Book Review for Staring Into the Eyes of Chance by Kay Dee Royal

Olivia endures a thirty-four year passionless marriage, discovering her dead husband’s philandering history at his funeral. She devotes her energy and life-long sensitivity with animals to her wildlife refuge and preserve.

Chance, a Lycan alpha and leader of the Lycan International Investigation Agency (LIIA) throws himself into his investigations. He chooses to neglect his duty of finding a primal-mate after watching his father become an empty shell over the loss of his.

A murderous rogue pack draws Chance onto Olivia’s wildlife preserve, sending Olivia’s animal sensitivities into overdrive. Chance and Olivia discover a sizzling force driving them together.

Will they succumb to its enticing tether, or fight to resume their loveless lives apart?

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As the first book in the Lycan International Investigation Agency series, Kay Dee Royal has created an exciting and action-packed story that brings a few new twists to the age old werewolf myth.  Between the sexy and newly connected couple Olivia and Chance who are at risk around every corner and the secondary couple of Trevor and Lindsey whose story is still unfolding it's easy to get drawn into this story and the emotional wringer the reader is just starting to be put through.

There's a lot to like about the main couple.  Olivia is an older heroine that was stuck in an unhappy marriage that she's still trying to start over from when she encounters Chance.  She's comfortable around wild animals and has an emotional and psychic connection to them that makes her a wonderful match to Chance and his pack.  She's a tough cookie, loyal to her friend and doesn't back down from a fight.  Chance has been alone for a long time after losing his parents and troubled brother so his reaction to finding Olivia is one of extreme possession.  Chance is strong and fights to keep Olivia out of harms way and is willing to sacrifice himself to keep her safe.  The electricity between them is present from the moment their eyes meet and their sexual tension is off the charts.  This is an extremely erotic story with numerous steamy scenes, especially those between Olivia and Chance.

Secondary couple Trevor and Lindsey's story is just beginning here and it's excrutiatingly traumatic and difficult to read at times.  Having their fate left in the balance left me screaming with the pain of knowing the wait's going to be a killer.  While I'm intrigued by this couple and adore Trevor's humor and sexiness, I wish Lindsey were more worthy of him.  Her character left me conflicted.  I found her behavior annoying and overly obsessed with Olivia at times.  I didn't really feel a strong bond between her and Trevor since she seemed to glare at him all the time.  I feel awful about the situation she's left in and admire her strength in protecting Olivia at her own expense but felt she could've extricated herself a time or two and her reasons for not doing so didn't ring true to me.  I'm still dying to know what happens with them even though I'll be picturing myself as Trevor's mate instead of Lindsey.

This book started out strong but lost a bit of steam in the second half and went on a bit too long.  At times it's hard to read the latter half of the book with the numerous scenes of sexual abuse by the villain.  Needless to say, Smoke earns the name of villain and I hope we'll see a more sympathetic side to him in the next book since I truly wanted to kill him everytime he came on the scene.  I like the unique traits these werewolves have and look forward to learning more about the agency and overseas operative Damen.  I recommend this book to fans of the paranormal but be prepared for some squirm-inducing scenes in the latter half of this story in what promises to be an exhilarating new series.

My rating for this is a B-/C+

*I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.