Got My Book

**Today's Request: Can you recommend any good (low swearing, non-erotic) Shifter books/series?**

The 2016 Discussion Challenge is hosted by Nicole @Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @It Starts At Midnight. “So often book bloggers mean to post more discussions on our blogs, but we just don’t quite get around to it. Well, we wanted to give everyone a little motivation to keep the discussions going, plus give us a place to link up our discussions so that more people will see our precious words of wisdom (or … you know … our GIF-filled rants).”

"Seeking Suggestions"

Back at the end of July, I wrote a post about the fact that the genre(s) I thought I liked best weren't the ones I had the most of in My Library. Now, every 2-3 months I will be doing a post asking for your recommendations for a specific subgenre I would like to explore more in depth.

The General Guidelines

My preference would be for all my books to be "church lady" clean; failing that, this is what I am looking for:

• Can be for any age group from MG to Adult
• Should be available on audio
• Bonus points if it has well written female characters.
• No explicit sex, frequent strong language, or gore.
  

The Request

As stated above, today's subgenre is:

**Shifters (bonus points for either dragons, 'cause they're cool, or a non-typical animal)**

If you have friends who are into these kinds of books, please feel free to direct them here to share their favorites.

Commentary & Examples

What I like best:

1. Interesting characters with some depth to them.
2. Plots that don't over strain credibility.
3. An exploration of how the shifting affects them in each form (i.e. they aren't the exact same in each, or learning to become one changes the other)

Some examples of such books that I have liked (I'm only including the covers for the first book in each series, hover for a description)

Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron

Pros - Wonderful characters, excellent worldbuilding & twisty dragon politics

Cons - Dragon ethics & morals

The Others Series by Anne Bishop

I read this book by accident, thinking it was a different one. It is way beyond my comfort zone but the characters pulled me in from the very beginning.

Pros  - This series is unique. The shapeshifters are first & foremost spirits who long ago took on the forms of animal predators. Many of them have now learned how to take on human form as well, but they definitely aren't human.

Cons - Very dark with gore & horror elements. Strong language & minor explicitness.

Additional Books: I have also reviewed the following books that include Shifter characters but don't explore it much, if at all - Baehrly Breathing (no actual shifting takes place) / Burning Bright & Birthright (Shape-shifting Fae) / The Dragon's Call (mostly in human form) / Henchgirl (also mostly in human form) / True of Blood (Shape-shifting Fae) 

Please note: If you like all the stuff I don't, and think books aren't realistic without it, that's fine. I'm not saying such books shouldn't be written; I'm just looking for books that I would be comfortable reading/reviewing.

Talk to Me (pretty please)

• Do you prefer books where shifters are human first, or where human is just a form they can take?
• What genres would you like to read more of?

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• If you are a first time visitor, how did you discover my blog?

Instead of my usual "You May Also Like" section, this area will be dedicated to a list of the recommendations below (so you don't have to comb through the comments). To see other Seeking Suggestions posts, please click the gmb-sesug tag at the very end.

• The Song of Mavin Manyshaped series by Sherry Tepper [not on audio]
• October Daye series by Seanan McGuire
• Monster Haven series by RL Naquin
• The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
• Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne
• A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark by Harry Connolly [not on audio]
• The Shining Falcon by Josepha Sherman [not on audio]
• The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia McKillip [not on audio]
• Mystra: The DragonLord Chronicles by Thorarinn Gunnarsson [not on audio]
• The Timber Wolves Trilogy by Tammy Blackwell [not on audio]
• The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky [not on audio]

This week's discussion will also be linked up with the following (hover for descriptions):