REVIEW: Hunter’s Heart by J.D. Tyler

In Hunter’s Heart (Alpha Pack #4) by J.D. Tyler, Former Navy SEAL Ryon Hunter has always had Psy abilities, but since becoming a wolf shifter and joining the Alpha Pack, they seem to have become more enhanced. Being telepathic comes in handy on missions but he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to being a channeler. Seeing and hearing spirits is just not normal. While healing from a vampire attack, Ryon sees an astral vision of a beautiful dark haired woman, pleading for his help, saying that she’s alive but hurt badly. He and his team search the Shoshone National Forest and find her clinging to life in a ravine. Ryon’s inner wolf won’t allow anything happen to her and he becomes possessive of her, feeling a bond with Daria that he’s never felt before. Puzzled, he finds out that she’s his mate. The woman he’s destined to live his life with, if she survives. Though it’s touch and go, Daria pulls through and is then thrown into a world she thought was only found in fairy tales. Ryon’s job is to ease her into his world and explain/show her what they mean to each other without scaring her off. All in the midst of fighting an unseen beast in the forest, bent on killing and destroying everything in sight.

‘A thick golden bond arced from his body to hers, crackling with electricity and then detonating like a supernova.’

Daria Bradford is a wildlife biologist who spends most of her time in the Shoshone National Forest doing research on wolves. Able to astrally project herself and see events as they are happening, or have just happened, Daria sees a stunningly handsome man lying in an alley being attacked. The strange thing is that he can actually see her as well, which doesn’t normally happen. She shakes it off once she awakens and shortly after is forced down into a ravine where she is in danger of losing her life. In a last ditch effort for help, she projects herself to the stranger in her earlier vision as she can still feel a connection between them. She awakens battered and badly bruised, but recovering after having been saved by Ryon and his crew. However she has to wonder about Ryon’s sanity. The stories he tells her about the creatures the Alpha Pack fights and the abilities they have seem very far fetched. Once she sees a few things first hand, Daria can no longer deny what Ryon is telling her is true. A whole new world is opened up to her and the scientist in her jumps for joy. Until she realizes the threat she and her new friends face may tear them all apart before she can enjoy all this new knowledge.

‘Ryon had been telling the absolute truth about his world and the creatures in it. And her world had just been irrevocably turned on its head.’

Hunter’s Heart is the first book I’ve read so far in the Alpha Pack series and I can assure you I will be getting the first three books and reading those before long. I don’t know how I haven’t discovered J.D. Tyler’s books before now!

I really enjoyed J.D.’s writing style. The scenes flowed easily and the conversations seemed real, not forced. All of the characters are interesting…not just Daria and Ryon, but of course they were the main focus. And the way she describes the shifters and their abilities just drew me further into the plot. I loved how she talked about what the “inner wolf” was doing, what it was feeling in different situations. I felt like it was a way of bringing the reader into both worlds and making it more cohesive.

I thought Daria being a biologist who specializes in wolves was a nice way to tie her into Ryon’s world and would certainly make her curious about the Pack. It also made Ryon’s job a little easier when he had to explain about the paranormal creatures they fight, although, Daria being a strong woman couldn’t make it too easy on him. 😉 She didn’t really feel comfortable being forced into this new world and wished she had more say in it, but it ultimately works out to everyone’s benefit.

If you’re tired of the same old type of paranormal/shapeshifter romance, you might want to give Hunter’s Heart a try. It has a few interesting twists to it that really caught my attention and just might catch yours as well.

Book Info:

Published September 3rd 2013 by Signet

(Alpha Pack #4)

A group of former Navy SEALS, the Alpha Pack is a top secret team of wolf shifters with Psy powers combating the greatest dangers in the world. And when the battle gets personal, their wild side is unleashed….

Ryon Hunter sees dead people—spirits that beg him for help in ways he can’t understand. He’d do anything to end the torment, until a beautiful spirit appears to him with a plea he can’t ignore: Help me…I’m alive. The woman is wildlife biologist Daria Bradford, mortally wounded after encountering a white wolf, calling to Ryon through a rare Psy gift.

When Ryon locates Daria in the Shoshone National Park, it is almost too late, but nursing her back to health at the Alpha Pack compound brings a new complication—Daria is his destined mate, and Ryon is afraid of what will happen when she discovers what he is, and what he had to do to save her life. But the biggest threat of all is still loose in the forest, leaving a merciless trail of death behind it. The Alpha Pack goes on the hunt for the mysterious white wolf, determined to stop the murderous rogue… only to find that the most lethal creature of all is the one they can’t see coming…