The Unleashing by Shelly Laurenston (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"Kera Watson never expected to face death behind a Los Angeles coffee shop. Not after surviving two tours lugging an M16 around the Middle East. If it wasn’t for her hot Viking customer showing up too late to help, nobody would even see her die.

In uncountable years of service to the Allfather Odin, Ludvig “Vig” Rundstöm has never seen anyone kick ass with quite as much style as Kera. He knows one way to save her life—but she might not like it. Signing up with the Crows will get Kera a new set of battle buddies: cackling, gossiping, squabbling, party-hearty women. With wings. So not the Marines.

But Vig can’t give up on someone as special as Kera. With a storm of oh-crap magic speeding straight for L.A., survival will depend on combining their strengths: Kera’s discipline, Vig’s loyalty… and the Crows’ sheer love of battle. Boy, are they in trouble."

My Thoughts:

I've been meaning to read this book for awhile now but it was hearing about it on the Smart Podcast, Trashy Books podcast that helped me to make it my next read.  I was in the mood for a fun romance and this book definitely fit the bill.  It is probably one of the most unique beginnings to a paranormal romance series that I've ever read.  Kera wakes up to find herself to have become a crow - basically she is now part of this group of strong females that have special strengths and abilities.  They are almost like warriors for a god - at least that's the best way that I can describe them.  How wonderful to find a book that focuses on female relationships like this one does!  That being said - my one and only complaint with this book was that at times it was hard to keep track of all of the characters.  There are just so many of them!  I'm sure that as the series goes on I will become more and more familiar with all of the characters but I did find it a bit overwhelming at times.  Enough on that though!  I absolutely breezed through the pages of this book!  It was such a fun read and it had me giggling at times.  Especially at the beginning where Kera explains more of how she first met/what she first thought of Vig.  It's pretty great but I don't want to spoil anything so I won't say any more than that.  I found that I especially enjoyed the relationship between Kera and Vig.  He helped her in so many different ways to adjust to her new life and I adored him for that alone.  Plus there are some nice steamy scenes between the two of them and I couldn't help but root for their happy ever after!  This book was very fast paced and I raced through the ending because I couldn't stop reading.  We don't get full closure since this is just the beginning of this series but it was wrapped up enough to feel satisfying.  I'll still be reading the second book sooner rather than later though!

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with this book and am excited to have finally given this author a try.  I was bummed at first to see that there are currently only three books in this series but Laurenston has other series and books that I can read as well.  I just enjoyed this book so much so I want tons more just like it!  I also really appreciated that the crows are all women of mixed heritages and races!  Yet another thing that I just loved about this book.  I'm so eager to read more in this series because of all of this.  There are just so many great things about this book that have me so excited to read more in this series.  I would highly recommend this book to other readers of romance, paranormal romance, and even urban fantasy.  I will be picking up that second book as soon as possible!  Recommended!

Bottom Line:  I thought that this was a really great beginning to this unique paranormal romance series!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.