Jade Reviews “A Tooth for a Fang” by Liv Olteano

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press | Amazon

Jade’s Rating: 3.5 Stars

Jade’s Review:

“This was all a game to him, I realized—the catch, the fun of the conquest, of getting someone to be his. I would’ve been all up for it too, just not now. Not after getting my heart broken by the very same kind of game.”

This was an enjoyable read with an interesting take on the paranormal world. The crime-solving side of things was fun, the story was fast-paced, and it kept me turning the pages. I like the concept of PBI and how the Council regulates the paranormal creatures and keeps them in line. I liked seeing the different creatures, especially the centaur and Lora the troll. She was awesome.

(Warning: Potential spoilers ahead. What most people consider spoilery, I usually don’t, so who knows? But you have been warned.)

I did struggle with the whole dub-con feel of Travis and Rick’s partnership/mating. Rick is presented with a choice which is essentially not a choice at all. He is bitten without consent and then pretty much duped into mating with Travis. Travis may have had good intentions – or not, it’s sometimes hard to tell with him – but at the most basic level, Rick is forced into a life he wouldn’t have chosen otherwise. Travis does wait until he’s ready to actually have sex, but it’s really just a matter of time, isn’t it, when one is inexorably drawn to one’s mate, when the raging hormones are irresistible?

I’ve read many stories where werewolves/lycans/vamps/assorted other paranormals turn others without a care for consent, so I had to think a while as to why this story was hard for me to accept. I think part of it is the discord between Rick’s body and his heart. His body responds to Travis’s hormones, but his heart wants no part of it for a large portion of the story. The other thing that bothers me even more is that Rick has to deal with this new life and dub-con mating right after getting out of a long relationship with an abusive partner. The very last thing he needs is Travis, yet somehow by the end of the book, they are together and happy. Travis says that he wants them to be “for real” but I have a hard time accepting that it’s genuine and not just a way to get what he wants.

Rick’s thought process as he is trying to work through things is fantastic at times, however. There is one point, about halfway through the story if I recall correctly, where he has an internal monologue that is so superbly written from the perspective of a victim of physical and psychological abuse. That struck a deep chord with me, and I very much appreciated how well that section was written. (Which is probably why I had such a hard time accepting that his relationship with Travis was a good thing. Eh, I suppose my own experiences are coloring my opinion of their relationship. YMMV.)

I also appreciated that the villain isn’t really a villain. Or is a sympathetic villain, at least. Or that the villains (plural) aren’t really evil. Whether we’re talking about Amanda or Weiss or the Council, they all have their own motivations and justifications. They don’t intend to harm, but harm is done nonetheless. There is a disturbing similarity between Travis and Rick’s relationship and Weiss and Amanda’s. Rick could have been living the same nightmare that Amanda is, and he sympathizes with her because of it. She is a bitch, but she isn’t really a bad guy.

If you can get past the sketchiness of the turning and mating, there is a really good story here. The paranormal aspect and the crime-solving were enough of a counterbalance to the relationship for me to enjoy the story.

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.