ARC REVIEW High Tide at Harvest Moon by Taryn Black

Taryn Blackthorne has me hooked. I haven't read a book like or felt like this about a book since I first found out about Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series. This is the start of the Fundy Bay Pack series, this first book is centered on Lexi Coolen and Kerr MacDonald. They each have their own set of problems, pasts that they are trying to move on from. In Kerr's case losing his wife and his brother; in his grieving he stopped doing his duties as Beta and became a drunk living in a college town and it was easy to find a willing body to share the night with. Lexi's past is a painful one, that has resulted in her having trust issues. She left home as soon as she could and never wanted to look back again, she wants nothing to do with shifters. I love what Lexi is, she is intelligent, strong willed and fiercely independent; and when faced with something that scares her she digs in her heels, lifts her chin up and gets mad. Kerr is a very promising book boyfriend, kind of a hound dog (yes pun intended) at the beginning of the book but he's really a very devoted and sexy guy with a sense of humor. I love the Alpha, Forbes. I look forward to his book.

Lexi is working on yet another Master's Degree and working as a Teacher's Aid, for the last year and a half she has been living in this quaint college town restoring an old two story Victorian house. She takes in roommates to help make ends meet but this last one takes the cake. Pulled out of bed in the middle of night to pick up her drunk eighteen year old roommate and the notorious Kerr MacDonald. She never expected Kerr to start going furry on her, trying to remain as calm as possible Lexi is forced to call her mother so she can contact the local Alpha. Kerr is surprised that not only was Lexi able to keep him from shifting until he was in the safety of his alpha but his wolf claimed her as his mate.

Forbes, the Alpha for the Fundy Bay Pack is taken back that Lexi has managed to hid herself from the pack for as long as she did, but it's only because her powers have just recently started to emerge. But now that he knows she's there he knows the dangers that are there for her if not claimed by a pack and soon. Using the pack rules Forbes makes a deal with Lexi that Kerr moves in with her for a brief period of time and determines if she a threat to the pack. Lexi has dealt with shifters since she was twelve, she hasn't told anyone about shifters. She kept the secret after what they did to her and after they kicked her out but she plays along with Forbes and Kerr because she doesn't want any trouble, but she has rules of her own and these rule further prove to Kerr that something very bad has happened to her at the hands of shifters and more than ever needs him to protect her and prove her wrong that not all shifters are like those of her old pack. The tide is high in Fundy Bay and with it comes trouble in many forms.

Overall, this was a great book. I look forward to reading more especially if Forbes is next for a book. Taryn Blackthorne has a great narrative, her active setting is very good, the book sucked me in and I inhaled the book in one sitting. I see promise in the series. And I can't wait to meet Lexi's best friend Hannah.