Review: Born This Way by Poppy Dennison

Reviewed by Fehu
Born This Way by Poppy Dennison
Dreamspinner Press
Novella: 115pgs
3 Pants Off

Blurb:
Dayton Whitmore injures his arm playing basketball with his lion-shifter friends, and his best friend asks Dayton to check on her estranged brother Hart while he’s in Atlanta visiting a specialist. Though Dayton and Hart were never close, he grudgingly agrees.

Banishment from his pride meant Hart Sherman could never see his family again. His liger heritage—a tiger mother and lion father—was a thorn in his alpha father’s side. He always planned to go back for Dayton, the man he knows is his mate, but he uses his career as an entertainment attorney as an excuse to avoid risking Dayton’s rejection. When Dayton shows up unannounced on his doorstep, Hart wants nothing more than to claim him.

Knowing what it means to be a lion’s mate, Dayton isn’t in any hurry to make a lifetime commitment. To convince Dayton he’s serious, Hart must come to terms with the circumstances of his birth—and find a place in the pride for them both.

Review:
After finishing her shifter trilogy I was glad to see another shifter story by Poppy Dennison, the lion shifters had me thinking of the cub Simon adopted, but sadly it was not his story. Born This Way is for lovers of typical shifter stories and typical dynamics in such relationships.

Hart is a ligar, a cross breed between tiger and lion, and that made him stand out in his father’s lion tribe. He was becoming stronger than his pride leader and was therefore banished from his home and forbidden any contact with his family. On his own, Hart becomes a successful lawyer in the entertainment business and it's just his mate that is missing from his life. A mate whose identity Hart has known since he was little, a mate who he was forced to leave, when he was thrown out of his home, his sisters best friend - Dayton.

Now Dayton has come into Atlanta to see a doctor for his broken arm and to visit the brother of his best friend Tawny. They both fall in instant lust, when they first see each other, but Dayton pulls back before they can go through with the mating. Not one to give up easily Hart vows to himself to do anything possible, to convince his mate of his sincerity but he still has his father and his former weretiger tribe to fight for the right to court his human mate.

Surprisingly, after the first time there are not a lot of sparks flying, mostly they get to know each other, just a bit fast. Then there is the whole weretribe issue. Both combined happened and I would have liked a bit more background information. A former relationship was mention, a reason why Dayton was so cautious, but it was never explained. If this story had a bit more space to unfold, it would have been fabulous, as it is it's still a very nice shifter story, which has not the standard wolf shifters in its focus.

3 Pants Off