CONVERSATION: Shifter Recommendations
Sirius: If you do like shifters what are your favorite ones?
Yesterday we ran the first part of our discussion on Shifters. Today’s post, the second part, is all about recommendations for shifter books. We hope you enjoy these! If you read them, we’d love to hear your thoughts on these books. ~ Janine
Popular and/or Wolf Shifter Books in Contemporary Settings
Sirius: I love how all shifters are portrayed in the Kate Daniels series. In that world shifters are humans infected with special virus – they certainly have some animalistic characteristics, but they are humans living with virus, that’s pretty much it and I love how easily they incorporate some things that some animals will do in nature and that to me deepens the characterizations of them as humans.
Janine: I like some of Ilona Andrews’ shifters, but not all. My favorite Andrews’ shifter was Jack in On the Edge (not so much in the later sequels). He was a little boy who was into everything and sniffing everything, and a great tracker, which was at once childlike and wolflike and worked really well for that particular story. It was appealing without being overly adorable.
On the other hand, shortly after we meet Sean, the wolf shifter love interest in their Innkeeper Chronicles series, he urinates around his and Dina’s neighborhood. I don’t care what his reasons were, marking your territory outside like a dog, even at night, is the antithesis of sexy. And I didn’t care for William, the wolf shifter hero of Bayou Moon, because he had this canine neediness.
My favorite shifter romances are Patricia Briggs’ novella Alpha and Omega, #0.5 in her Alpha and Omega series (except for the first couple A&O books I consider these UF, not romance) and Nalini Singh’s Caressed by Ice, #3 in the Psy/Changeling series. They explore the safety and self-acceptance aspects I described yesterday as being one of my favorite aspects of animal shifter books so well.
Layla: My favorite series with werewolves is the Patricia Briggs series Alpha and Omega followed by the Mercy Thompson series.
Janine: One of the things I especially love about Alpha and Omega (the novella) is that though their wolves instantly feel safe with each other, Charles and Anna’s human halves really struggle with that. They don’t have that same ease; their impulses aren’t safe. The relationship between the wolf and human aspects of each character are as big a part of the story as the relationship between the characters. Where many shifter romances are about a wild, almost uncontrollable passion, Alpha and Omega is about restraint, about how if you love the other person, it’s about their emotions, not yours. That’s a lot of why I love this couple.
Kaetrin: My faves are still Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson world series (the issues I have with that series despite how much I love it are not about shifters) and the Ilona Andrews books (mainly Kate Daniels but there are some shifters – kind of – in the Hidden Legacy series too). I was a big fan of Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling books but I haven’t read one for a while.
Sirius: In the last year I found Charlie Adhara’s Big Bad Wolf series which made it to my best of list to be very much to my taste series about shifters and off the top of my head that’s about it. The books were a hit with me, but I am having trouble articulating what was specifically there in the portrayal of the werewolves that I loved so much. I think I loved the characters and for one of them wolf was the integral part of who he was and I enjoyed him and liked meeting his family. His struggles as a shifter and human being made sense. I also loved how the alpha turned out to not be that and I cannot say more without spoilers.
Layla: I have read the Charlie Adhara books–the werewolf premise drew me in. I liked the first book a lot–and kept reading. But the books just got worse and I stopped at the second to the last. Something happened–I’m DYING to talk to someone about it–that made me so angry and made me stop reading.
Kaetrin: I read the first of the Charlie Adhara series when it came out and I have the others but they don’t catch my eye on my TBR as much as other books do.
Janine: I mentioned Prisoner by Lia Silver yesterday. That’s a book that Jane recommended here years ago. I really liked the way it looked at the question of humanity—are we any more human than werewolves if we treat them like animals and hold ourselves superior? The contrasting of questions about what’s human and what’s humane was thoughtful and well-executed.
Kaetrin: Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert was a lot of fun. That’s a werewolf book. Another favourite is Molly Harper. Her Jane Jameson books and the spin-off Half-Moon Hollow series set in that same group and more recently her Mystic Bayou books are all terrific and especially good on audio.
Shifters Who aren’t Wolves
Sirius: I think it was in book six (but I am not sure) in the Kate Daniels series where Curran (for those who have not read these series he is a love interest and very important character in the books, he is also a lion shifter) basically says that he will not go hunting with others, because he is a male lion and he is not interested and we know that lionesses of the pride usually do most hunting. I thought it was well done and made me giggle too. Basically I am a male lion and really lazy.
Janine: Curran isn’t a favorite for me. The idea of a giant gray lion is not sexy and also he is too much of a superman for me. I have come around to liking his human side however. The alpha aspect of shifter romances is interesting and really well-handled in that series. I like how the political parts of his job frustrate Curran or even tire him sometimes. I loved when he quit the pack because he got sick of them, that was great.
Jayne: I liked that the Zoe Chant book Cute but Prickly featured different shifters – in this case a hedgehog and a grison – than the standard wolf/big cat. Dakota Cassidy’s series also has some house cat shifters. I liked both of those. I remember them as being more of the cute and fluffy variety of shifters.
I like that Paladin’s Strength has the shifter aspect be central to a plot thread and I enjoyed the time spent in the bear shifter’s POV while shifted.
Kaetrin: Paladin’s Strength by T. Kingfisher was one of my best reads of last year. I adored it – though that feeling was more about the characters and the humour then the fact that it featured a shifter per se.
Janine: Although I never got past the first two books, Thea Harrison’s paranormal series beginning with Dragon Bound is very popular.
Kaetrin: I forgot all about the Elder Races series by Thea Harrison! I love that series – Dragon Bound is a book I’ve re-read and re-listened to more than once which is pretty rare for me. When I read Dragon Bound, it felt like PNR was mainly vampires and werewolves so it was refreshing to have a dragon for a change. Also, Pia is a shifter as well and for most of the book the reader didn’t know what kind (no spoilers here!).
It was the chemistry between Dragos and Pia made the book work so well for me. The jaded ancient power whose interest is suddenly sparked by this woman who dared steal from him? And when he falls for her he’s so totally gone – watching him try to change to accommodate her was the best.
Priddy’s Tale by Harper Fox is just a delight – it’s a queer PNR/fantasy romance with a merman. It’s fantastic on audio as well (and available on Audible Plus too so members can listen free.)
Shifters in Historical Settings
Janine: Can you guys think of any historical shifter books you have enjoyed? I’m thinking of Shana Abe’s Drakon series (set in 1730s-1910s Europe) which begins with The Smoke Thief. They are about dragon shifters. The first two are excellent and the dragons’ small society—not pack but they have their own version of that—is very controlling of powerful female dragons. There aren’t very many so they are coveted by the men. It’s a dark world in that way but at the same time there’s a mysterious, fairy tale feel to it. Those are the best historical paranormal romances I can think of.
Jennie: I’d forgotten all about Shana Abe’s Drakon series! I had to dig into my book log to determine that I’d read all five books in the series between 2007 and 2010. Four of them were A-/B+; the fourth book was a B (and I vaguely remember having issues with it even now, though I don’t remember any details).
Anyway, I really did like that series – and it may have been that it made me more comfortable with paranormal romance than I’d previously been. (I’ve long been a very picky fantasy reader, so I think that plays into my paranormal pickiness).
For some reason I don’t quite think of the characters in the Drakon series as shapeshifters, and I can’t really articulate why. Maybe because dragons aren’t real animals? More likely it’s just because the world Abe creates feels so different to me than the standard shapeshifters I’ve read. I’m sure it being a historical plays into it as well.
I wouldn’t mind rereading that series, actually. I really loved Abe’s prose style.
Layla: I did read and love the Shana Abe series in the past (So I guess if they are shifter books then I have read about something other than werewolves!).
Jayne: Gillian Bradshaw’s The Wolf Hunt is set in medieval France. It has a lot of basic medieval lusciousness that is unrelated to the shifter stuff plus a strong heroine. But there is a degree of thought put into how the hero experiences the world while he’s shifted and what his absence (after he’s betrayed) means for the peasants on his land. The shifter aspect is really central to his character rather than feeling as if it was just shoved into the book because “Hey, shifters are hot and selling well now.” It was actually first published in 2001.
Janine: I just remembered Aster Glenn Gray’s The Wolf and the Girl, which is an f/f romance novella retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in 1910 against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution and France in a milieu of theater and early cinema/filmmaking. I loved this novella and not least because the author did a great job with the unusual historical settings (Sirius wasn’t such a fan, though). Gray is also the author of Briarley, an m/m “Beauty and the Beast” romance where one of the heroes has been cursed into a dragon, set in the English countryside during the World War II blitz.
Kaetrin: I really enjoyed the Capital Wolves duet by Joanna Chambers – Gentleman Wolf and Master Wolf. It’s a queer historical werewolf romance [taking place mostly in late 1700s / early 1800s Edinburgh] – I listened to them (the narration is fantastic) back-to-back because the first one does not have a HEA (or even a HFN) and I’m all about the HEA. It has a bit of a different take on the werewolf mythos which made it stand out. Plus, Joanna Chambers is an autobuy author for me and the audio narration by Hamish McKinley is superb. The prologue is rough going as far as CWs are concerned though.
Janine: Virginia Kantra wrote a historical paranormal novella titled “Shifting Sea” (it was in the anthology Burning Up) that was set in 1813 Scotland. The heroine was a sea elemental/selkie. I love selkie romances.
Jayne: For some reason, I didn’t consider a recent book I read Daughter of the Sea by Elisabeth J. Hobbes, a shifter novel but it is. It takes place in 1880s Yorkshire. The hero is a selkie and his daughter, whom the heroine takes care of, is also a selkie. I enjoyed it more for its strong heroine than for the shifter part.
What are your favorite shifter romances, readers? We’d love some recommendations for werewolf romances, other shifter romances, and shifter romances set in historical periods ourselves. And please do ask for any other kind of shifter recommendations that you are looking for or chime in with your thoughts on the books we’ve mentioned.
I’m also a fan of the Alpha/Omega stories by Patricia Briggs. (I like the Mercy stories, too, but not as much.) Of Thea Harrison’s books, my reread favorites are Dragon Bound and Oracle’s Moon. (The latter features a djinn.)
I want to like Ilona Andrews’ books more than I do; however, my most liked is On the Edge that Janine mentioned.
As I mentioned yesterday, another favorite book is Parker’s Sanctuary: A Guardsmen Novel by Cooper West. This includes dog shifters; it’s a male/male romance.
The above has a free prequel — Rescued: A “Parker’s Sanctuary” Story by Cooper West.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07251DF9W/ref=dbs_a_def_awm_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
@Kareni: Have you read any of the others? Also–are there any type of shifter books you’d like recommendations from our readers for?
@Janine: I count Anne Bishop’s The Others books amongst my favorites. My husband made a comment about the series in that the humans are NOT the dominant species in that world. It’s interesting there that the Others shift to human (also in Maria Vale’s books) while in many other Shifter books, it is humans who shift to a different form (most of Briggs’ shifters).
It’s interesting, too, to consider the individual’s relationship to their shifted form. Charles and Brother Wolf (Briggs) are distinct with Charles generally in control. In Paladin’s Strength, Clare is generally in control but not always. Also, her shifted form is all animal without much intellect unlike Brother Wolf. The Others (Bishop) seem one individual regardless of form.
@Kareni: I have the impression that Brother Wolf is unusual even among other shifters in Briggs’ world. He certainly operates differently from Anna’s wolf. I think it even says as much in one of the books–that because Charles’s mother had magic, there are some differences between her son and others in the pack. Although–I do wonder if Bran’s wolf also (like Brother Wolf) thinks for itself more often than most wolf halves do. Didn’t it say somewhere that it was Bran’s wolf who wanted him to marry Leah?
@Janine, I think you are correct that that was said. Since Bran’s mother was a witch, it seems reasonable that his wolf might indeed think for itself more than others.
I love that you did this! Thank you. Re Ilona Andrews books; I adore them. She’s in my very tiny always buy list. I wanted to comment because I encourage people to read them.
I love that you did this! Thank you. Re Ilona Andrews books; I adore them. She’s in my very tiny always buy list. I wanted to comment because I encourage people to read them.
Besides the already mentioned Nalini Singh, I really enjoy Shelly Laurenston shifter series. I love that she has more than just wolves. She features a variety of bears, tigers, lions, and even honey badgers. They are funny, but violent. She explores issues of race, and found families are a big feature. I also enjoy Suzanne Wright. She is a British author (thought the books take place in the US) a and has more traditional type shifters in regards to mates. But I love her strong female leads and she has a variety of shifters including Pallas Cats, Ravens, Wolverines, and mink shifters. The thing I like about both authors are humorous but they tackle difficult topics. I also really really like the strong female characters.
Bearly a Lady by Cassandra Khaw has a bear shifter (novella).
Rachel Neumeier’s Black Dog series – sort of YA, but the veiwpoints expand to adults as well.
Rachel Aaron’s Heartstriker’s series has dragon shifters.
Shifters in Historical Settings – Isabel Cooper’s Highland Dragon series, the first trilogy is set in Victorian England/Scotland; and second trilogy in 1400’s Scotland/other places. An under-rated author, few people were going to get me to read a Scottish paranormal romance, but I’ll read whatever she writes.
These next books have shifter’s, but they don’t have the same feel that traditional urban fantasy/paranormal romance shifter’s do:
Seanan McGuire’s Toby Daye series has some types of fae that can shift, like the Cait Sidhe (shift into house cats).
Wen Spencer’s The Black Wolves of Boston
The second book of Juliet E McKenna’s Green Man series introduces a swan shifter family.
Maria Vale’s Legend of All Wolves (last book in the series will be published this July)
The mention of a merman reminded me that Nora Roberts had a trilogy where the three female leads were a werewolf, a mermaid temporarily in human form, and.. something less dramatic, I think, because she didn’t even know she had magic until the story started.
Do I remember the titles? Hahaha no.
Chiming in late to recommend Maz Maddox’s RELIC series, starting with SMASH & GRAB., which features dinosaur shifters. The books aren’t very polished, but they are batshit crazy and a lot of fun. I read SMASH & GRAB the night of the 2020 presidential election and it was the perfect distraction. Read the books for the characters and the humor, because the world-building and the plots are not strong.
I don’t read many books with shifters any more so most of these are older. I like Patricia Briggs, although I really think she needs to end the Mercy Thompson series. I’d love to see her write something else.
Elizabeth Hunter wrote a few books in her Cambio Springs series which features a town of shifters. I don’t think they sold well so there are only 3(maybe?) of them. I found them enjoyable, even if not something to re-read.
Faith Hunter’s Soulwood series has a few shifter characters in it. It’s more urban fantasy but there is a slow burn romance in it.
Sharon Shinn wrote a series with shape shifters. Shifting Circle. They are not the usual shifter romance or urban fantasy so while I enjoyed them, I recommend with caution. They are all character driven, not much action, if any. She kind of delved into some of the issues of a human living with someone who becomes/acts like an animal for periods of time.
Maggie Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls. Carrie Vaugn’s Kitty Norville series. Again, more urban fantasy but it has a romance in the first few books. I confess I quit this one a few books after they got together.
And finally an old favorite is C. E. Murphy’s Negotiator Trilogy starting with Heart of Stone. I have issues with these books (a few things just never made any sense) but also loved that they the feature a gargoyle.
@Kareni: Yes, or it could just be because is Bran is brilliant.
@KarenDunn: Who else is in your always buy list? I don’t mean just shifter books, I mean generally speaking.
@Erica H: RebeccaA mentioned Laurenston in the other thread. I have heard her books have a great sense of humor. I’ve never heard of Suzanne Wright. I’ll have to take a look at her books.
@madscientistnz: Hmm, I avoided Cooper’s books because I don’t do Scotland, but it sounds like maybe I should reevaluate that decision.
I love the October Daye books (after the first couple, those weren’t so great IMO). My agent represents her which is why I didn’t mention her but yes, Tybalt FTW!
@Kris Bock: Huh. I don’t remember hearing about those. She has so many books…
@Misti: Robin who used to review for us was a fan of Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock series. I’ve always wanted to give those a shot because she spoke so well of them.
I could not get into Sharon Shinn’s shifter books and I love a lot of Sharon Shinn’s stuff. I tried the first book and couldn’t get very far.
@Janine – I only read one Jane Yellowrock and just didn’t get into it enough to keep going. I might have been a little tired of the genre by then. The Soulwood series is a spin off of Jane Yellowrock. I enjoyed it because it’s heavier on the mystery and the MC has some fun abilities with plants/trees/dirt not usually seen in UF. However, the MC was also raised in a cult and still has a good deal to do with them, because her family is there, which might make some people uncomfortable.
@Kris Bock: The Nora Roberts books are from the Guardians Trilogy Series which I read years ago but no longer recall.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/764/guardians-trilogy
I am all about the love for the books recommended by Sirius and (some of) Janine. The Kate Daniels, Charlie Adhera, Thea Harrison (Dragon Bound and Oracle’s Moon specifically ), The Smoke Thief (although this is a bit darker than expected), early Nalini Singh such as Hostage to Pleasure. I don’t seem to read as many shifter books or maybe there are other more popular genres pushing them out.
+1 on the Shana Abe Drakon series being great! I think the earlier books in the series were stronger.
I just read THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE by Cate Wells and loved it. The only down side? It’s the first book in the series and the second book is 2 long months away!!
I’m realizing that I’ve gone through several different shifter romance phases over the years / decades – as my tastes have changed and as trends in romance have changed. I feel like all of my recommendations come with a lot of caveats.
I enjoyed Virginia Kantra’s Sea Witch when it came out in 2008 – it’s part of the Children of the Sea series, which includes the novella Janine mentioned, which I’d also recommend. Sea Witch is an m/f contemporary – it opens with a selkie (Maggie) who just wants to have sex and decides to choose a human man because they’re less complicated (spoiler – there were a lot of complications). At the time I read it (2008) this wasn’t at all common behavior for romance heroines and I was really taken with it.
I used to read a lot of gay shifter erotica, a lot of it BDSM. I don’t usually recommend my favorites of that era because objectively they’re not very well written – but I did love them. I still have a soft spot for Duck! by Kim Dare – BDSM avian shape shifter retelling of the Ugly Duckling, but it has a lot of author quirks and the world building is ridiculous.
I enjoyed Tanya Chris’ Omega Reimagined series – it’s a (more) feminist take on a/b/o (alpha/beta/omega) mm erotic romances, with a range of pairings beyond alpha and omega, including omega/omega and alpha/alpha. The world building is a little hand-wavey and I still wouldn’t call them super well written, but they’re fun, sexy reads and I didn’t hate myself for reading them.
Like @SusanS, I enjoyed Max Maddox’s RELIC series – the book equivalent of summer blockbuster movies. Note that there are scenes where a dino shifter describes hunting animals in their dino form, so probably not for everyone.
Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff is about queer middle aged women werewolves who are the guardians of their town and only come into their power during menopause. I loved the premise but I thought there was too much plot for the length of the book and it got a little too bonkers at the end for my taste. I gave it a B-
@Elena: I think the first two Drakon books were the best ones. I liked #5 a lot too though. The first one in her YA spinoff was terrible and I never read beyond that.
DiscoDollyDeb is a big fan of The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate and she recommended another Cate C. Wells book here, a contemporary called Hitting the Wall. It didn’t work for me, but I couldn’t get into the one you read either, so maybe Hitting the Wall would work better for you.
@Misti: The cult aspect actually makes me more interested, not less. Is there any romance in that series?
@Janine – Yes the Soulwood series has a romance that develops over the books (its not all there in book 1, or maybe even book 2). And development of the cult aspect and the long-term impact/effects on the main character. I totally binged those recently.
@Janine. Yes, like Argie mentioned there is a romance that develops over the series, so far 5 books. It’s very slow and definitely takes a back seat to all the rest of the story. But it also feels appropriate for the character of Nell and her background growing up in the cult. This series is definitely more urban fantasy than shifter romance. Plus, some of it takes place on a parallel timeline to Jane Yellowrock so there are some things I didn’t quite understand because I hadn’t read those. It didn’t stop me from enjoying the books, but just so you know in case you pick them up.
@Argie and Misti: Thanks! :) It sounds good but I’ll have to think about whether I have time to take on another series right now.
Briggs’ Sianim series has these two tightly coupled books that’s one of my most favorite re-reads – Masques and Wolfsbane. I think they fall under the shifter verse too.
@SP: What kind of shifters are in those?
I too am a fan of Briggs’ Alpha & Omega series, Vaughn’s Kitty and the Midnight Hour (UF, not romance), and Maria Vale’s wolves. Back in the day I loved Abe’s The Smoke Thief although it didn’t work as a reread more recently. May have just been in the wrong mood?
In addition to titles already mentioned, I recommend Kelley Armstrong’s Bitten (m/f wolves) and Kaje Harper’s Hidden Wolves series (m/m wolves).
Incidentally, the first book of the Kaje Harper series that @nblibgirl mentioned above is currently free for US Kindle readers.
@nblibgirl: Thanks! I remember hearing good things about the Kelley Armstrong book many years ago.
@Kareni: Thank you! I picked it up.
I have a soft spot for the Murphy Lawless’ (C.E. Murphy) Gladiator Shifter series. The plots are kind of bananas, but they delve into the ridiculousness of fated mates and the fourth one has a swan shifter heroine who’s a pro wrestler by trade. Reading these is like eating potato chips.
@Maeve, I’ve read a number of books by C.E. Murphy but wasn’t aware of this series. Off to get a sample….