Lightning reviews: The Mannhof series by Alice Gaines

One of the complaints I hear a lot around blogland is that a lot of paranormal romances are basically retreads of each other, even though the notion of paranormal romance ought to invite a lot more variety in the genre. This seems to be true for me–after all, how many times can I read about fated vampire mates or fated shifter mates or, hell, anybody’s fated mates without wanting to snap?

That being said, Alice Gaines isn’t writing the same old paranormals. In fact, my reaction upon learning, from my friend Jaliya, to the series I’m going to be writing about was pretty much, “What the fuck was she smoking?”

I am, of course, referring to the Mannhof,/a> series from Changeling Press. Normally, I don’t buy from them much because when I buy ebooks, I want to buy something that’ll last me a while. But this series had me breaking that rule, because it’s about shape-shifting motorcycles. Yep, you read that right. I was startled, too, and then intrigued. Could Ms. Gaines pull this off?

Surprisingly, the answer is: mostly. It’s not the shape-shifting motorcycles that I had much of a problem with. I don’t think shape-shifting inanimate objects will become the next trend in paranormal romance, although what do I know? But the premise is certainly not one I’ve read before.

The books in the series go in this order:

• One Owner, Lady Driven

• Driven to the limit
• Driven to Justice.

The problem with all three of these books, for me, is the problem I have with a lot of shorter ebooks. There’s not really enough story to let me get to know the characters. They are painted in very broad strokes, and though each of the women faces different issues in their lives, I thought that the healing process and the road to love required a bit more time than the space permitted.

One Owner, Lady Driven starts off the series when Claire Wilcox purchasses one of the horrendously rare Mannhof motorcycles at an auction. When the bike changes into a stud named Will, well, there goes Claire’s productivity and her sense of control.

To be honest, I didn’t ever warm up to Claire. I thought it was awesome that she knew exactly what she wanted and went for it, but she was kind of a shrill harpy, and I hate reading about those. I also felt horrible for her junior executive, Ted, who Claire never appreciates. She never really thanks him until the end of the book, and I thought she should at least give him a raise. As for the romance? It worked for me mostly except for one scene in the climax of the book where I thought the hero was being kind of a whiny, codependent jackass.

Driven to the limit worked slightly better for me. Lauren has come home from rehab, and now she’s back working for Dagger, a successful rock star who is into drugs, violence, and the whole party scene. Lauren’s only bit of solace is Dagger’s Mannhof motorcycle, Jake.

This book worked the best for me out of the whole trilogy, at least it did after I stopped fretting about why anyone would want to bear her internal struggles to a motorcycle. I know I wouldn’t. The nearest thing to talking to machines that I do involves cursing at them. But hey, whatever works for Lauren.

I liked watching Lauren recover some of her self-confidence, and I loved the climactic scenes in the book.

Driven to Justice rounds off the series. Cop Charlie Thomas’s job is being threatened because she insists on going after the men who raped her. With the help and love of Nick, another Mannhof motorcycle, she might just manage to do it.

I wanted to like this last story very much. But I thought that, yet again, everything was dealt with too quickly and easily as per the word count. Charlie could have been a great complex character, but she wasn’t really allowed to be. The thing is that at least in the end she is agreeing to go to therapy, which made me feel a lot better about the lightness with which the issue of her rape was treated.

Overall, I thought the series was cute. It’s nothing that’s going to stick around very long in my memory–well, the shape-shifting motorcycles pretense totally will–but it was a pleasant enough read. I would have liked for each of the boys to have had a distinct personality. They really didn’t, so it was hard not to see them as basically pieces of meat.

I think I might be interested in some of Ms. Gaines’ longer works, but for this series, I’m going to go with an overall grade of C+.