Bitten By Deceit by Shawntelle Madison (Novella)

After Kyle loses a fight with the alpha and the woman he loves more than anything refuses to leave town with him, he sets up shop elsewhere, in the hopes of starting over. He doesn't want to hope that things will get better, even when Emma shows up fleeing the pack because a virus is being spread amongst the werewolves.  Emma is desperate for help because now that she has been bitten, Emma knows that her time is limited and she can already hear the dark thoughts in her mind, as the infection spreads.  Even with the history of disappointment between them, Kyle cannot help but come to her aid when she is threatened by the pack that drove a wedge between them and ousted him.

Since Bitten By Deceit is a novella,  this isn't really going to be a long review.  I chose to read this book because I am fan of Madison's Coveted Series. Fans of Coveted, will find that there is little resemblance to Bitten By Deceit, though Madison does once again return to werewolves. Bitten By Deceit is the typical paint by number paranormal romance novel with no ingenuity and little to recommend it.  To be fair to Madison, I must admit that while I adore her Coveted series, I am not a fan of paranormal romance per say.

From the start of Bitten By Deceit, Madison makes it absolutely clear that Kyle and Emma are in great danger.  They even get attacked in a diner of all places, but what do they do after they escape? Can you guess? They stop for sexy times, cause nothing says your life is at risk, like getting off on the ground, so that you can establish true and forever love.  This is something that happens frequently in paranormal romance and each and every damn time, it gets on my last nerve. It breaks the flow of the story and makes me doubt that the characters are really in peril.

As in far too many paranormal romance stories, Bitten By Deceit, is straight, White, cisgendered and able bodied.  There weren't many characters in the novella, so that gives it somewhat of a pass, but it would have been nice to have in a little diversity. Dominant bodies always seem to be the default in this genre. In this respect, I found the novella disappointing, given that the Coveted series has some of the best treatment of disabled characters that I have ever read.

Bitten By Deceit really is a quick read and in fact, is something you can probably polish off in an hour and half but it won't leave a lasting impression because of the cookie cutter nature of the story itself. This is not say that the story was poorly written or riddled by mistakes; simply unoriginal. If this sort of paint by numbers romance is up your alley, then I would say that Bitten By Deceit is no better or worse than anything else in this vein, it was simply not a good match for me.

Editors Note: A copy of this book was received from Netgalley