Rebecca Zanetti
Twisted
eKensington / June 20, 2013 / $2.99 digital
Maggie is a wolf shifter who was captured and experimented on by the Kurjans. Now that a cure has finally been found for shifters (although not for vampire mates or witches), she can concentrate on creating a new life for herself and finally accepting that her memories are gone forever. Most memories, that is. Sometimes in the hazy world between dreams and dawn, she hears a Scottish voice, dark and deep, that sounds suspiciously like wolf-shifter Terrent Vilks. A man she happened to anger by kidnapping a few years back. Hey, it was for a good cause.
Terrent Vilks knows more than he’s let on for the past several years. After digging for answers, he knows exactly why the demons want Maggie dead. And he remembers his past with Maggie…very well. She is finally where he wants her. Now all he has to do is discover what exactly the Kurjans did to her, beat the demons into so much submission they leave her alone, and get her to fall in love with him. Again. Good thing he’s used to wrangling monsters.
Twisted, the latest book in Rebecca Zanetti’s Dark Protector series, gives us the missing pieces from the life of the wolf-shifter Maggie. The vampires' mortal enemies, the Kurjans, have been infecting vampire mates and shifters with their Virus-27 for 10 years now. When they first developed their virus, they certainly weren’t against testing it on live subjects. In fact, they had incredible results turning shifters into werewolves, making them into mindless and controllable killing machines.
Here we are, already two weeks into the summer season, and there are yet more television series premieres coming our way... ahead, the highly anticipated premiere of Camp, the welcome returns of Necessary Roughness and Magic City and...well, I guess True Blood, for those of you who like your vampires with a side of ick. Among much else.
Summertime is here again, and that can only mean one thing: TV! ABC kicked off the off-season early with the series premiere of comedy Family Toolson May 1 (nope), and then came Canadian procedural Motive (chilling, but yep). Last week, NBC brought us Save Me (Michael Landes deserves so much better), and Fox delivered up The Goodwin Games (infuriating, but pretty funny). But this week brings us the summer season in earnest, and with it some new shows as well as many a returning favorite. First up, and all premiering in just the next fortnight:
Once upon a time, there was a Big Bad Wolf. He ate grandma, remember? Terrorized poor old Red right out of her hood?
Dangerous. Unpredictable. That's how people know the hulking Will Carver. And those who don't like pretty words just call him The Beat. No matter how hard Will works to suppress his werewulfen side, certain things drive him beyond all control. And saucy Miss Lena Todd tops the list.
They live in the shadows—half human, half beast—a powerful breed of shape-shifters who protect the civilized world from the deadliest of their kind…
On the heels of Kitty’s return from London, a new werewolf shows up in Denver, one who threatens to split the pack by challenging Kitty’s authority at every turn. The timing could not be worse; Kitty needs all the allies she can muster to go against the ancient vampire, Roman, if she’s to have any hope of defeating his Long Game. But there’s more to this intruder than there seems, and Kitty must uncover the truth, fast. Meanwhile, Cormac pursues an unknown entity wreaking havoc across Denver; and a vampire from the Order of St. Lazaurus tempts Rick with the means to transform his life forever.
Fans of 
Patricia Briggs
Think urban fantasy is all leather-clad heroines and male sidekicks with big guns? Think again. Urban fantasy has become one of the most varied of the speculative genres. In fact, it’s no longer necessarily urban, and the fantasy elements can be light and whimsical or deep and dark. Don’t even think about delving more deeply into the world of UF until you’ve completed this core reading list.
If you were a tween in the ’90s, chances are good that you remember K. A. Applegate’s middle-grade sci-fi/fantasy Animorphs series, whether you read the novels or watched the television show or both. After a few of us here at H&H HQ realized this*, we had a grand time talking about the golden days of Animorphs, only to stop and consider: Could Animorphs have been our first shifter romance story?!
