to be wrapped up or not and was a little unclear).

Also, the couples/characters of at least 2 books were hinted at in the last couple of chapters. I personally would have liked more direct hints for the next book's couple and the two subsequent pairings' meeting in the book would have sufficed.

Overall, a fun read that was exactly what I needed. Definitely continuing in the series.

[Jessen Reads Romance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louisa is looking for a fresh start when she moves to the small town of Raven Falls. She's alone in the world and the unfriendly nature of the locals doesn't bode well for future friendships. One thing she can count on is animals! They're easy to love. So when an injured dog is brought in by a bunch of kids, Louisa can't resist those pitiful eyes and decides to take him home just for the night. But when she wakes up in the morning, a naked man has replaced the cute dog. Now she's a part of a secret world of shifters, werewolves, and witches. Jack has lost a week worth of memories and has to work fast to discover the identity of his attackers. Jack is a lovable cinnamon roll hero who feels an undeniable pull to Louisa. A sweet and fun romance!

[aks.library · Rating 4 out of 5]

“For the record if anything chases us, I will trip you and run away.”
“Not if I trip you first.”
THEIR REALTIONSHIP IS SO ADORABLE
not actually done but I will be by today just wanna type as I go
“I told you he would come” PERIOD.
Can we talk abt how the plot like questions unanswered and her discovering stuff with him was actually done like rlly well cause it was.
“If you have a nightmare, you’ll wake up and still be right here with me. Wrapped in my arms. No more cages, no more darkness. Just me and you.” AWEAWEAWEAWEAWWWWWWWWW
Also the sweet caring werewolf over the possessive scary one is kinda underrated trope that I love
It was super cute I liked it a lot, just enough suspense and bad thinks haPpening to keep my attention