PHILIPPA LODGE
Romance to honor the nerd inside.
He’s mad at their lion-shifter pride. She’s mad at the world.
Half-human, half-lion librarian Angelica has lost almost everything. Her mom to cancer, her beloved boss to retirement, and what she thinks is her last chance to be a mother when her boyfriend dumps her for a younger, prettier lioness. She’s ready to leave her hometown lion pride which her selfish, power-hungry alpha has turned toxic.
Tremaine Jones, the pride’s handyman and pro-bono accountant, witnesses Angelica rage-quitting her job and realizes her scowling face is the main reason he’s been coming to the library several times a week. Her dissatisfaction is a microcosm of the trouble tearing their pride, and the small hometown that centers it, apart.
Tremaine is working on a plan for rebuilding which will now have to include his hopes of being the father of Angelica’s cubs – and maybe even her mate.
He’s lived here all his life…
DeAnthony is young, fun, strong, and getting stronger – an important thing for a lion shifter in a pride that’s on shaky ground since the defeat of the corrupt former alpha. He’s the cousin of the new alpha and supports her, but others in the pride aren’t as happy with the new regime.
A stranger comes to town…
Within weeks of the former alpha’s defeat, elementary teacher Robert Mulvaney and his four year-old daughter arrive in the small California town that’s the center of the Freiburg lion pride. DeAnthony's immediately attracted to Robbie’s sweet blushes and quiet manner.
But someone is passing the pride's secrets to an outsider who is sabotaging their rebuilding efforts. As De and Robbie’s relationship heats up, the sabotage becomes more dangerous and targeted. What if Robbie's secret is that he's giving the pride’s secrets to the saboteurs?
She’s in charge of a pride of pig-headed fools. Some of those fools are fighting back.
Impostor syndrome has had Alpha Macey Smithson in its powerful jaws ever since she defeated her lion shifter pride’s previous alpha. Instead of making the pride a safer, more egalitarian place, Macey's triumph has worn thin.
The clique of rich lionesses sneer and say their queen bee should be alpha. The misogynist male lions who have a pot farm outside of town are heavily armed and perpetually angry. Everyone else has doubts.
Charity, the daughter of the previous alpha keeps turning up, blinking beautiful, sad eyes, sorry about the bad things her mother did. But she’s the one who knows the inner working of the pride and maybe where the money is hidden.
Macey can’t tell if Charity’s complicit in whatever her rivals are up to that has the FBI sniffing around. Nonetheless, she makes Macey think of forever.