Review: Shifter’s Thunder by Carol Van Natta

Shifter’s Thunder (Ice Age Shifters #6)
by Carol Van Natta

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Is the dragon shifter bait for a deadly trap, or is she the fated mate this fiercely protective thunderbird sheriff always needed?

Thunderbird shifter Tanner Stands In River owes his life to the magical Wyoming sanctuary town he now protects as sheriff. But after a century of duty, the ex-warrior secretly longs to spread his wings. When an injured dragon shifter crashes into his life, he must balance duty and instinct in the face of her claim to have escaped from a horrific fairy prison.

Traumatized Avelunne Storm Mouth fiercely guards her independence, treating both conflict and commitment like prison shackles. To fulfill her promise to send a rescue for captive friends, she needs the town’s help. When she’s accused of being bait for a trap, she desperately turns to Tanner to fly with her back into hell.

A threat of betrayal forces them into the treacherous skies before they’re ready. Breaching the fairy demesne means facing lethal magic, but their chance for shifter mate bond is the true trial. Can a fierce protector and a runaway artist surrender to love without losing everything else that matters?

My Review

I really like this paranormal romance series featuring Ice Age Shifters and was excited for this newest release. I bought it on release day and didn’t wait long to read it. I had a great time reading this book. Shifter’s Thunder tells the story of dragon shifter Avelunne who escapes from a horrible supernatural prison and crash lands in a magical sanctuary town where Tanner is the sheriff. She asks the town for their help in freeing others from the supernatural prison and stays in town while the council debates her request.

I really like reading about Avelunne and Tanner. Both are interesting characters and I enjoyed seeing how they dealt with things and grew closer to each other along the way. Avelunne is an artist, she’s thinks she’s not a fighter. She definitely shows her strength and courage as she is determined to go back to the supernatural prison that scares her to help free her friends who are still stuck there. I liked seeing her artistic side and how that showed up in her behavior and personality. I liked seeing Avelunne gather the courage to go back to supernatural prison as well as how she adjusts to life in the modern world which has changed dramatically since the last time she know it hundreds of years ago when she got captures.

Tanner has been a sheriff of this town for a long time and seems like a very serious dedicated guy, meeting Avelunne awakens feelings he never has had and slowly brings him to realize he needs more in his life than his work. He’s very committed to the town and also determined to be part of the rescue missions for multiple reasons.

I liked their romance. While it developed quickly, I could feel their connection. And there are plenty of great scenes between them when they grow closer. There’s a bit of steam later on. Avelunne is cursed and can’t recognize her fated mate and doesn’t want to hurt Tanner by not being able to give him the full true mate experience. I enjoyed seeing Tanner grow closer to Avelunne and wanting to give her freedom and space, but also show her how much he cares for her. So they have some things to figure out. There’s a point later on that I really liked how is was resolved and how the characters acted. The epilogue and the glimpse of their future was wodnerful.

There are some interesting side characters in this book as well. From the people who live in the magical sanctuary town to some of the prisoners they free. At times it could feel like a bit much and I sometimes struggled to remember who a character was, but luckily there usually was plenty of context for me to figure it out. While I’ve read all the books in this series I also didn’t remember all of the recurring characters, but I did remember some of them and it was fun to see characters like Tinsel again as well as mentions of some of the previous main characters. Those mentions are small and you could probably pick this one up as a standalone easily enough.

This series has a bunch of interesting paranormal creatures and I liked how this book has a dragon from a probably extinct clan and a thunderbird whose one of the last of his species. It was fun reading about their shifted forms and their magic.

To summarize: I really enjoyed this book. Avelunne escapes from a supernatural prison and asks the magical sanctuary town she crashes in for help. There she meets sheriff Tanner and the two grow closer throughout her stay and preparation for the rescue. I liked reading about these two characters and found both of them interesting characters. Avelunne is an artist and I liked how this shone through in her behavior and personality. She has to gather the courage to go back to the prison that hurt her and deal with adapting to modern life when the world has changed a lot from what she last knew. Tanner wants to be part of the rescue mission and he also slowly has to figure out how to get a better work-life balance as he falls for Avelunne and realizes he does need more than just work. I liked seeing these two grow closer and figure things out. I enjoyed seeing their romance develop and the epilogue was great. There are some interesting side characters in this one, although at times there could be a bit too many of them and I sometimes needed a bit of time to remember who someone was. This one could be read as a standalone as it has very little overlap with previous books, although there are some mentions of previous events and characters. All in all another great read in this series and I look forward to more books in this series.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.