A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

A science fiction romance by Sholio! If you enjoyed her Lauren Esker books, you will enjoy this. To me it reads closer to the style/content of her fanfic than her other pro work, so if you like her fic....

Metal Wolf throws space opera, shifter romance, black helicopter government conspiracy thrillers, 80s movies about alien refugees discovering Earth, and a couple more genres into a blender.

Enslaved blue alien werewolf fighter pilot Rei gets an unexpected chance at escape when his single-occupancy fighter pod gets hit, knocking out the communications systems; he makes a run for it, and crash-lands in a pond in Wisconsin. He's fished out by Sarah Metzger, who lives with her disabled veteran father on a small farm, struggling to make ends meet while attending community college classes in the almost-certainly-hopeless attempt to fulfill her dream of becoming an astrophysicist. As it turns out, the stars are closer than she thinks.

This is not an insta-love romance. Both love and story take their time as the characters get to know each other (it's a while before they even work out how to communicate) and explore their new worlds, with a gradual build to an action climax. The characters are really likable (one of my favorite relationships is between Rei and Sarah's dad), and the worldbuilding is secondary to the relationships but intriguing and thought-through. Metal Wolf is fun, often funny, touching, and extremely readable, with a very satisfying ending.

Disclaimer: these are by Sholio (formerly Friendshipper), a friend of mine. If you like my Werewolf Marines series, you would probably like these.

This is going to be more about Guard Wolf, as I read that a lot more recently. It’s a sequel but can be read independently, in an urban fantasy series about an agency of shapeshifters that secretly investigates shifter-related crimes. I would call them urban fantasy with romance rather than paranormal romance with action; there is romance, but the emphasis is on action and ensemble. (The main characters of Handcuffed to the Bear spend most of the book naked and handcuffed to each other, but don’t have sex until the end, when they are no longer handcuffed or naked – well, they get naked, but only after putting clothes on.)

In Handcuffed to the Bear, Casey, a civilian lynx shifter, investigates her friend’s disappearance and ends up handcuffed to Jack, a bear shifter agent, naked and hunted through the wilderness in a “Most Dangerous Game” scenario. (Handwavey high-tech cuffs prevent them from getting loose by shapeshifting.) They bond and try to survive; meanwhile, Jack’s agency is trying to find him. There are some spectacular action sequences in this; my favorite involves a tin-roofed shack, a boat, and a seriously pissed off female orca shifter agent. In fact my favorite parts of this book were the shifter agency ensemble sections, which was good because book two has lots more of that.

Guard Wolf, which as I mentioned is a sequel but can be read independently, concerns one of my other favorite characters from the first book, werewolf and giant woobie Avery. He is a disabled veteran with a horrifically dysfunctional upbringing and a number of odd habits, and since werewolves are generally very clannish, he has no idea whether he’s weird because he’s a wolf without a pack or if he’s just massively fucked up. I adore him and he was my favorite thing about the book, which is saying a lot because I also really like the heroine, a koala shifter who is generally well-adjusted but takes meds for clinical depression, and also because it involves my favorite thing, an evil lab doing evil experiments. The portrayal of trauma and mental illness is extremely realistic, and also worked into the plot in clever ways – at one point the heroine has to do some very difficult and dangerous things while going cold turkey off meds, since she got kidnapped without them.

Guard Wolf is also notable for overcoming my aversion to kidfic. A box of abandoned werewolf pups sets off the plot, and plays a very large role in it. I liked the book anyway. This is impressive. It’s also pretty funny at times – the spectacularly useless jumping spider intern was hilarious – and, despite some dark subject matter, has an overall cozy/comforting feel. Avery needs ALL the cuddles, and actually gets them.

Guard Wolf: BBW Paranormal Wolf Shifter Romance (Shifter Agents Book 2) (Only 99 cents for a full-length novel.)

Handcuffed to the Bear: BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance (Shifter Agents Book 1)