A-Z Challenge Review: Change of Heart by Mary Calmes

Why I bought the book: I'd heard good things about the author.  Plus the book was free at Rainbow Ebooks at the time.

Plot: Panther shifters Jin and his friend Crane have been exiled from their tribe and so have arrived in Reno and attached themselves to a local tribe.  When they save the life of a female panther, everything changes for them as Jin finds himself unwillingly embroiled in a war between the tribes and realises that he is the true mate to sexy tribe leader Logan.

The start of this story thrust me into the action and I read quickly through the opening section.  The plot itself is very swiftly paced with most of the story centred around a set of action scenes, or sex.  This had the effect that I read the book quickly and was rather compelled through the story by the fast pacing.  This turned out to be a good thing for me because I may never have finished this book had the pace been slower.

Characters: My main problem with the book is that I really didn't like the main character and third person narrator of Jin.  I appreciated that he'd had a tough break in life and that he'd had to forge his own way with Crane at his side.  However, in my mind that did not excuse his total selfishness, his inability to see things from the perspective of others or his capricious behaviour.  I don't think it helped that I'm not a huge fan of the 'mated therefore in love' story, of which this is an example.  Jin and Logan meet and they have an instant bond.  This bond goes so deep that Jin is prepared to sacrifice his own life for Logan within a few days of knowing him.  Yet not long after he allows Logan to behave in a suicidal way just because of some sense of misguided betrayal. All Jin's actions are based around what's best for himself and as a result I never believed him when he said that he had feelings for Logan.  Logan therefore comes across as weak and helpless when faced with Jin's actions as he's a typical Alpha who roars and uses brute strength when things don't go his way. We are told that he is a good leader to his tribe but I didn't see much evidence of that, unless being a good leader means that you sulk for most of the book when you don't get what you want and shout at people the rest of the time.  This meant that instead of the push-pull of their relationship being thrilling or exciting, which I believe must have been the intention, instead I found it tiresome and just wished they'd pull their head out of their arses and see sense.

Overall: I had a lot of negative feelings for this book and there were other things, such as the brutal sex scenes which I found more wince-worthy than sexy, which added to my dislike of the story.  I also found the various panther laws that crop up through the story a little too convenient in that every time there is some sort of crisis, Jin has a law which he can quote to get his own way.  Having said that, the secondary characters were all quite sympathetic, even if they did have a habit of fawning all over Jin in a sickening fashion. I liked Crane and Yuri, Logan's second in command, both of whom were the voice of reason in the madness that is Jin and Logan's relationship, plus Crane actually treated Jin like a friend would, even when Jin tries to constantly shut him out. The world building was interesting with all the different panther tribes, their relationships to one another and the hierarchy within the tribes, and in some ways I wish that aspect had been expanded.

Unfortunately, as you can probably tell, the majority of the story just didn't work for me. Unsympathetic characters and a plot based too much on the fickle behaviour of the main protagonist means that I can't recommend this book and I'm giving it a grade of 'Poor'.  However, a quick look at Good Reads shows me that I'm probably in the minority here and there are lots and lots of people who really liked or even loved this book, so don't let just my opinion put you off from giving it a go.

Buy this book HERE.