Romance book review: Red: A Tale of Seduction

Author: Maddie James
ISBN: N/A www.resplendencepublishing.com
Genre: Erotic/Paranormal/shapeshifter

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Despite the fact that this story is way too short for my taste, it was a well-plotted page-turner taking place in the mystical Bayou of Louisiana where anything can happen and does. Max LeBlanc is a werewolf who hears a calling to head to the city from the comfort of his Bayou home. When he gets there he instantly understands why. There in the mist of all the partying of New Orleans' French Quarter Max finally finds his mate. As he watches the woman he longs for he plans a seduction to make her his.

Garnet Boudreaux and her mother left the Bayou years before. Having to return for work purposes, Garnet and her friends head out for a night on the town where she meets Max and runs into her Aunt Madeline. Her aunt tells her that she must run and go to her grandmother quickly because she is needed desperate. Not really liking the idea she realizes she has no choice, so Garnet goes to the Bayou to see what is happening.

Max is running out of time. He must mate on the full moon and that ends this evening. Can he mate with Garnet in time? And if he does and she is not the perfect mate for him what will their future be?

This novella takes the everyday werewolf theme and adds a little magic of the Bayou. I was very impressed with how much characterization the author packed into such a short story. Paranormal fans will love the twists and turns into the shapeshifter realm that Maddie takes in this story.

Description:
Garnet Boudreaux is going home. Not back to her nice little apartment in New York City , but to her childhood home in the bayou. She doesn't want to go, and isn't certain what will be waiting for her when she arrives. But standing there in the voodoo shop on Bourbon Street , in the middle of one helluva party, she's told by Madame Madeleine Dupuis that she has no choice. She presses two pouches into Garnet's hands, wraps a red cape around her, and tells her she must go—and go now—to see to her grandmother.

Max LeBlanc spies the lovely red-head across the street and knows in a heartbeat she is the one. A rougarou always knows when he's met his mate. Some may call him a lycanthrope, a werewolf if you will, but in Cajun bayou lands he's known simply as The Rougarou. He'd waited several hundred years for this moment, and for her. There is nothing left for him to do, but mark her and claim her as his mate. Soon.

About the Author from the back of her book:
Maddie James is widely published in fiction and non-fiction. With six novels in paperback, one in hardcover, and one e-published, she's most excited about her upcoming releases with Resplendence Publishing.

Her non-fiction work lies predominately in academia, with several dozen articles, training manuals, and book chapters in print. She's been a contributor the last several years to the Newspaper Association of America's annual literacy day tabloid, in syndication to over 400 newspapers. She's worked with a children's education publisher to develop literacy materials for early childhood teachers.
As an educator, she has over twenty-eight years of professional experience under her belt. Her day job working for a non-profit literacy organization only fuels her passion for books and reading as she sees first hand how learning to read can change people's lives. She spends a large portion of her day-job time working with schools, and supporting literacy in families, on American Indian reservations.

Being a Libra, she strives to balance her time wisely—not that she always succeeds. The day job, the kids and grandkids and granddogs, those pesky yard-sale junk projects that nag at her, her plants (inside and out), that "to be read" pile of books, that elusive cookbook project she's worked on for years (she's a former Home Economics teacher), and a plethora of characters and unfinished stories in her head often make that task a challenge. But she tries. Really. She does.