My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
How I acquired this book: I purchased it.
Goodreads Blurb: Raised among humans, Ori Jones only discovered he was an avian shifter six months ago. Unable to complete a full shift until he reaches his avian maturity, he still can’t be sure of his exact species.
But with species comes rank, and rank is everything to the avians. When a partial shift allows the elders to announce that they believe Ori to be a rather ugly little duckling, he drops straight to the bottom rung of their hierarchy.
Life isn’t easy for Ori until he comes to the attention of a high ranking hawk shifter. Then the only question is, is Ori really a duck—and what will his new master think when the truth eventually comes out?
My Review: I love the premise of this book: retelling The Ugly Duckling as an avian shape-shifting, bdsm tale. Plus I have a thing for wings--and though this isn't quite wingfic, it's close enough to suit me. So I was all set to adore this book.
But while I enjoyed this story, I didn't fall in love with it. The characters are likable, but rather one dimensional; Raynard and Ori don't have much personality beyond the fact that one's all dom and one's all sub. Worse, there are some disturbing, institution-sanctioned abuse scenes early on. Not between Raynard and Ori, thankfully, but--well, suffice to say that Ori had a rough time of it before Raynard decided to rescue him.
One last complaint: I would have loved more details about this avian world! It's intriguing, but it could stand some fleshing out.
Still, my kvetching aside, this is an imaginative take on the original fairy tale. Apart from those early abuse scenes, it makes for a pleasant read.
Available on Kindle: Yes. Find it on Amazon here
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You and I seem to be in the minority where this book is concerned. I did some review searching, because I couldn't remember if I just bought it because it had avian shifters or if I also took a look at what people had said about it, and it looks like it's got lots and lots of good reviews. I, too, found the characters to be fairly boring, and, since I bought it for the avian shifters, I would have loved it if the world-building had been less patchy.
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