Review: Just Like Cats and Dogs (Sanctuary #1) by BA Tortuga

2nd Edition

A Sanctuary Novel


Can cats and dogs ever get along, let alone fall in love?

Sam knows you can never go home again. As an orphaned feline shifter raised by wolves, being an outcast is nothing new to him. But the pack is still his family, and when one of them passes away, Sam returns to the New Mexico desert to say good-bye.

Gus is a loner who rarely returns to his pack, but as fate would have it, Sam is there when he chooses to visit. The history between Gus and Sam is tumultuous, to say the least, but when Gus gets an eyeful of the grown-up and gorgeous version of his childhood bully, he can’t control his reaction. And he isn’t alone.

The attraction is powerful, but so are their differences. And with trouble brewing in the pack and danger surrounding them, Sam and Gus might not have the opportunity to seek common ground.

This action-packed shifter novel is the ultimate opposites attract and enemies-to-lovers romance, and it includes a bonus novella, In the Dog House.

First Edition published by Torquere Press, 2011.


Shifter stories are always fun, and as this is an inter-species shifter story, there was the added spice of how they interacted and worked around their differences.

Sam was a spicey kitty, and I really loved his sass and take no shit attitude when it came to Gus. The problems that I had occured when he wasn’t interacting with Gus, and was back in his own space. Until Gus, it just seemed like none of Sam’s family really had his back. It didn’t make a great deal of sense to me, how Sam was so separate from his family, even as a different species, because in his internal musings, they came across as close. That wasn’t the case once we get to know them and this left me questioning why. He was still human as well, but it appeared this didn’t factor into the mix when dealing with his family. It was all about his feline to their lupine. I didn’t like that at all.

The fact that Sam was apart from the wolves did carry the story to where it was, so I’m going to go along with it, and pretend that it was necessary to get Gus and Sam where they needed to be. It did leave me a bit sour about the whole thing, but the relationship development managed to temper my bad feelings about Sam’s source of support.

Gus was a nice strong lead, and while I became somewhat frustrated with him, I think his development worked well. He is a lone wolf, so it’s ok for him to be away for extended periods of time, but I would have preferred a quicker resolution to the whole struggle with interspecies dating.

The second half of the story took a bit of a surprise turn, and I’m not sure how I feel about it all. I can’t give it away, but I’m not convinced by it really. It seemed so simple, and yet no one thought about it until that point?

Anyway. I will say that as always, the erotic parts of this story were steamy. The connection was there, and the push and pull in the beginning was convincing.

I am looking forward to the second book in this series.

A review copy was provided for an honest opinion



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