REVIEW - A VERY OUTLAW CHRISTMAS - OUTLAW SHIFTERS BY T. S. JOYCE

Title: A Very Outlaw Christmas

Series: Outlaw Shifters

Author: T. S. Joyce

Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance, Shifter

Publisher: Wicked Willow Press

Release Date: 13th December 2017

BLURB from Goodreads

Outlaw grizzly shifter, Trigger Massey, has been on the naughty list most of his life, but things are different now. He’s got a new mate, is in a race to save his ranch, and is the brand-new alpha of the Two Claws Clan. Add to that, his mate, Ava, has a serious problem with Christmas, and Trigger has his work cut out for him. This is his first Christmas as leader of his Clan, and he’s taken it as a personal challenge to make it perfect. The only problem? Ava never wanted perfect. 
Ava Dorset just needs to get through December, set up her business, save the ranch, and be the best mate she can be to Trigger. He’s a big brawler, who raises his fists first and asks questions later. They’re fresh out of a war with the local cougar clan and looking to stay on the straight-and-narrow until she can get their business off the ground, but the boys find trouble wherever they go and they’re demolishing her plans. All she needs to do is get their focus off the holiday, and back on saving the ranch, but the more Trigger works to get her holiday spirit back, the more she thinks perhaps December isn’t so bad. 

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REVIEW

I purchased and read this novella around Christmas time. I hadn’t had a particularly Christmassey themed read and this one seemed like it would fit the bill perfectly. I should point out that I did not know at the time of purchasing this novella was listed as bk1.5, for some reason I got into my head that it was a prequel!! If you check this book out now on Amazon it is listed as bk2. So yep once again I did what is becoming my specialty and read the first two books in the wrong order! However, it does state on this novella that it can be read as a standalone.  

I do enjoy a good shifter clan series and as the title suggests the shifters in this series are “Outlaw Shifters” too which I kind of interpreted as usual shifters with even more attitude! Lol! The cover depicts a hot looking human who we learn in the novella is a shifter.

The book centres on the characters of Ava a fairly new mate to Trigger Massey. Along with Ava’s brother Colton, they make up the at present small clan based on the Two Claws Ranch owned by Trigger and worked & lived on by Trigger, Ava & Colton, Kurt & his son Gunner.

Trigger has found out from Colton that Ava hates Christmas, it brings back too many bad childhood memories. So, she isn’t interested in “doing Christmas” whereas Trigger loves it and decides he is going to convert Ava into loving Christmas again. He decides they will start new traditions that they want to repeat every year. Though Trigger would love to buy her an expensive gift, money on the ranch is still too tight to enable him to do this, which is why he settles on setting up his very own version of the 7 days of Christmas! Or as he names them, 7 Days of Outlaw Christmas.

I almost immediately fell in love with the whole Two Claw Clan. It was amusing to read how the physically strong, moody shifter goes all soft and gooey over having a Christmas for his mate Ava to remember and enjoy. Ava may come across as quite nerdy and maybe quiet but when she says how something needs doing or how she wants something done, Trigger will move anything in the way of him delivering what his true mate wants.

I adored the whole sibling rivalry between Colton and Ava with their love/hate relationship. Ava may come across quiet but she can be loud and bossy when it comes to getting things done and she will go to whatever lengths needed to protect her clan.

My immediate thoughts upon finishing this brilliant novella were, wow when can I read more? I thought this was a great novella with a Christmas theme within it and certainly made me want to read much more about Ava, Trigger & Colton etc.