Genre: Erotic Paranormal Romance Heat Level: 3 Word Count: 16, 370 ISBN: 978-1-77233-029-8 Editor: Lisa Petrocelli Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Her Sexy Skunk by Virginia Nelson

Heat Level 3
$3.99
SKU 978-1-77233-029-8
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Christine Jarrods wants to be a writer of paranormal young adult fiction, so she’s pursuing a degree in English. By day she tackles Chaucer and by night she stalks the streets looking for something magical to inspire her muse. Finding a thread that suggests one of her profs might be some flavor of shifter—and getting cyberbullied for asking the wrong questions—she decides to dig, even though she’s been warned to let it go.

Oliver Standish has a secret. Like a lot of guys his age, he’s scraping by, delivering pizzas, trying to pay off loans from a failed attempt at school, and crushing on Chrissy, the one that got away in high school. Only his family knows he’s also trying to deal with being a shifter, and he sure can’t tell Chrissy. She has a fascination with magic, and he knows she’d want to know more about it. But how do you tell a girl who wants to find a monster that you change into a skunk?

 

Excerpt:

She always smelled like spicy cotton candy, although that wasn’t a thing. Like all that was good about cinnamon chewing gum—a little bite and a little sweet all in one gulp. Made him want to taste her, not that he’d ever had the opportunity. “Sounds like stalking to me.”

“Where the hell have you been lately, anyway? You’re super smart and I haven’t seen you in classes—did you graduate early?” She leaned closer to him, bringing the scent of fiery candy into sharp focus. He pulled alongside the road, a dirt road that wasn’t regularly used and even less so late at night, and put the car into Park. He’d get shit from his boss for not coming right back to the shop, but he wanted a moment with her, consequences be damned.

Besides, what was the fun of being an irresponsible twenty-something if he never actually behaved irresponsibly?

“No. I dropped out. Now I’m paying back a ton of loans for the degree I won’t ever get.”

He waited for her harsh judgment, for her to tell him he was an idiot. She wouldn’t understand—hard to explain severe anxiety and inability to deal with crowded classrooms. If he did, she’d probably tell him to go see a shrink and get on some meds. Sadly, there wasn’t any medication he knew of that would make him less his beast, and the beast was the root of the problem.

“Are you okay?” Her soft-spoken question had him snapping his head up in shock to stare at her. Instead of a plethora of questions, she simply waited for him to answer.

“Not thrilled about it, no, but sometimes you make the choice that feels right. This sucks—isn’t what I planned for my life—but it feels right, if that makes sense. So, well, I’m working a lot and paying back what I can.” He shrugged. “Do ya have a violin you can play to go with my sob story?”

Instead of laughing or otherwise lightening the mood, she reached out and brushed his hair back from his forehead. “You’re a smart guy. You’ll figure out where you belong. So it wasn’t school, big deal. Something great is waiting for you, I just know it.”

Capturing her wrist for a moment, he sucked in a deep breath, the zesty scent of her spiking at his movement. If he didn’t know better, he’d think the scent meant attraction… “Maybe.” He conceded.

Tension snapped in the car, zinging up his spine with awareness. Instead of pulling back from him, she leaned closer. “So, are you seeing anyone?”

Product Reviews

Score: 4 out of 5 (based on 3 ratings)
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4/5
It is never a bad thing when you end a story with a smile on your face.
Written by D. Antonio on 3rd Jan 2018

Got to love the idea of a skunk shifter right? I mean the problems/possibilities are fun to think about and so I just had to read this. This is a fast fun shifter story. Oliver (our skunk shifter) and shy English lit major Chrissy have lusted after each other for a bit but neither did anything about it until Chrissy decides to explore a weird Facebook post regarding one of her professors. Oliver is her unlikely rescuer and they finally start to acknowledge each other. It is almost painful to watch these two very shy individuals dance around their mutual attraction. I got a real kick out of this book. I could wish it was a bit longer but really got a kick out of it. It is never a bad thing when you end a story with a smile on your face.

3/5
Good Reading
Written by LAS Reviewer on 3rd Jan 2018

The title alone made me giggle, the blurb intrigued me but the story thoroughly entertained me. I really liked the whole progression of Her Sexy Skunk. For readers who like the premise of friends turned lovers, Her Sexy Skunk delivers. For those that like geeks turned heroes, this little book has that too. There is so much to like in this tale, I totally enjoyed myself. Chrissy is a wannabe romance writer, specifically a paranormal romance author, but there’s a couple of roadblocks to her dream. She doesn’t know a thing about actual romance because she’s never been in love, and she can’t seem to put her own stamp on a paranormal theme because she doesn’t have anything to research. It’s all fantasy, right? The heroine doesn’t count on the fact that shifters are real and they intend to kill her. How did a bookish heroine become embroiled in were-politics? I really liked what Ms. Nelson came up with. Ollie is not a common name but it fit the hero. He certainly comes across as timid initially, but when Chrissy is in danger his inner beast isn’t afraid of protecting the woman who he believes is his own. Personally, I adore skunks – I think they’re cute, cuddly and I love how they waddle as they walk. But, I also know that they are not passive little bundles of fur – their spray can blind and their claws can rend and tear with efficiency. So, a wereskunk isn’t that far of a stretch for a hero – it just means he’s doubly cute and impressively aggressive when he needs to be. The only thing that I wished was different would be how Professor Snipper was handled. References about the teacher are what started the plot moving along but that thread got dropped midway and was not picked up again. Why would Chrissy’s comments cause her the problems they did? What was really going on with Mr. Snipper and why would anyone mention anything on a public forum if humans weren’t supposed to know anything at all? Those loose ends and unexplained relationships plagued me but as this was a short story, I’m guessing they were sacrificed so that the story remained focused on the growing romance between Ollie and Chrissy. I enjoyed the sensual buildup and the start and stops of their relationship. They’re both unsure, yet it’s clear the attraction is simmering and about to boil over. When it finally does, I was tickled with the vehicle the author chose to get them together. Childhood games aren’t always restricted to kids and the results were fun and sexy. Her Sexy Skunk is cute, sensually pleasing, sultry yet amusing and is a book easy to recommend to other readers. The ending is a happy for now because I think there’s a bit more hanky-panky that needs to happen before the final HEA. I’m left in no doubts that it’s going to happen though. Ollie and Chrissy are good together. Her Sexy Skunk is lighthearted and charming and a nice story to spend an afternoon with. I’m happy I did.

5/5
love, mystery
Written by dlvandruff on 25th Sep 2014

Chrissy has always wanted to be a paranormal romance writter. She has done her research and knows her genre backwards and forwards. However, she is stuck...writer's block!! Ollie has dropped out of school. He is not social and neither is his beast. He is a shape- shifter. He is someone who prefers his own company. Chrissy and Ollie are thrown together when she is attacked and Ollie rides to her rescue. This is when she realizes that her lifelong friend is a shapeshifter! Read this cleverly written one of a kind story. It has humor, adventure, love, mystery! What more could you want?

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