Review: White Tiger by Jennifer Ashley

White Tiger
(Shifters Unbound, #8)
By: Jennifer Ashley
Publisher: Berkley
Published: April 5, 2016
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:

A woman is lured into the shadows of a dangerous manhunt…
Wanted and on the run…

For twenty years, Kendrick, a white tiger Shifter, has been the Guardian of un-Collared Shifters who spend their lives living in secret—and in fear of being shunted into Shiftertowns. When Kendrick’s group is discovered and forced to flee, Kendrick is more desperate than ever to protect them

His only salvation was in a beautiful stranger.

In a diner in the middle of nowhere, lonely waitress Addison Price has seen a lot of unusual drifters come and go, but none has ever captivated—and intimidated—her like the imposing fugitive who wields a broadsword with incredible skill. But when he risks all to protect her, Addison’s fear turns to empathy—and empathy to desire as she learns more about her savior. Soon she’s more than willing to help the crushingly sensual white tiger and his cubs in a passionate bid for freedom. Whatever the cost.

Addison works as a waitress in a small town diner. Lately there’s been a man who comes in with three little boys to order pie before closing time. They are usually quiet and keep to themselves but there’s something about the man that draws Addison in. Maybe it’s the fact that he always comes in at the same time every night for pie, maybe it’s his white hair with black streaks in it, or maybe the fact that he’s always carrying around a sword with him. Whatever her attraction is to the guy, Addison was not expecting him to be a shifter. However, when the diner gets shot up, she finds out that not only is the man a white tiger shifter, but an un-collared one at that, and she’s smack dab in the middle of a feud with his scent on her.

“I’m a waitress. I’m supposed to make coffee, not fight mythical beasts with a magic sword.”

I just want to start this review out by saying that this is the first book in the series that I’ve read. I knew nothing about the world that the author created and was a bit nervous going into White Tiger that I would be completely lost. However, maybe it’s because this deals with a lone un-collared shifter. One who is on the run and trying to piece his life back together. Since Addison is new to the shifter world, you learn certain things as you go along. She exclaims that he doesn’t have a collar and what that means. Kendrick goes into why he’s un-collared and what being collared does to his kind and why he doesn’t want that for his people. Everything is laid out over time for the reader that I never once felt like I was reading the eighth book in a series. Even when I’m sure we meet up with old characters from previous books, I never felt left out. So, if this story sounds interesting to you but you haven’t read the previous books in the series, have no fear. 😉

While this is a shifter book and it’s hard to be completely original on a subject that is done all the time, I felt like the author brought life into this novel. Sure, Kendrick if an Alpha to his people, but he doesn’t go all “alpha” on Addison. He appears to be really down to earth and more of a father figure to his boys than a sex craved Alpha who bangs his chest all over the place when it comes to his woman. I’m sure if Kendrick was that man, he would not have made it as far in life and kept his position as Alpha if he did. Not only is he a father to three and the leader of the un-collared shifters, but he’s also a Guardian. He was blessed by the Goddess and bestowed upon with a sword that would send shifters into the after-life. While his position as Guardian isn’t wide-spread and well known, when shifters see his sword, they know who he is and he’s a bit revered. Even enemies who he comes across and has to kill in battle, they thank him when they see him pull out his sword to send them over to their Heaven, Summerland.

Addison was also a great character to read from. While she’s a damsel-in-distress, after-all she’s a human in a shifter battle, she doesn’t just roll over and play dead. She takes the lead and helps out when she can. She knows she can only offer so much given her situation but she’s willing to do the best she can to keep everyone safe. She doesn’t know why Kendrick is being attacked, or why they’d be after her due to his scent, but she’s not willing to allow herself to be weak. She comes up with a plan to become the boys nanny while Kendrick figures out and takes care of who’s attacking him, meanwhile keeping herself safe from other shifter who would use her to get to him.

“And yet, he knew if Addison didn’t come with him, Kendrick would forever be looking for her-around every corner, waiting to hear her voice, see her face. He’d been forced to sever many ties over the years-this one wasn’t even a knot yet-but he didn’t want to cut it loose.”

I also loved all the extra characters that float in throughout the book to stand behind Kendrick for this epic battle. You can tell they are a close-knit group and love each other. They joke with each other and seem to know what the other is feeling/thinking. It’s that bond and friendship that really shone through for me and made me really enjoy having all these extra characters come into play. Usually I tend to get overwhelmed when the author introduces a new character but every one had a distinct voice and personality. They each stood out and made me take notice of them. They weren’t just background noise. By far my favorite of them was the crazy polar bear, Zander. He’s been blessed by the Goddess as a healer and he’s able to heal shifters. However, in doing so, he takes their pain into himself and every time he uses his powers he can become a bit more off his rocker. He’s unpredictable at times and that makes the other shifters weary of him. There was one scene in the book where there’s a massive gang of un-collared and un-friendly shifters surrounding Kendrick at a club. Zander comes strolling up without a care in the world, pulls out Kendrick’s sword (that Kendrick had given to him to hold) and proceeds to swipe it at one of the shifters near him pondering how dangerous it would be if he knicked on of them with it. Of course the shifter jumped away, disturbed, and called Zander insane. The whole scene just had me chuckling. It was this intense fight club scene, and in comes Zander, swaggering in without a care in the world. I’m so freaking excited that the next book is his.

My one and only complaint of the whole book is the cover. I’m really disappointed in it. I love the tiger face but Kendrick is described as having the hair color of a white tiger. The guy on the cover is clearly a brunette. They couldn’t have at least found some bare chested hunk with white/blond hair to put on the cover? Granted there was a scene in the book where he slicks his hair down so that the black was more prominent than the white when he was pretending to be human, but that was one tiny scene. I would have liked to have seen more of his character reflected in the cover. I just hope that the cover of Zander’s book reflects him. His appearance is a lot more eccentric with his long white braided hair that he had beads braided into it, and a black goatee. What I wouldn’t give to see him on a cover because the whole time I kept trying to picture him in the book, I kept coming up with a Bob Marley looking Santa Claus.

“ ‘I need you.’ Kendrick moved swiftly to her. “Get that through your head, Addison. Grab your things out of Charlie’s truck and put them back in our room.”
Addison didn’t move, except to lover her hand, “And if I choose not to?” she asked.
“You. Can’t. Choose. Not to.” The words jerked out of Kendrick, his desperation growing. He couldn’t let her out of his sight, and he couldn’t safely be around her either. This was going to kill him.
“Way to woo a girl, Kendrick,” Addison said, sparks in her eyes. “Who can resist commands and an implication that she’s slow on the uptake?”
“What?” Kendrick had no idea what she was talking about. Addison belonged with him, the cubs loved her, he needed her, end of discussion. Why Dimitri looked like he wanted to burst out laughing, Kendrick didn’t know. A second ago Dimitri had been right with pain. ”