For The Love Of An Outlaw by T.S. Joyce

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ava Dorset is back in town on the pleading of her brother. He’s calling in big favours for her to fix the finances of the local Two Claws Ranch, but she’s wary. She hasn’t been back to her small hometown in years because there’s something off about that place. That and Trigger Massey, owner of the Two Claws Ranch, is too mysterious for his own good. There’s something wrong with that man. Too snarly, too moody, and every time he sets his eyes on her, he looks downright hungry. But the more she gets to know him, the more she thinks she might have been wrong about him all this time. Sure, he’s an outlaw, but there is something else he wrestles with. Something monstrous that he’s kept everyone protected from, and her respect for him grows by the day. She can’t afford to fall in love with an outlaw, and especially not one as dangerous as Trigger, but the longer she stays in Darby, Montana, the more she thinks she can handle his life… if she can only survive it…
Trigger’s had his eye on Ava since they were kids, but he made sure she never knew. That beautiful little spitfire was always going to find a big life away from their small town, and away from him. All he wants is to keep her safe, but she’s digging her claws into his ranch and his heart. But Ava doesn’t realise… the real danger to her life… is him!

For the Love of an Outlaw

Terrific grizzly bear shifter romance!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 🩵🖤❤️💜💚
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏🌎
Character development: ☺️😍🥰😁😋

The heroine: Ava – she grew up in the small ranching town of Darby, Montana. When she was young, her mother died, and her father left. She was left with her brother Colton who was three years older than her and liked to boss her around as much as possible. All through high school she talked about getting away and never coming back and she left as soon as she could. She was doing well and about to become a success in Alabama, when Colton calls her and calls in all his favors by asking her to return to Darby for two weeks to help out Trigger Massey.

The Hero: Trigger – he is a natural born grizzly bear shifter who thinks his inner beast is a monster. He knows his bear has bloodlust and he can’t control or even remember what the bear does after his shift. So, when a bunch of his cattle turn up dead by an apparent bear attack, he is pretty sure it was his own fault. Though if he can’t turn things around soon, he will lose his ranch.

The Story: Trigger hates his beast and is ashamed of what he has done. Five years ago, his bear nearly killed his best friend, Colton. Now Colton has scars down one side of his face and he was changed to a shifter as well. Trigger has always been angry and anti-social. Ava has never liked him and thinks he is hiding something and has always been a bit scared of him. Though she promised her brother she would stay for two weeks and see if she can help with the finances at the Two Claws Ranch.

This was a bit different than most shifter stories in that the shifter can change other people into shifters like a werewolf can bite someone and make them a werewolf. I like the broody, grumpy Hero and Trigger was all that and a bag of chips. He has been to jail three times for fighting (which explains the title). Though his bear has been a bit crazier whenever Ava was around him in the past, so he was not looking forward to her returning.

I really ended up liking this book quite a bit. The bears (Trigger and Colton) had a longstanding feud with a mountain lion clan in the area, so there were a lot of tensions between the two groups of supernaturals. Also, there was a bunch of tension because Ava knew something was being kept from her and didn’t quite know what. This was probably the best bear shifter story I have read.

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