Note to myself: you hate Sissy Mae Smith. Seriously stop picking this one up.

Fun fluff. ( )

At first I didn't like the book... but after a few chapters and Mitch's awesomeness I LOVED IT.... I want me some Mitch, my favourite character by far in the series ( )

Mitch has a price on his head - he’s due to testify and the very bad man who he’s testifying against would rather he didn’t. This didn’t stop Mitch, a werelion, attending a wedding full of shapeshifters with his best friend Sassy; but the evening was rather ruined when he was shot

Sassy decided the best way to keep him safe was to take him home to Tennessee to heal where none of his enemies should suspect him being. Of course with her brother, pack politics and an upcoming football game this definitely isn’t a quiet life, especially when friendship creeps into more

I do quite like how the animals that each person turns into informs their culture and personalities. Like the werewild dogs are playful and completely lacking in any kind of shame, extremely communal and convivial and have all kinds of fun while being super, ridiculously over-enthusiastic. I can see these people virtually wagging their tails as they hit the dance flaw with their terrible moves or sing karaoke, all the while the werewolves look on with embarrassment and the werecats are utterly horrified.

Even when this skirts close to reinforcing dubious tropes - like the male lions eating a ridiculous amount and expecting the lionesses to serve them (while at the same time it’s clear the lionesses only tolerate a certain number of lions in the pride) but at the same time it being very clear that there’s a whole lot of veiled tolerance going on and the lionesses in general considering them nigh useless because of this. It’s a nice subversion of having animal traits translate over to their were equivalent without upholding it as good and proper or justified or something to be happy about.

I like the idea of shapeshifter villages and towns in rural America with their own customs, shops and hobbies, linked with how different they are from urban shifters because, in their own towns, they can be so much more openly themselves and develop these practices without humans watching. At the same time I also like that they’re clearly affected by human culture as well, not necessarily unified as one shapeshifter unit or by breed (like a werelion who feels more alignment with southern shapeshifters than she does a yankee werelion)

This book may be one of the very few romances out there that I was actually invested in - because it was one of the very few romances where I could truly believe Sassy and Mitch as a couple long before they had sex. Because they’re fun - they’re so much fun together. They’re friends, and it shows. They can actually have a conversation beyond their relationship or the mission. They can spend time together and laugh and joke and generally enjoy each other’s company without having to be constantly having sex. I never realised just how rare it is to see a couple actually laugh together, a couple willing to make jokes, spend time together and genuinely enjoy each others’ company. They’re both silly, (especially him), enjoy humour, fun and yanking people’s chains for the sake of it.

In some ways them having sex actually dragged the story down because that’s it, that’s what they do. The minute they start having sex that’s all they do and their relationship suddenly feels so much less powerful: the connection between them fades under a wave of endless sex (though I do like Sassy’s horror in realising how much sex her parents are having)

One of the main flaws with this book, especially in the beginning, is the sheer number of characters (of course it turns out my google-fu fails and this is book 3 in a series damn it). There’s a wedding with everyone from very very large families all come together and there are names after names after names and I have no damn idea who half of these people are. Half way through the book I just have so many names in my head I have no idea whose Sassy’s friends whose Mitch’s relatives which of Sassy’s gazillion brothers I’m supposed to like, which are the enemy and… gods alone know who all these people are! It makes it very very hard to follow and recognise what is happening. It made things frustrating until the number of characters were pared down.

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This review was updated on A Weebish Book Blog as part of my TBT Review feature. Review published on 10/26/2017.

Every time I re-read a Pride novel, I find myself binge reading the entire series. Laurenston’s shifters never get old! There’s something wonderfully addictive about her story-telling. Her characters are silly, sexy, and downright adorable. I grow deeply attached to them and can’t seem to let them go.

Mitch O’Neil first appears in “Shaw’s Tail,” the second story in THE MANE EVENT. Mitch is the half-brother of Brendon Shaw and one of his favorite hobbies is to fuck with people.

Yeah. he’s a real productive pal to have.

It’s no wonder he and Sissy Mae became fast friends when he decided to work for Smitty and Mace in their new security business while he awaits trial. What he didn’t expect is to become best friends with the hottest and most mischievous she-wolf he’s ever met.

Mitch is one of my favorite lion shifters in the Pride series. He’s oh so naughty and delicious but what I love the most of all is his ridiculous lion-sized appetite. He eats so. Much. Food. And he does not share. It’s hilarious to watch he and Sissy battle it out for Oreos… Of course, most of their “fights” turn in to sex which is totally a bonus.

He’s and Sissy are made for each other. They are both insatiable trouble makers. I have to say, Sissy Mae was never my favorite character because she was a mega bitch as a kid. Yeah, I never heard a plausible excuse for her Reign of Terror, either. Thankfully, it does seem like she’s grown out of picking on the weak and has channeled that aggression into protecting her pack, her family and friends, and getting herself and her BFF Ronnie Lee banned from foreign countries.

All-in-all, THE MANE ATTRACTION is a nice addition to the Pride series. I had an entertaining time reading Sissy and Mitch adventures. It’s a blast to watch the two get themselves into—and out of—all sorts of wacky situations. ( )