The Given & the Taken

Tooth & Claw, Book 1

By: L.A. Witt

Narrated by: Jason Winters

Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Love’s compass is never wrong - even when it points in two different directions. After pleading his case to his wolf clan’s Elders, Levi is granted the right to bond with Ian, his male human lover, on one condition: They must spend one year apart. Then Levi must use only their spiritual connection to find Ian, or the deal is off. Tracking down his lover is easy, but Levi isn’t prepared for the changed man he finds. The agony of separation was too much for Ian. In a moment of weakness, he reached out - to a vampire. Now he’s a vampire himself, and Levi’s devastation - and rejection - is like a stake to his heart. But it’s nothing compared to the fury of the clan that wants Ian brought to justice for desecrating their most sacred ritual.

Afraid for Ian’s safety, Levi puts the pain aside and races to get to Ian first, but he faces unexpected competition: Darius, Ian’s maker. When they come together, all hell breaks loose, Ian is on the run…and the only way Levi and Darius can save the man they love is work together. If they don’t kill each other first.

Warning: Contains two vampires and a werewolf who really, really, really want to hate each other. Except when they want each other. And have violent, sweaty, angry sex with each other. But they still hate each other. Mostly.

©2012 Samhain Publishing (P)2014 Insatiable Press

Wish i loved it

This story actually has a lot of the aspects i really like in a story and i generally like this author. But somehow it really did not make it above the bar of "just okay". It could have been because i had to High expectations. I had a little Trouble with the characters and i dont Think you really Got to know Them. It kinds of feels like you jumped into the story in the middle and there should have been a story of the relationship between the shifter and the human and a subsequent story of the relationship between the human and the vampire. You do get details in flashbacks but its just not enough to make you really get the People involved. So no Real empaty which always make a Big difference for me. Otherwise the storyline is not bad. Narrator is fine.

Interesting story

I rarely write full reviews. The work of this author is usually very smooth and character development is solid. I this book, the three characters have distinct story lines, but parts of the story felt contrived. I still enjoyed the story and would not discourage anyone from purchasing and listening to this paranormal romance.

The narration is flat and several works are poorly pronounced. Animated narration would have moved this story from above average to very good.

Great Story...

I loved the story. the story itself pulls you in right away and keep you captured. I feel the only doesn't side to me was the Narration took some getting used to. Not my favorite narrator for This story. I am NOT saying the narrator is bad, just not what I imagine for this story. The voice seemed to flat for the action and reactions of the characters. Just my opinion... I know not everyone will feel this way. Once I got used to it I was too absorbed into the story to even notice. can't wait to start the next one.

Cautiously optimistic about this shifter menage

Levi and Ian fall in love, but Ian is human and Levi – a werewolf- is not allowed to mate with a human without special trials being met. In this case, once the pair has bonded, they must separate for a year and then Ian must find Levi on his own exactly one year later.

That year apart is pure torture for both men, but Ian doesn’t handle it well at all. Ian ends up finding Darius, a vampire, and becoming lovers with him. When Ian and Levi re-connect, Levi is devastated – both because he was betrayed by Ian’s cheating and that he’d cheat with the wolves most hated enemy- vampires.

So… Ian runs off and of all things Darius and Levi end up pairing up to find him.

During that trip the two end up … you guessed it….hooking up! So now, when they finally find Ian, nobody knows what will happen next and who will end up with whom…

On top of all that, Levi’s clan wants both Ian and Darius (and probably Levi by extension) dead – so the three of them must all re-connect, sort out their relationship and evade the clan.

**

WOW. On the one hand this is exactly the type of ménage I hate. I strongly dislike the idea of an extra man screwing up the relationship between two loving partners. Ian is VERY hard to like here because he really betrayed Levi. It’s sort of explained and justified, but …. It’s still hard to accept.

Then add in Levi and Darius getting together – that’s almost impossible to accept – but it somehow makes sense…. But again, it’s hard.

The story is so compelling and LA Witt’s writing is so engaging that despite my concerns I was driven to finish and move on to book two so… we’ll see how this crazy ménage works out.

4 of 5 stars
Audio

Jason Winters does a great job of trying to keep all these guys separate. They don’t have any really strong accents but I felt like I could mostly tell who was speaking at all times. He’s good with the emotion and easy to listen to.
3.5 of 5 stars

Overall I give this a cautious 4 of 5 stars for both the audio and the book and move on to book 2 with a bit of excitement and trepidation both.