Review – Divided Loyalties by Lia Davis

Publisher: Fated Desires
Publish Date: Out Now
How I got this book: eARC from author

Trained to hunt rogues and protect the human race from the threat of shifters, Christa Baker is beginning to rethink her career choice. Especially when her niece and nephew—who she’s raised on her own—end up in the crossfire. Now she’s looking for a way out and disappear off Shield’s radar for good. She never thought her out would be a gorgeous wolf who kidnaps her after raiding Shield HQ.

Hayden Raines has always followed the rules. As the Ashwood Fall wolf Marshal, he has to set the example for those working under him. When he sets his sights on the beautiful human hunter things go downhill, fast. Fate has a funny way of turning things inside out—because the woman he kidnaps, the enemy he might need to protect his family from, just happens to be his mate.

Warning: Contains one woman on a path she’s not ready for, a man who thought things would be different, and a heated exchange that turns out to be the best thing ever.
*Blurb from Goodreads*

We have done some promo for Davis here at The Book Pushers in the past, so when I got the opportunity in my schedule to finally read one of her books, I jumped at the chance. I adore my wolf shifters, and thought Davis created a unique world.

Christa has been working for the human Shield organization for some time now, making sure that the wolf shifters don’t take out the humans. But her new boss is taking risky moves and making her rethink her position. When she is taken hostage by a shifter, she worries about which shifter rumors are true, and which are not.

Hayden enjoys his job as Marshal, and having a human mate throws him off a little. Hayden wants Christa to believe in his cause, but getting her to see his side of the story may be harder than he thinks. But as Christa’s old boss wages a war against them, they will have to fight together to save their own.

While this book can be read as a stand alone, there were multiple times when I felt like I was missing out on so much because I hadn’t read the previous books in the series. There was a lot of world building that had already been done in the other stories that wasn’t explained thoroughly, and there were times I felt as if I had to infer a lot about the world, the characters, and their ongoing fight with Shield and other rogue wolf groups. That being said, I think Davis has done a wonderful job creating a fun world to read about different kinds of shifters and humans all interacting together and finding ways to coexist.

The romance in this book felt a little rushed to me. While Hayden is all in because of the pull he feels for his mate, I had a harder time connecting with why Christa finally gave in to the romance. Hayden kidnapped her, wouldn’t let her leave, almost threatened her niece and nephew and then kept trying to keep her from her true nature, being a warrior. The sexual chemistry between them was obvious, but the emotional connection I wanted to see wasn’t as strong as I had hoped.

I was definitely intrigued by the other secondary characters of this series, and will probably go back and read the previous books. I liked how the two groups of shifters have banded together to fight the common enemy, and I wish I had a better frame of reference for their backstory, because I think it has incredible potential to be a great story arc.

While I enjoyed Hayden and Christa, I did feel like a lot of this novella was split evenly between the romance and the ongoing plot arcs, so we didn’t get a chance to really know Hayden and Christa as individuals. Again, part of that could be because I hadn’t read any of the other books, but I would have liked to see a little more in-depth character development.

All in all I enjoyed my first read from Davis, but would definitely recommend anyone starting this series to read the book in order. I really enjoyed the world building and overall plot arcs, and I am interested in going back to get fully caught up to date. For me, I would have liked a little more on the relationship and individual development of the hero and heroine.
I give Divided Loyalties a B-

Amazon Kindle iTunes Barnes & Noble Nook Sony Book Depository Kobo