Archive for the ‘Romantic Comedy’ Category

STRANGE NEIGHBORS BOOK 2: THE WEREWOLF UPSTAIRS
Ashlyn Chase
ISBN: 978-1-4022-3662-4 (Mass Market Paperback)
B004ISLNSS (Kindle eBook)
February 1, 2011 (Mass Market Paperback and eBook)
Sourcebooks/Casablanca
Paranormal Romance/Shape Shifter
Romantic Comedy
Mass Market Paperback and eBook

There’s an apartment building in the middle of Boston that tends to house the oddest assortment of tenants, making for some very Strange Neighbors indeed.

Roz Wells, Public Defender, has just moved into her best friend’s old apartment upon her marriage. Roz is looking for a little excitement in her life, since her law career is more than a little lackluster anymore. As soon as she starts to meet her new neighbors, life gets interesting again. Things begin to heat up when she gets involved with sexy neighbor Konrad Wolfensen, until he ends up on her case load for allegedly stealing an industrial freezer, with his bare hands.

Konrad has a few secrets he’d like to keep from his sexy new neighbor. The biggest of these being that he grows furry and likes to howl at the full moons. Then there is his “job” as a security systems consultant and sales person. The closer he grows to Roz, the more his secrets are threatened, especially when he gets caught up in a mysterious theft at the local art museum.

Both Roz and Konrad would like to find new careers together so as they try out many different ideas, nothing quite works out, except the passion deepening between them… until Konrad’s secrets come out. What’s a woman to do when she discovers her lover is The Werewolf Upstairs?

I am sad to say I was very disappointed in The Werewolf Upstairs. For starters, I had no experience with Ashlyn Chase prior to this novel so I had no idea that she was an erotica author. Had I known that, I probably never would have read this book. This novel should have been marketed as erotica instead of romance, due to the very numerous, and extremely explicit love scenes. I find myself skipping entire chapters to get past the sex already and back to the story. Unfortunately more often than not, the plot felt like filler and the sex felt like the focus. This is precisely why I typically do not read erotica. I want a story enhanced by the physical and emotional relationship, not the other way around.

Honestly, I was far more intrigued by the various neighbors in the building, and the ghost in the museum, than I was in Roz and Konrad. I felt a little bit of the love between them, but not really enough to fully become engaged in their story. For all the sex they were having, there just didn’t seem to be much spark between them. I was completely amused by the different characters, especially the phone sex operator witches upstairs. Those two ladies are absolutely hilarious and I would not be opposed to reading their stories. And let’s not forget the multiple shape shifters, the vampire, and the ghost who also live in the building. Put them all together, and they steal the show. Heck they all steal the show every time they put in an appearance, together or alone.

Overall, I am very torn about the Strange Neighbors series. Knowing I was relatively unimpressed with The Werewolf Upstairs, I’m not sure if I will or won’t read additional books in the series. I have book one, Strange Neighbors, already on the book shelf from before reading this installment, but don’t  know if I will get around to reading it or not. I don’t expect I’ll rush to read it, in any case. I do love the residents of the apartment building and would like to get to know them better. However, I have no interest in a book that is more about sex scene after sex scene than story progression. So I don’t know that the appeal of the different personalities will be enough to overcome the rest of it.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, February 2011. All rights reserved.