COUGAR BAIT – Evangeline Anderson
Cougarville , Book 2
Macmillan Swerve
ISBN-13:  978-1-25-014205-4
June 2017
Paranormal Romance/Shifters

Cougarville, North Carolina; Las Vegas; Tampa Bay, Florida – Present Day

As we left Samantha Becker and her sister Sadie in BUCK NAKED, Liam Keller and Sadie's love, Mathis, had just had a fight that almost led to Liam's death.  It was only because Samantha, a trauma surgeon, was there after the fight and performed surgery on Liam that he lived.  Sadie had come to Cougarville just a while ago, and when her body started looking younger and younger, Sadie found out a shifter gene in her body had become active, and she was rejuvenating her body back to her 20's, preparing itself to meet its mate and becoming hyper-fertile, just what a forty-year-old woman wants to hear!

Samantha, Sadie's twin, is now also exhibiting symptoms of the rejuvenation, which includes a smell that is impossible for male shifters to ignore, but she is leaving her patient to go to a medical conference in Las Vegas.  Even in his hospital bed, Liam says it isn't smart to go to Vegas, home of hyena shifters, with no one there to protect her.  Samantha has been on her own and a respected surgeon for many years, and isn't listening to anyone.  After Samantha leaves, Liam changes into his six foot cougar from the Paleolithic Era, which expedites his healing.  Injuries that would have taken his human side to heal in six weeks are now gone.  Liam decides Samantha needs a protector and it appears he is it.

As luck would have it, Eddie Lounds, a medical sales representative, is also in Las Vegas and gives Samantha the creeps by talking to her, and when he shakes her hand it feels like slugs crawling over her body.  Fortunately, Liam finds her at the conference and is determined to keep her in sight at all times.  Liam is the first one to notice his cougar wants Samantha, but she is bound and determined that the rejuvenation and becoming hyper fertile and having a baby at her age isn't for her.  She is a trauma surgeon, and she's determined not to let anything change her life.  A fight with Liam leads to Eddie Lounds breaking into her hotel room and giving her a shot that speeds up the rejuvenation.  When she returns home to Tampa Bay, she is taken by Lounds for the honey or nectar her body will soon emit, and the blood with the youthful genes in it will be his.  Maybe he will even breed her and use the stem cells from her baby.  Women will pay millions for a way to become younger with what can be taken from Samantha's body.

Evangeline Anderson is continuing the story of Cougarville and Sadie's sister Samantha, who is trying to ignore what her body is becoming without her consent.  Samantha doesn't want a baby, a husband, or a man telling her what to do.  Liam has been looking for a woman to have a baby with him to give him an heir to his million dollar company.  A previous lover had freaked out when she found out he was a shifter and aborted his child before breaking up with him.  He felt that little life flicker out, and is determined to have a child even if the woman doesn't love him.

Secondary characters are Sadie, Samantha's sister and her mate, Mathis, who try to explain the shifter change to Samantha.  Eddie Lounds is a scientist and a hyena, determined to try out his new discovery on Samantha to make shifters out of humans all over the country.  And of course there is Fiona ShadowTree, resident Cougarville pharmacist and expert in all things shifter.

COUGAR BAIT continues the story of twin sisters who had a hidden shifter gene and happened to go to Cougarville and become something they knew nothing about.  Samantha goes through the change kicking and screaming; she doesn't want to be a shifter; she doesn't want a mate, especially Liam, and she darn sure doesn't want a baby, but that will be out of her hands at the full moon when the mating frenzy hits her and she must be bred or become a pitiful version of herself.  See if Liam can change this determined woman, using only the love inside he finds for her as ammunition.  The third book in the Cougarville series is STONE COLD FOX, featuring Reese Cooper, a fox shifter.  You might not want to visit Cougarville yourself, but it's fun to read about!

Carolyn Crisher