Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!! This is a recap blog which means I read the book and tell you everything that happens so you don't have to read it yourself. Do NOT continue to read unless you want to have the story completely and utterly spoiled.
From the Back of the Book: She planned on studying lions....Serena Fitzgerald is a southern belle and a student of animal behavior. She came to Kenya to study under a world-renowned biologist who also owns a safari lodge. Serena expects to work hard. She expects to learn a lot. But she didn't expect to fall for her mentor's son. Colin Kemboi is a bored and rick playboy. Half British and half Kenyan, he fits everywhere and nowhere. But as a lion shifter, he yearns for the Kenyan bush. And he yearns for a woman who can love all of him, not just the jet-setting lifestyle he can provide. Will Serena accept Colin's lion half? Is Colin willing to settle down with a woman who isn't among London's elite? This novella was published in 2016 and this is my first reading. It only took me a few hours if that tells you how short it is.
We begin with our protagonist Serena
arriving in Nairobi. She's there to work with a woman named Pippa
who is an expert in lion behavior. Serena is going to be studying
lions and other wildlife in the bush for a semester and working at
Pippa's safari lodge in exchange for room and board.
Pippa meets her at the airport and
leads her out to a large white Land Rover that Serena compares to a
hippo for some reason.
Hmmmmmm.
The drive takes them five hours and
they chat about the scenery on the way. Eventually they reach the
Hotel Safari and Serena tells us that it's like Tara from Gone With
the Wind mixed with an African village. I'm not even sure how to mix
those two things in my mind, and I don't really trust Serena's
comparisons after that whole hippo thing, but I guess it's impressive.
Pippa seems proud of it anyway.
Serena is taken to the staff lodge and
given a room with a simple bed and desk in it. There's no dresser or
closet, just pegs on the wall to hang up her clothes. I guess her undies are going to be in full view for awhile. From the
window, Serena can see elephants at a watering hole and all kinds of
other wildlife on the savanna. I hope this place has a good fence.
Serena visits the bathroom and puts on
some sunscreen and then goes to find the kitchen where Pippa is
waiting with some lunch. She meets the housekeepers (Dani and
Mary) and gets a quick lesson in Kenyan cuisine. Afterwards,
Pippa takes her on a tour. The hotel is comprised of two different
experiences. One is a luxury lodge with four-poster beds and
luxuriant bedding and the other is tents and cots for the hard-core
adventurers. Or the less financially affluent.
Pippa introduces Serena to her
10-year-old son Jack and casually mentions a husband but
doesn't give him a name. She's put right to work peeling potatoes
for supper with the cook (Dennis) and then sent out with a
bucket of feed to the chicken coop. The chickens swarm her and she's
terrified of them. I can relate. She ends up falling on her ass and
getting pecked by a particularly aggressive fowl. This is nightmare
fuel for me.
Dennis relieves her of grunt work and
tells her to go to the main lodge to find Pippa. On her way, she
trips over absolutely nothing and goes sprawling in the dirt. A very
tall man wearing a business suit asks her if she's okay and his
British accent sets her heart pounding. He introduces herself as
Colin and Serena realizes that he's Pippa's other son. The
sun is shining behind his head and she thinks it gives him a
mane-like effect. I'm not sure how since his hair is so short but I guess it's Knightwood's attempt at foreshadowing. Bless her heart.
We are 10% through this book and no
naughty bits have seen open air yet. This is unprecedented.
We do a little time hop and now we're
with Colin as he has dinner with his family. They make small talk
and it seems like he works in Nairobi???? Maybe???? But he also
mentions London so I have no idea. He tells us he likes this place
best though because he can let his lion run free. I imagine that
would be hard to do in London. Lion shifters are super limited to
where they can shift now that I think about it. The hedgehogs of the
world have it easy.
There's some kind of ball coming
up............in the middle of the fucking savanna.............and
Colin doesn't have a date. He's recently broken up with his
girlfriend because they wanted different things out of life. Pippa
suggests he take Serena and he pretends to be dismayed at the idea.
Really he just doesn't want his mother to get over-involved in his
love life again.
Oh, the ball is at the hotel in
Nairobi. That makes more sense. Anyway, Pippa suggests that he fly
Serena up there and let her have a spa day prior to the ball. He
thinks he might just do that because Serena makes his little lion
roar...if you know what I mean.
After dinner, he and his father shift
and go for a run across the savanna.
The next morning we're back with
Serena. She goes to the staff room to get breakfast from the buffet
and she's surprised at how empty it is. Colin rocks up and explains
that most of the staff is local and eats at home with their
families. She's happy to see him but he makes her nervous with all
his gorgeousness and his “manly and clean” smell. He
smells so good it makes her dizzy and that can't be a good thing at
all.
Colin says he has something to ask her
and the sheer force of his manly voice causes her to choke and almost
die on scrambled eggs. She's never going to survive the book at this
rate. He invites her to the ball and it puzzles her a bit. He tells
her that Pippa suggested it and dangles the promise of a spa day in
front of her nose to entice her. I have no idea if it does or not.
Serena mentions that she doesn't have a dress and Colin laughs. He
says he can either have his assistant pick one up or she can pick one
out herself when they get there.
Serena considers it and then agrees to
go but she wants to pick out her own dress and she'd rather go to a
native market than a spa. He seems surprised by that but tells her
that his assistant Anna will meet her at the airport to take
her dress shopping and then he'll meet her for lunch and take her to
a market. She's excited and nervous about the prospect. He's just
so dreamy, y'all, that she can barely function around him.
Colin tells her that he's headed back
to Nairobi because he's in the middle of negotiations to open another
Hotel Safari somewhere in Asia. She's pretty damn impressed but has
this vague feeling that she's his puppet and he's pulling her
strings. He's so rich and smooth and sophisticated which is the
polar opposite of her and she can't figure out why he's showing any
interest in her.
After Colin leaves, she meets another
volunteer named Nelson. He was born in Kenya but moved to the
states when he was a kid. He's spending his gap year visiting family
in Africa. After breakfast, Nelson is sent to help repair fences and
Serena is sent to help Dani clean guest rooms. I'm not sure this is
what she expected to be doing with her semester internship but she
doesn't seem to mind. They finish up the rooms and then Serena helps
in the kitchen.
Pippa comes by and tells Serena that
they'll go on a game drive that afternoon and Serena about pees her
pants in excitement.
We hop over to Colin. He tells us that
thinking about Serena makes his lion want to......prowl. I seriously
hate it when they talk about their animal like it's not a part of
them. Drives me batty. Anyway, Anna intercoms his office to tell
him that his ex-girlfriend Elizabeth
is here to see him. He isn't too happy about this and asks Anna to
interrupt them in ten minutes.
Elizabeth puts on a full-court press,
batting her eyes and touching his chest. She wants to go to the ball
with him again this year. He tells her that he already has a date
and she seems hurt by this. She tells him to save her a dance and
she leaves.
Back with Serena on the game
drive......she's having an amazing time. When a majestic male lion
appears not far away, she gasps in delight. Pippa gives her a grin
and asks if she likes lions and Serena begins to rhapsodize about how
amazing they are but how she thinks female lions are the most
impressive. Pippa suggests that she focus on female lions for her
thesis project while she's with them and the idea appeals to Serena
very much.
The week passes quickly for Serena
because she's busy during the day. At night, thoughts of Colin
plague her and make her “squirm with lust”. {{{Snort}}}
This author has a way with words, y'all. Serena is a virgin but
she's seen plenty of love scenes on TV and in the movies so she
thinks she knows were all the bits and pieces go. She can't wait to
see him again.
We hop to Friday and Serena is dress
shopping with Anna. She's reluctant to let Colin pay for her dress
because it makes her feel like a prostitute but Anna assures her that
she's doing Colin a favor by going to the dance with him and he just
wants to provide her with everything she needs to do that. Serena is
appeased by this and agrees to accept a gown. She ends up selecting
a silky burgundy gown with a plunging neckline that makes her small
boobs look amazing. She wonders if Colin will like her in it and the
thought gets her “hot and damp”.
I apologize for subjecting you to that.
It's my job. At least Knightwood didn't use the dreaded "M" word.
Serena and Anna enjoy a pleasant
morning together and when Colin picks Serena up for lunch, Anna tells
him to be nice to this one which makes him laugh. Serena is thrilled
to have Anna's approval, though, because she feels like Anna is so
much more worldly and sophisticated than she is.
Colin tries to make small talk with
Serena but she's dazed by his sexy, growly voice and can't seem to
respond. His beauty takes her breath away and she thinks he looks
like a young Lenny Kravitz.
I can dig it.
Colin is looking extremely hot in his
suit but Serena begins to wonder what he'd look like naked with a
guitar. The thought nearly sends her tumbling into orgasmic
unconsciousness so she rapidly thanks him for the dress to distract
herself.
They pull up to a fancy Italian
restaurant and Serena is a little dismayed. She's wearing khakis and
a tank top and everyone else is dressed up. I have awful social
anxiety so just the thought of this is making me squirmy (and not
with lust). I feel bad for her here. He teases her that everything
is okay and asks her what her favorite Italian food is. She names
something I'm not going to bother to type in and he asks the server
if they'll make it for her. She realizes it's not even on the menu
and she's impressed that he can just ask for it and get it.
We land in Colin's head for a bit.
He's enjoying Serena's simple enjoyment of everything around her.
She's not jaded like a lot of his dates and her innocence reminds him
of someone named Jenny. The thought bothers him. He tells us he
unintentionally hurt Jenny and he doesn't want that to happen to
Serena so he'll have to keep his lion in check. Did he maul her or
what? The way Serena keeps picturing him naked, she might not mind
that. As he watches her eat, his lion purrs and sends the clear
signal that he wants to mate with the girl. Colin says “easy
tiger” to his lion which just pisses the animal off and I'm
again seething that this animal seems like a separate entity from
Colin. Why do they do this?????
They chat over dinner and Colin learns
that Serena has a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do. She seems a little
embarrassed about it for some reason that I can't understand. Colin
is instantly intrigued by this. He wants to “roll around in a
bed or on the ground of his savanna with her, get sweaty and panting
and pull off her clothes with his teeth.” Easy tiger. Then he
tells us that “the organ
between his legs hardened and the hardness in his chest melted a
little more.” {{{snort}}}
Seriously, does any adult male on the planet call it the organ between their legs? I hang with a couple of foul-mouthed boys and I've heard just about every word for it and NEVER has either of them called it that before. It sounds like a middle school sex ed teacher named it.
Colin opens up about his troubles
fitting in. He's too British to fit into the Kenyan community and
too African to fit into the London scene. He thinks the only reason
he has friends at all is because he's rich.
She feels sorry for him and reaches for his hand in sympathy. She
asks him about how he took his mother's idea of a safari lodge and
turned it into a string of international hotels. He doesn't really
answer her. He says a lot of words but they don't really add up to
much. I don't think that's a character thing, though. I think the
author had no idea how a person would do such a thing and she just
skirted around it, hoping that would be good enough.
Suddenly
Colin thinks of Jenny and remembers her cries of pain before the
light faded from her eyes and he vows that it will never happen
again. He can't let himself like Serena too much for her own good. He
abruptly ends their date, saying he needs to get back to the office
but Anna will take her to the market and get her anything she needs
to prepare for the ball. Serena is devastated thinking she did
something to offend him.
Serena
and Anna have a nice afternoon at the market but Serena is pretty
gutted by Colin's sudden cold shoulder. She buys a couple of
souvenirs for her family and then asks to go to the hotel. Anna
offers to get her a hairdresser or makeup artist for the evening but
Serena refuses. If Colin expects her to be his arm candy then he's
just going to have to be disappointed.
The
room Colin has for her is luxurious and Serena feels a little weird
about it. She's never been wealthy and all this opulence is making
her uneasy. She and Anna make plans to have lunch tomorrow before
Serena heads back to the bush.
Serena
gets ready for the ball and she's suddenly struck with uncertainty.
She doesn't have a lot of experience with men and she wonders if
Colin is going to expect sex from her in exchange for everything he's
given her. She doesn't know how she feels about that. He comes to
pick her up and she's struck stupid by how good looking he is in a
tux. He does not tell her she looks nice, he just asks her if she's
ready to go.
Someone slap this boy.
In
the limo, Serena can feel the distance between them and she finally
works up the nerve to ask if she's done something wrong. He leans
over to kiss her but it's over before she can even react. He tells
her that he's scared because he once hurt someone he cared about very
deeply and he's afraid it will happen again. Serena is confused by
his mixed signals and doesn't know what to say.
The
night goes better than Serena expected. She finds herself
enjoying the ball and she and Colin dance until they're the only ones
left on the dance floor. On the drive home, Colin holds her hand and she can feel
sparks flying between the two of them. She has a feeling something
is going to happen between the two of them and she doesn't know if
she's excited or terrified.
They
get up to her room and Colin pretty much pounces on her. She's
enjoying the kissing but gets nervous when he starts running his hand
up her dress. She asks him to wait and moves away from him. She
can't think when he's that close. She tells him that she's just
nervous because she's a virgin and he jumps away from her like she's
on fire. She's alarmed because she didn't want him to leave, she
just wanted things to slow down a little. He apologizes to her and
leaves.
Serena
tells herself that it doesn't matter. She didn't come to Africa to
find romance. She came to learn about animals and work hard and she
can still do that. Plus she made a friend in Anna and that's
something to be happy about. Personally, I'd be a sobbing mess after
that so maybe she's just stronger than I am.
Colin
is pretty tortured over the next few days. He knows he hurt Serena
but he tells himself that he did it to save her life. He travels to
the London office and spends some time at his mother's remote English
home where he can roam as a lion in the woods if he's quiet. He
tries to focus on work but all he can think about is Serena.
Elizabeth shows up again and offers to....ahem.....relieve his
tension but he doesn't want her and she's a poor substitute for the
woman he does want.
We
land in Serena's head now. She tells us that she's glad Pippa is
keeping her busy. Pippa can tell that something bad happened with
Serena and Colin and she apologizes to Serena on his behalf without
even knowing if he did anything wrong. Pippa tells Serena that she
would be good for Colin – she would ground him in a way that he
needs. Serena doesn't understand it but Pippa doesn't explain.
We're
back with Colin. He's arrived at his mom's house in the bush and
he's literally aching to shift and run. He can't really think of
anything else and the need is painful. He prays he won't run into
anyone before he can get some of this tension out of him. He runs
until he's exhausted and then he sleeps for awhile. When he wakes,
he decides it's time to go back to the house. He shifts back into
human form before he reaches the cover of the trees and he's standing
there naked when he hears a gasp behind him. He's so shocked to see
Serena standing there that he barely remembers to cover his little
lion with his hand.
Serena
is a little freaked. She saw him shift and she doesn't really know
what to do with that. He begs her not to run away and says he'll
explain everything after he gets dressed. She's not so sure she
wants to go anywhere with him and then he drops the bombshell that
Jack isn't his brother. Jack is his son. I have no idea why this is supposed to make her trust him more but it seems to do the trick.
Serena
sits down on the ground and he sits beside her.....still completely
naked......and wraps an arm around her. He tells her that he fell in
love with a girl named Jenny when he was a teenager and they moved a
little too fast. She got pregnant and died in childbirth and he's
always blamed himself for not stopping in time and getting her
pregnant before her body was ready for it. Serena just melts in the
face of his guilt and his grief and she holds him close as he sobs.
He
cries for awhile and she kisses him to make him feel better. It
starts to get a little out of hand and she stops him. She hasn't
gotten over the lion thing and she has some questions. Most of them
he can't answer. He doesn't know how shifters came about or how many
there are in the world. He just knows he is one and his father is
too. She seems amazed by this and asks if Pippa knows which is kind
of a hilarious question. He tells her that his mother is very aware
and that Jack is also a shifter. He asks her if she has any more
questions and she asks him how private the thicket they're sitting in
is.
Not
too private considering you rocked up to it, babes.
He
dashes off and she thinks she's been ditched again but he's back in a
few seconds with a condom. I'm sure you can guess what happens next.
I will say one or two things about it. The author NEVER mentions
Serena's clothes being removed. They start to kiss and somehow she's
completely naked. I think the author forgot she was actually wearing
clothes. Also, he actually says the words “I'm
going to enter you now”
and it's the least sexy thing that's ever been said in all time and
space.
The
next morning they have breakfast with his family and Serena is all
nervous because she knows his mom will guess what they've been doing
all night. Colin tells her to relax. They're all adults. Then
she's nervous that Jack might hate her and that will be a deal-breaker
for Colin. Jack doesn't seem to mind her though.
One
paragraph we're at breakfast and the next it's two months later.
Pippa and Serena are on a game drive observing a new pride of lions
in the area. Pippa is glad that Serena and Colin are in love but
urges Serena to make sure she keeps her own dreams and doesn't give
them up just to be Colin's woman. It's timely advice because Serena
has been considering dropping out of school to stay with Colin.
Pippa tells her that Colin will find a way to go to America with her
and Serena relaxes. She doesn't think Colin will really move to
America but she knows he will fly to see her often and she can see
him in Africa on her breaks. She's confident they'll make it work.
The
book ends there. Wow. One very short sex scene. I didn't even get
to bust out a lot of innuendo. I feel cheated. The author seemed to be uncomfortable with sex in general and kept describing things in clinical terms until Colin and Serena were doing the deed and then suddenly she busts out the....ahem...."rooster" word and the.....ahem....."kitty" word. They are completely out of place because they're used exactly once in the entire book while the rest of the time the bits are referred to as "organ" and "lower place". It's like she thought she was required to throw them in there once at least. Hell, I don't know. Maybe she was.
No comments:
Post a Comment