Book Review: Were-Geeks Save Wisconsin by Kathy Lyons

Reviewed by Nikyta

Title: Were-Geeks Save Wisconsin
Author: Kathy Lyons
Series: Were-Geeks Save the World #1
Heroes: Josh & Nero
Genre: M/M Paranormal
Length: 244 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: April 14, 2020
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: When badass werewolves battling supernatural evil realize they need tech support, they recruit a group of geeks with hilarious—and romantic—results.

Chemist Josh Collier is having a blast at a comic book convention when he gets the shock of his life—he’s a werewolf! WTF? Before he can howl, he’s whisked away to a secret lair by Nero, a hot guy dressed as a Roman centurion. Josh’s former life is over, and his genius is needed at Wulf, Inc.

Nero has no interest in babysitting a trainee were-geek when he’d rather be killing the demon that wiped out his entire pack. While Josh analyzes the monster’s weapon, wild passion ignites between him and Nero.

With destiny and their pack in the balance, can they survive the demon out to destroy Wisconsin?

Review:

When I read the blurb for this one, I was expecting something funny because that blurb just screams rom-com but that’s not exactly what you’ll get. This one may have it’s funny moments but it’s not a rom-com at all and actually, is a tad depressing at times, especially in the beginning when Josh is coming to terms with what he now is. As the story progresses, we get to learn more about the characters and just who Josh and Nero really are. Josh may be a chemist at a university but he’s not exactly a successful one and it doesn’t help that he lives in the shadow of his family, even if he’s tried his best to distance himself from them. Nero is a no-nonsense type of guy who just wants to bring his pack back from the dead so he’s not exactly up to babysitting someone like Josh. It was intriguing seeing the fight in Josh and how Nero’s narrow-minded opinions of ‘geeks’ were smashed to pieces. I liked the chemistry between them, although, I didn’t really feel a connection between them until about halfway into the story. Up until that point, I felt like things were a little ‘clinical’ between Josh and Nero and wasn’t until Josh really wanted something more than touch that I felt that connection with them. What I found odd about this one, though, is that the blurb makes it sound like this is all about Josh, while the story itself is really about Nero and a majority of the POV is from Nero with very little of it from Josh’s POV. Thinking back on that, I’m a little saddened by this because Josh was a quirky guy and his thoughts were actually pretty amusing so I wished we had gotten more from him and less from Nero (who was a bit depressing and kept beating himself up).

This was an interesting story but I felt like there was just too much going on. This almost felt like a satire on every paranormal trope, because this story literally mixes about every paranormal belief out there. Normally, I’m okay with this sort of story but I felt like this one was just too much. I think the author just put too many ideas into the book but didn’t go deep enough into the story to really develop it. For example, every werewolf seemed to have been created by something different and not just a general ‘born a werewolf’ or ‘bitten by a werewolf’. One is cursed, one is a descendant of one, one was bitten by a lycanthrope, one played a character who was a werewolf and now he’s a werewolf. In general, all these things interest me but there was no uniformity to it and no real attempt to link them together so it felt chaotic – yes there is a vague mention of ‘if anyone believes it, it’ll come true’ but no real development on that or why, all of a sudden, it’s now happening that way. However, I did love the idea that if someone believes in something, that something could become real but there was a point where it was all ‘talk’ about these things and no depth to them, which really took away from the story for me. Add to that, of course, Josh was the type of werewolf that needed constant sexual release/touch…. which meant Josh and Nero had a ton of sex. And I mean A TON. I wanted to see more of Josh creating this ‘monster weapon’ for Nero but while we get the after affect of one experiment, we didn’t get to see any of the rest of it. I wanted to see Josh come up with these ideas, I wanted to see Josh get blown up multiple times as it’s mentioned (and not just once). I wanted to see Josh and Nero actually get to KNOW each other instead of just having sex.

All in all, this was an intriguing book. I enjoyed the characters and their quirkiness and I did overall like the concept behind the story. I think the author could have done a better job of incorporating the uniqueness of this world and actually getting deeper into how things are done but it was a good first book in a series. I hope the next book doesn’t revolve so much around sex because I’d really like to get to know the characters and have them get to know each other on the next go around. If you’re looking for a quick, smutty and sometimes funny read with a bit of every type of paranormal, definitely give this one a go.

Overall Impression: I liked it

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*