Review: Keeping Kaitlyn by Anya Bast

*This is an Erotica. Please do a pre-mental age check first before you proceed reading the synopsis and review.*

Published Date: September 20th, 2011
Finished Date: November 18th, 2011
Format: Ebook
Series: Mates of the Lycaon
My Rating: 3.5/5

Blurb from Goodreads:
This is a never-before-published erotic romance novella from New York Times bestselling author, Anya Bast. This story is highly erotic and is M/F/M, meaning two men, one woman. All the focus is on her. Light BDSM.

Kaitlyn leads a regular life in a normal town, until one day the force of an unknown connection pulls her into an alternate reality. On the flip side of the veil Kaitlyn finds herself in the hands of two powerful dire wolf shifters, Rafian and Lucas, who tell her she is their mate.

Lucas has lost everything to the Magica Hunters who want the Lycaon shifters driven from their world. He passionately craves Kaitlyn and must employ every ounce of his formidable control once she’s near enough to touch. Her presence soothes the pain of his past.

Rafian has experienced loss too, though his comes with a dark guilt that haunts him. His brand of loving involves rope and handcuffs, acts he knows Kaitlyn may not be ready for, but he has waited years for her and it’s difficult to master his desires.

Together, he and Lucas tempt Kaitlyn’s body with every erotic move they have to make, while they stealthily seduce her heart. They make her see them for who they truly are—her perfect matches in every way.

Lucas and Rafian awaken emotion and passion in Kaitlyn that she’s never known, but the weight pulling at her from the other side of the veil is formidable. Will she be able to stay with the men she loves?

My Review

I thought that KEEPING KAITLYN was a very average Paranormal-Erotica read with slight hints of Fantasy and BDSM. It was a short novella that included your usual self-sacrificial, super hot, super caring and romantic lycans, and gorgeous, thoughtful human heroine. It's not bad, just not that original.

Kaitlyn is a computer engineer drowning herself in her work in hopes that busying herself would allow her to forget her failed marriage. She's coping just fine, but now, she's getting weird dreams of two very hot and sexy males and she thinks she's going crazy.

One night while she was still hard at work, she decided she couldn't focus on her work anymore with those dreams bugging her more than usual, she figured she should just go home or visit her sister who lived nearby. She steps into the station and waits for her train when all of a sudden, she feels all woozy and blacks out for a few seconds, and wakes up in the arms of one of the men in her dreams. Well, she didn't take self-defense classes after her violent divorce for nuthin'. She takes out her pepper spray and fries his eyes. Oooh, that's gotta hurt, especially when this is the first time Lucas ever heard of pepper sprays.

Anyway, Lucas tells her that she's been pulled across the veil into an alternate reality where people could shapeshift, into wolves, bears and even birds, by the mating bond that ties her to him and Rafian, her other mate, who happens to be that other guy from her dreams, and that she couldn't return to the mortal realm until two weeks are up. Lucas and Rafian do love her a lot, and are willing to do anything to convince her to stay and go through the mating ritual (it's really just a wedding but saying vows that are infused with magick), but Kaitlyn can't bear the thought of losing her sisters and letting them think that her disappearance means that she's met with any tragic mishaps.

But in that two short weeks that Kaitlyn was stuck in the house Lucas and Rafian built for her in the secluded woods covered with a fine layer of snow that seemed like a fairytale, Lucas and Rafian seduced her mind, body and soul, and made her believe that soul mates do exist. So now that she's reached a deadlock, will the two lycaons' seduction efforts be enough to make her choose to stay with them, or is her loyalty to her sister the more omnipresent force?

It's always the heroine having to choose between love and something else, usually either destiny or for duty. Which would almost always end up being tied with love. Convenient, but that's how HEAs (happily ever after) works, right? But that's where KEEPING KAITLYN is slightly different. Kaitlyn did get a happy ending, but she didn't get to keep the other option. She did have to pick an option in the end, but the other one got its own resolution too, so it was technically still a HEA. It's just not the way I expected. So there was a surprise element in here too. Lol, and that's where the .5 of my rating came from. I did like it, but didn't love it. Lukewarm feelings doesn't really call for a long review, so I'll stop here.

Just one little thing. The "light BDSM" that the synopsis talked about was really light, but the only part of BDSM that Bast kept and used was the part that I thought was weird and disliked the most. Lol, but well, readers may like it so...:/

KEEPING KAITLYN: Short, sweet Paranormal-Erotica with your usual touches of cliche. But ultimately an enjoyable read.

Saw a review on Sizzling Hot Book Reviews and was intrigued. Wasn't disappointed.:)

My Rating

3.5/5