Rating: 4.25 Stars

Publisher: Vinni George

Genre: Gay Paranormal Romance

Tags: Contemporary, Age Gap (15 Years), Fated Mates/Insta-Love, Series, Shifters

Length: 244 Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Amazon

Blurb –

Nero Hunter is tired. He’s tired of early mornings chasing down skips. He’s tired of Shamu jokes and dealing with idiots. He’s tired of being alone. But agreeing to do one little favor for a friend turns the tide and brings Nero face-to-face with his destiny.

Felix White is unlucky. When his life is threatened and he’s hauled into police custody for safekeeping, the last thing he expects is to meet his fated mate. Especially when his mate is a giant killer whale shifter, who is also his new bodyguard.

But there is more to the plot against Felix than meets the eye, and Nero and his brothers have to work together to figure out who is after Felix before it’s too late…before Nero loses the mate he just found.

Black & White is book one in the Organization for the Return of Criminals and Assets (ORCA) series featuring an orca shifter art thief turned bounty hunter, a sea otter shifter hacker who might have pissed off the wrong people, and a group of orca brothers who will do anything—even if it’s not quite legal—to save the newest member of their family.

Review –

“My love, life will be full of realities and what-ifs. It’s the realities that make life a beautiful roller coaster ride. If you live in the what-ifs, you’ll miss everything else.”

Nero, 38, is an orca shifter. A bounty hunter, he’s tired of the same old, same old. He’s just helped capture a bad guy when his buddy at the police department asks him for a favor. A computer hacker is in danger and needs protection. Nero is asked to step aside from catching criminals to be a bodyguard for the man until the danger is over. He has no intention of actually doing it, but he follows his friend to the police station anyway. It takes all of two seconds after meeting the man he’s being asked to guard before he’s agreeing.

Felix, 23, has gotten himself into a bad spot. An expert computer hacker, he’s now being threatened. Apparently he’s getting too close to something he’s not supposed to see. When he meets his new bodyguard, he’s immediately attracted. Strike that. It’s more than that. He knows almost instantly that the man is his fated mate, which is odd. Not the fated mate thing, the fact that his mate is an orca shifter and Felix is a sea otter. Nero picks up on the mate thing right off as well.

One thing I liked is that there was no ‘is he?’ or ‘does he know?’ or any of that with these guys. They knew they were mates and there was no fighting it.

Nero takes Felix to the huge home he shares with his brothers Julius, Cal, and Quin. Cal and Quin are identical twins, but their looks are the only thing they have in common. They’re as different as night and day. Julius is a computer whiz. Cal is a bit of a wild card, which he proves later in the book when he makes an epic screw-up. I suppose the best way to describe Quin is prim and proper, or so he appears. Julius and Felix immediately get to work trying to find out who is after him.

All Nero wants to do is get down and dirty with his newfound mate 😉

Each brother has a set of skills that they aren’t really using together. Felix, later, comes up with a business idea. That would be them coming together to form ORCA, or Organization for the Return of Criminals and Assets. These ‘skills’ come in handy for all the brothers later when Felix is in danger. Of course, he’s rescued, and he and Nero get their HEA. Another character, Jack, helps with the rescue. He’ll be Cal’s love interest.

Everything happens at warp speed between these guys. They meet, realize they’re mates, and fall in love. There’s a little bit of sex happening in the middle of it all, but seriously… fast. I wasn’t bothered so much by the insta-love because of the mate thing. I especially liked when they gave each other their mate marks. It was hot and sweet at the same time.

I love the age gap between them, as I tend to seek out books with characters who have substantial age differences more often than not. I liked both Nero and Felix, but I didn’t really get a feel for either one of them, honestly. I think I got to know the brothers better than the two main characters. Even so, I was happy watching them come together even if it was lightning fast.

Overall, this is a cute story from an author I’d never read before. I learned after finishing the book that this is a spin-off from another series by the author. I checked the blurbs and I’ll probably be passing on that series for now because it’s Mpreg and I’m just not feeling that right now.

There are a couple of reasons why I can’t rate it higher. One, the lack of build-up for a couple of things. I needed more information more than once as I was reading. Two, the constant use of ‘my mate’ and ‘his mate’ – sometimes several times on one page – was kind of distracting.

A lot of this book was introducting ORCA, though it didn’t bog down with way too many details. There’s just enough information for the reader to know what it is.

The mystery of who is after Felix is pretty much ongoing, though a few clues came out toward the end.

The next book is Grayscale, Cal and Jack’s story. I got a kick out of their flirting and bickering in this one.