The Wallflower

THREE AND A HALF STARS--A slightly cutesy puma shape shifter short story where the wallflower, shy heroine gets the guy she's been lusting after for years. Emma is plump and hated by the town's popular mean girls...sounds like a YA set-up but it's not. Though at times the characters acted as if there weer in a paranormal version of 'Mean Girls'. At times the men even talked like girls. There was a part when Emma called Max a girl and agreed.

So other than the high school drama kind of feel and the men sounding more like women at times (ex. one of the male characters described a pushy female as a 'stanky ho'), I liked the story. I think I would have liked it a little longer but I appreciated the dialogue. It was witty with out being too show more sharp like a another popular shifter series that I shall not name. (Don't worry I like that series too.)

And I would recommend to readers looking for a lighter,not so serious, steamy, cat shifter read. show less

Well, here we go again, they say the third time is a charm we shall see. I seem to be having difficulty with writing and for a change it has nothing to do with a lack of what to say and more about freezing software and forgetting to save when taking a break. Then there was my crazy job and the messed-up sinus infection that spent two weeks trying to kick my sorry ass. Now I am feeling better and ready to get writing and I really have a lot to write about. But I am doing this really insane thing that started with reading The Wallflower which is the first book in the Halle Pumas series, which is connected to the Halle Shifters series and the Poconos Pack Series, and has me currently on Bear Necessities.

I chose to re-read The Wallflower show more because I really love Emma and Max, they make laugh and lighten my mood significantly when I am alone with my heavy thoughts, be alone is a hard thing these days but visiting with some good characters and chase away blues. Emma’s not always so appropriate comments and Max’s Ricky Ricardo like response when he says her name are hilariously entertaining. Then there is Emma when she is in her bad ass mode, she does pack a punch for the tiny person that she is which just proves that the tiny are mighty and one really should not piss them off. By the way ladies, in case you have not read The Wallflower yet, Max’s last name is

New Cover
Cannon and if you get the innuendo then you will have to read the story to find out if he lives up to his name because even though I tell you the story does have steamy moments and some interesting foreplay, I think it is only appropriate that Emma tell you herself about him living up to his name or not (lol).

Then we have Livia, who maybe should be an elephant instead of a puma since she can sure hold a grudge or maybe she is just jealous. Either way that psycho bitch really needs to be committed so she can deal with her stalking issues which obviously stem from her delusions that she should be the Curana because I honestly don’t think love for Max has anything to do with her desire to mate with him. Livia’s break from reality was pretty epic and probably predicable but what really surprised me was her lack of intelligence when it came to her methods, I mean I figured she was a come-at-you-head-on type of person not a come-at-you-sideways type person.

The Wallflower is definitely one of my favorite stories and my only real complaint is that it can easily be read in a day or if it is really quiet with no disruption half a day. Either way it deserves a five-star and on that note I know that there is a new edition of The Wallflower and given that I am seriously curious to see if there are any rewrites or addition you will probably see this review again but for the newest edition which was published by Dana Marie Bell.

This review posting contains the body of the review, which is only a portion of the original review which is posted here http://lauralusbookreviews.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-wallflower-halle-pumas-1-by-... show less

This review was first posted at http://www.rubysreads.com.

Okay, first of all, they weren't kidding about the explicit sex. I decided to give this book a go despite the fact that I tend to like my heat rating closer to warm than so-hot-I'm-blushing. After all, it's been on more shifter book lists than I can count. But it was also (no surprise) on the list of books for wallflower heroines. It doesn't really apply, in my opinion, as the heroine was formerly a wallflower but is no longer at the start of the book.
The Wallflower moves at a mad pace. It's not a long read. I was disappointed to find that the last 30% of the book was excerpts from other Samhain Publishing books. Actually, the first excerpt was from The Wallflower. Which is one show more of my biggest pet peeves ever. I wish publishers would take a little time to think that one through. I'm really curious to know how much extra work it would take to leave out an excerpt of a book at the back of the book itself. Or is it just laziness. Somehow, I think it's the latter.
Okay, right: The Wallflower moves at a mad pace. Events happen in a slam-bam thank you ma'am sort of way. And yes, I meant that double entendre. Max no sooner hears Emma's voice over the phone than he's meeting her in person than he's realizing she's his mate, turning her into a puma, taking her to bed and teaching her to be a wanton woman. There's hardly time for anyone to take a breath and, in all the mad rushing, important elements are left behind. Like plot and characterization. Max and Emma end the story where they began it. The only difference is that, by the last page, they're together.
Bell rushes Max and Emma into the bedroom pretty fast, but then it's revealed that Emma's a virgin. So, she's waited 25 years to have sex only to give it up without a second thought? That's...unusual. Why did Emma have to be a virgin in the first place? I don't mind virgin heroines, when they work for a story, but they mystify me when they don't. Especially novels with a great deal of erotic content. It's unlikely that a woman who has waited so long to go all the way will, after her first sexual encounter, suddenly be an expert in the bedroom.
The other thing that happens ultra-fast is the Emma's discovery of Max's werecat (Puma) nature. She accepts it with a minimum of disbelief. Also, we don't ever learn much about what it means to become a Puma, but all it seems to involve is eyes turning gold occasionally, the ability to shapeshift and an adherence to pack hierarchy. That's very much in evidence. Max also decides to make Emma a Puma without even telling her what he is. I didn't like that. At all.
My main feeling when I finished this book was that there wasn't enough substance to make it work. This is partly due to the length, but not entirely. Other authors have put a wealth of meaning into fewer words. I don't think I'll be buying the rest of the Halle Puma books, but I'd put free copies on TBR list. And, yes, that was a hint show less

Cute, sweet, funny (short) story about human Emma, who views herself as a wallflower even though everyone around her treats her like the wise-cracking sweetheart that she is. Well, everyone except Livia, who's hated Emma for years, even before alpha puma-shifter Max started showing interest in Emma. Supporting characters include Emma's human best friend, Becky, and Max's beta, Simon. Even with the conflict between viperous Livia and Emma, it's a pretty lighthearted story. The ending is an obvious set-up for the next in the series, which might bug some people.

waste of money. This book even at $3.85 was too short. It was listed at 114 pages but only 82 were actual story the last 40 pages were ads. The writing was pretty amaturish. The plot had promise but everything happened in a rush. The story took place in 2 days and when the 2 girls found out these men were werecats they were like really? that's cool. Very little reaction was shown to something that was really a pretty big life altering discovery. They didn't seem to care that these guys turned them into werecats. The explanation of the shifter world was glossed over not delved into. The heroine discovered her powers in a shazam moment. All of the learning about being a shifter happened off camera. Stated not shown. I was disappointed all show more around and the instances of cute dialog did not overcome the defects of little character or world development and absurdly easy acceptance of magical creatures. show less

Never read this author before, but took a chance. Pleasantly surprised! Funny, light, and worth reading more from her.

Not my usual type of book but got it free for my kindle. I enjoyed the story but went to fast, things were not very in depth. I don't usually read erotic stories, since things went fast there was not a really lot of erotic description as I have seen in other books, I think that made it a little better.