I love McCarty's Promises series. I love her Hell's Eight series. I'm not equally enamored with her new paranormal series, The Shadow Wranglers. I just finished Book 1 but it was a near thing. It is rare that I consider DNF'ing a book.

First, I was distracted every time the "eighteen sixties" was mentioned in dialog (at least 20 such references) while there were also at least half a dozen references to Caleb's own natural lifetime being 250 years ago. That would have placed him in the 1760's, not the 1860's. Since his parents moved across the country to Montana and his father smoked cigars, my guess would be that Caleb's natural lifetime was 150 years ago. McCarty may have chosen writing because she isn't very good with math.

The characters in this story are shapeshifting vampires who share so many supernatural abilities, it seems there were no finite limits set. If they encountered a situation that required a certain ability or characteristic, it was suddenly revealed that they had that ability or trait.

One of the most frustrating things about this story is the descriptions of setting and motion. It took too much concentration to track the movement of characters around each other and within a room. In addition, the conversations sometimes ran on and on and on and on, but not moving the story forward.

The plot revolves around two major conflicts: the first, between the h/h concerning the commitment he desires and that she isn't so sure about; and the second, some bad guys who are pursuing her for breeding purposes. What bugged me is the droning descriptions of the psychic warfare going on in her head. Way too much psychic action for me.

I do enjoy good paranormal stories and I'm disappointed that McCarty's offering for this sub-genre is not on par with her other books.

Colleen

i really liked Running Wild from Sarah McCarty, and recently recent Wild Instinct and Caleb.  i liked them both ok, but neither one as much as Running Wild.

in Wild Instinct, all the women were hiding something, which made it hard to connect with any of them.

with Caleb, the thing that annoyed me most when it was over was that one of the big problems between the two was how he wanted to boss her around (that whole 1860's thing) and she wasn't particularly willing to let him just 'cause he's the man.  the author simply let that drop as far as i could tell, or at least if they came to any kind of an agreement on that it was over so fast i didn't even register it.  i never even noticed the math problem.  :)

i do have the first Hell's Eight book to try out as well.

I loved the Promises books - all of those are on my keeper shelf (well, except for the reverend's story in Promises Reveal - I thought that was disappointing). And I loved Caine's Reckoning. But after that, I haven't read a Sarah McCarty book that was a keeper. I thought Sam's Creed was OK but the "thee" and "thou's" in Tucker's Claim drove me crazy (I guess someone pointed out in one review that she was grammatically incorrect in her books in using that language, but I found myself skimming over the text anytime I saw it.) I thought Wild Instinct was OK, but I really didn't see too much of a difference in her heros from one story to the next in that book.

I don't know, maybe she's writing too many books, but she use to be an auto-buy for me. Not any more.

Maybe paranormal just isn't her thing. I think a lot of authors are getting pushed into writing in the genre since it is a popular one right now.

I actually haven't been all that impressed with any of McCarty's stuff. I've read a few but none have been keepers. I can't remember exactly what bothered me about them, i think part of it was they didn't feel "western" enough for me. Couldnt say exactly what was missing for me there since it's been a while now.

I loved the Promises books esp Asa's story..sigh..also liked Running Wild but haven't read the others in my tbr except for Caine's Reckoning..lot of violence mentioned in that one..

LOL!!! Caleb took me FOREVER 2 finish. it was the same thing, scenario, feelings over and over. prolly not even gonna go after Jared bc they r so long n wordy its just torture. But i do have all the Promises and both Wild books, as well as Tucker's Claim. gonna read that out of order unfortunately, but dang Caleb was a downer big time 4 me. :(

I thought Sam's Creed was OK but the "thee" and "thou's" in Tucker's Claim drove me crazy

Funny you should mention that. I just finished Sam's Creed and liked it. I have Tucker's Claim up next to read but she touched on Sally's "thee"s in Sam's Creed and I thought I might have a problem reading a story with all those in it. Plus, I know this might sound weird, but Sally's last name is Schermerhorn, and I'm sure that I would have a hard time reading that throughout the book. I guess it just doesn't flow.