Lish McBride

In all of my romance-novel-binging over the past few years, very few of them have been fantasy romance. But, of the ones I have read, most of them don't seem to get the balance right. Either they're so focused on world-building and/or plot development that the romance becomes an afterthought, or they're basically straight-up romance with a little bit of magic shoehorned in. But A Little Too Familiar by Lish McBride manages to get the romance and the magic proportioned and blended together perfectly into a book that I stayed up WAAAAY too late listening to, and ultimate wound up finishing in less than 24 hours.

Lou is an animal mage, working in a magical vet's office helping other witches bond to their familiars. Her new housemate, Declan, is a (very hot) werewolf shifter who has a very bad reaction when he finds out what she is. Declan was looking for a fresh start after escaping the horrors of his past: his father essentially founded a werewolf cult, and his stepmother - who is also an animal mage - tortured him with extreme and illegal forms of magic until he was able to get himself and his sister free. His parents have been in jail for most of Declan's adult life, but now have broken out, and they're coming for him. But in trying to protect him from an attack, Lou performs a desperate act of forbidden magic herself, threatening their whole family and the pack that Declan has started to rebuild for himself.

Y'all, this book has just about everything: One of the best found-families in a romance that I've ever read. (Lou's actual family is large and extended enough that I could have used a family tree or two to keep all the half-sibs straight, plus all of Lou & Declan's friends and roommates.) Steamy romance with magical bonding that allows for mental communication and magic/strength-sharing. A kind and compassionate approach towards folks with trauma and PTSD, including characters actually utilizing therapy (on the page, even!). Lots of consideration of boundaries and consent and power imbalances, not just between Lou & Declan, but side characters as well. Enough of a sense of humor to keep things from getting grim, even with all the horrible things from Declan's past, but none of the characters felt like they were there just for the sake of comic relief. A baby phoenix and a pair of magical ferrets (okay, maybe the ferrets were mostly comic relief, but still important to the plot!). An approach to werewolves that (finally!) takes the alpha-wolf BS and turns it on its head -- in this book (as in actual wolves), being an alpha doesn't mean constant testosterone-fueled fighting to make sure that all of the members of your pack stay in line, it means making sure that all of the members of your pack are safe and fed. (Seriously, an alpha wolf packing lunches that are tailored to each housemate's dietary preferences is not something I knew I needed in my reading life, but I absolutely did.)

I will ding this book slightly for not having the clearest and cleanest resolution at the ending. It's not a cliffhanger or anything, but space was clearly being left for one or more sequels, and as a result, not all of the threads get neatly wrapped up. But I enjoyed everything else about this book so much that I will absolutely be picking up that sequel when it does come out.… (més)