Review: An Erie Halloween by V.L Locey

Reviewed by SinChan
An Erie Halloween by V.L Locey
Torquere Press
Short Story: 79pgs
4 Pants Off

Blurb:
Templeton Reed has been hiding his inner polecat since he was a child. Keeping his animal secreted is hard for a shifter, especially when one is living in a secret community of mystical beings. It`s the wolf shifters that cause Templeton the most trouble with their darned sensitive noses.

Templeton has a run-in with the Lake Erie pack and their alpha, Mikel Lupei, at the Office for Transmogrification Registration (OTTER). Templeton has a desk job checking registration papers and dealing with wolf shifters is not part of his job description. After that upsetting meeting the meek and mild office worker suddenly finds himself in the center of not only civil unrest among the shifter community, but a violent plan for a coup aimed at rousting Mikel.

Templeton and Mikel, a skilled tracker of rogue shifters, are soon not only fighting for their lives, they`re also fighting the rigidly archaic rules of their kind, as well as the person responsible for trying to take over Mikel`s pack from the inside. Can this magical odd couple turn a passionate attraction into a full-fledged love affair?

Review
I love that there is a hierarchy among shifters and they can be discriminated by species, gender, and sexual orientation. I think this story is more contemporary in terms of the issues the characters are dealing with and how their society is changing. Women are trying to gain positions of power and shifters are fighting for gay rights. The story has a strong underlying message with its romance package.

The mystery plot is wonderfully done and keeps the reader in the dark. Some rogue shifters are murdering "lesser shifters" and Templeton narrowly escapes being killed on Halloween night. I wish more foreshadowing is done to clue into the perpetrators so they don't come as a surprise (or complete strangers) at the end of the story.

There's no mate bond with the shifters but the attraction between Mikel and Templeton is still apparent. Mikel is the popular wolf shifter who's also secure in his position as an alpha wolf in the shifter society. Templeton, on the other hand, is a skunk shifter. He dyes his hair and hides whenever there's trouble and knows he's a lesser shifter who's not on par with the popular wolf shifters. I like Templeton's inner voice telling the story and his HEA ending.

This is a short, funny, romance story with skunk shifters and a dark plan to overthrow the male dominated wolf shifter pack. I definitely recommend this for shifter fans.

4 Pants Off