Title: Pretty Little Lion (Third Shift 2)
Author: Suleikha Snyder
Published: October 2021
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Readership: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating: ★★★
I received a copy of the Pretty Little Lion from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The rules of undercover work are simple:
Never fall for your mark.
Never let down your guard.
Never give your heart away.
Lion shifter and Third Shift co-founder Elijah Richter is on a mission: seduce arms dealer Mirko Aston’s gorgeous girlfriend, use her as an entry point to the organization, and discover what the global terrorist is planning. It should be simple.
Then he meets Meghna Saxena-Saunders—influencer, celebutante, ex-wife to a handsome Hollywood hotshot, and a highly trained assassin—and all his plans are blown out of the water.
Meghna immediately senses the mysterious stranger watching her at a VIP party and decides she’s curious enough to play along. She and Elijah fall headfirst into their lusty bed of lies, but when their steamy morning-after is interrupted by one of Aston’s goons, both of their missions are thrown into jeopardy. Now Meghna must team up with Third Shift to cover her tracks, discover the truth, and resist falling for a man who thrills her to her core…before it’s too late.
This was a fun paranormal romance story that incorporated a lot of the things that I enjoy about a PNR/urban fantasy world: great world building, interesting paranormal creatures and lots of side-characters that you want to learn more about. It’s the second book in a series, and as someone who hasn’t read the first book, you can definitely read it on its own, but there are aspects that I think would benefit from reading the series in order. There are a lot of things that have happened previously that are alluded to without being fully fleshed out in the second book, so if that’s something that bothers you, definitely start from book one.
Elijah and Meghna were intriguing protagonists who have a lot of chemistry right off the bat. They find themselves and their worlds (and missions) colliding unintentionally. And while we spend the majority fo the book with them, I have to admit that it was the side characters – a triad relationship, featuring Grace, Finn and Nate – that intrigued me a lot more. Which was a shame because we don’t spend nearly as much time as Elijah and Meghna, and there was a lot more growth from the triad in terms of navigating their relationship, even though they weren’t front and centre. In many ways, it felt like the major and minor storylines should have been switched around.
Overall it’s an enjoyable read, but I’d probably only continue if the triad gets to be front and center.
Noveltea Corner 