Brac Pack, Volume 1 by Lynn Hagen

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Maverick’s Mate (Brac Pack 1) by Lynn Hagen

I decided to start this series from the first book even if the author has already published more than 10 books in the same series. And I’m glad I did that since I was able to understand the settings Lynn Hagen has outlined, more or less a pack of shapeshifter timber wolf made of 1 Alpha, 1 Beta, 1 Commander and 12 warriors, 15 men in total, and I think the author is heading out to write a story for each of them.

The first book is pretty classic, big Alpha man who is waiting for his mate and once he finds him, he doesn’t let it pass one minute to claim him. True, I was a little bit taken aback from the fact that Maverick claims Cecil while the other man is sleeping, hypnotizing him and basically, according to me, not giving him much choice. Again, true to the author, Maverick said it’s only sex, the true mating will happen later, and if Cecil doesn’t agree, nothing is definitive, but still, while the other man is sleeping?

In the end Cecil will come out like a funny and overactive young man (20 years old) and so maybe Maverick “wall” attitude (nothing seems to move him) will be a good balance to the other man; of course, like the more classic Alpha/omega relationship, nothing can touch Maverick if not his little mate, and he will do everything, even killing if necessary, to protect the other man. This is another point that probably is worthy highlighting: there is violence in this novel, but it’s in the background. Maverick and his men have to do bad things, but that doesn’t touch their little men (we will find later in the series that the timber wolf, big wolf in animal form, big man in human form, tend to mate with diminutive human male).

The sex tends to be light more than erotic, the author doesn’t put weight in any of the “differences” between Maverick and Cecil (Maverick is a shapeshifter timber wolf, he is way stronger and bigger than Cecil, and so on) and prefers to have good, but quite ordinary sex scenes between them. Probably the main point of them is for Cecil to be a little (only a little) “easy”, sex for him is like yet another game, something he likes much doing. Again, after the first sex scene, with Cecil sleeping, he becomes the one in “control”: he is the initiator, the one who wraps his big man around his little finger.

All in all, this first story was good, some really minor editing issues (like when Maverick is complaining he doesn’t know his mate name, and then suddenly he comes out with a thought “He would send him to befriend his mate and have the two become friends. Next, the Sentry will invite Cecil over”, and “my” thought was, well, they have just had sex in Cecil’s home, maybe he read the name on the postbox… but right on the next page, Maverick thinks “What was his mate’s name? Maverick was dying to find out.”) that sincerely I wouldn’t have noticed if the author didn’t use that as an element of the story (Cecil’s name).

http://www.bookstrand.com/mavericks-mate

Amazon Kindle: Maverick's Mate [Brac Pack 1]
Publisher: Siren Publishing (March 29, 2011)

Hawk’s Pretty Baby (Brac Pack 2) by Lynn Hagen

Lynn Hagen managed something that very few authors did in these past years, to convince me to read second book in a series as soon as I finished the first one. How did she manage to? Simply she introduced the character of Johnny in book 1 and I was fascinated by him, so much that I had the temptation to drop book 1 and go directly to read book 2.

I was always interested in reading a love story between a very protective man and someone who has a different perception of the reality… yes, this is a way to describe a simpleton, someone who is not totally retarded, but that is not even completely aware of everything around him. Sincerely I don’t like the word “retarded”, since it’s not like I see this character, it’s more something related to the perception of reality. Johnny knows what is good and what is bad, he knows the right and wrong (usually that is the way to understand if a man is emancipated), but he is bereaved of any protective layer, of that hardness deriving from experience. Johnny is completely exposed to the big bad world, and like that, I think it’s plenty right that his perfect match is a uber-protective man, someone who wants to shield Johnny from most of the ugly things of life, not since Johnny doesn’t have to know they exist, but since Johnny would not be able to react and protect himself.

Aside from this, second book in the series is pretty much similar to book 1. Actually, since I was more involved in the story, I didn’t notice any major editing issue this time, maybe they were not there, or maybe they were not so noticeable.

Sex was again good but light, and in a way, it was even more right to Johnny’s character: how he doesn’t have protective layers, he also doesn’t have inhibitions; for Johnny sex is something good, normal and joyful. Sex is again like a game, but it’s also something Johnny can do without being worried if he is doing it right or wrong. Sex for Johnny is freedom, and a playing field where he is at the same level of Hawk, of course being again the little omega man who is wrapping his big Alpha man around his pinkie finger.

http://www.bookstrand.com/hawks-pretty-baby

Amazon Kindle: Hawk's Pretty Baby [Brac Pack 2]
Publisher: Siren Publishing (April 5, 2011)

Amazon: Brac Pack, Volume 1
Paperback: 180 pages
Publisher: Siren Publishing, Inc. (June 28, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1610344936
ISBN-13: 978-1610344937

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I did enjoy this book and do enjoy the series. Even with the minor editing issues (they do occur in the rest of the series) it hasn't been enough to stop me from reading. Though sometimes it kinda feels like there are two different people writing this series (alternating on books) Maverick's Mate is one of my favorites so far.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

the editing issues is something that I noticed in other books by Silver Publishing, so maybe it's not only this author. And I have already read (need to review) the second book in the series, and I liked, and maybe preferred, that one.

[(Anonymous)]

You're right. And sometimes the errors are enough for me to stop reading a book. A few you can look over, but several times through out the book and it messes with the flow of the story. No fun for anyone.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

being a not Engligh mother tongue speaking reader, I can skip most of them, but if they are many, it gives me problem with the flow, and in particular, I notice the incongruences.