SHAPESHIFTER ROMANCE by Marie Harte

COUGAR FALLS SERIES

Erotic and Comtemporary Romance Author Marie Harte has written multiple series about different groups of Shifters. Read on to learn more about this popular subgenre!

Shapeshifters. The new black in paranormal romance. It used to be vampires were all the rage. Now it’s things that go all furry and fangy at night. *grin* I love shapeshifters, and I love how varied the types can be. There’s an animal connection, a sense of nature and wildness a lot of us forget surrounded by concrete and computers. When I first started writing them, I envisioned normalcy, for the most part. Small town life populated by people with small town values and a sense of community…who just happened to shift into animals. Contemporary but with a twist—Cougar Falls.

I named my series after the fictional town of Cougar Falls, set in Montana. Big Sky country, open and full of the wildlife my characters often inhabit. There are cougars, wolves, bears, raptors and foxes. And more species I haven’t had the time to dig into, unfortunately. The Cougar Falls series is 8 books long, and I have several more on the backburner waiting to be written.

Another series centered around people changing into animals is my Mark of Lycos series. I recently rewrote all three books, and Totally Bound plans to re-release them next year with shiny new covers. With the Mark of Lycos books I went a little more outside the box and involved magical creatures, demons and gods. There are animal spirits that guard my shifters in their Great Forest. The Wolf in the Forest, the Bear in the Cave, and the Fox in the Den. Clan wars, sorcerers, and demons populate the lands the shifters inhabit, away from humanity. The Mark of Lycos series is different from Cougar Falls, where the shifters are more mainstream.

AUTHOR MARIE HARTE

But my current leaning on shapeshifters is even less traditional. I created my own group of shifters, the Circs. The men of Circe’s Recruits, the surviving squad of Marines, have been genetically modified with the hopes of turning them into supersoldiers. Except the experiments had side effects, and of the 78 men initially tested, only 5 turned out sane. The men of Circe’s Recruits change at will into hulk-like creatures with armored skin, fangs, claws, enhanced senses—and enhanced sex drives.

The newer shifters have psychic abilities as well. My Circs are a ton of fun to play with, because I weave government conspiracy, mating problems, and genetic mutation into the mix. Think mad scientists funded by the rich and immoral.

And of course, there are mating heats. Fated mates are a trope of shapeshifter romances I both like and loathe. So I took out the fated part and forced my shapeshifters to have to mate only with another Circ—gender notwithstanding—to sate that biological imperative to procreate. It’s not an easy transition from human to Circ, and it makes for great conflict. My books also explore sexuality and polyamory. Pack mentality in a carnal sense.

CIRCE'S RECRUITS
(Dawn Endeavor)

When my Circe’s Recruits series first released years ago, they resonated with readers. So I wrote a second series continuing the Circ shapeshifters called Dawn Endeavor. Fast forward a few more years.

Having obtained the rights back to Circe’s Recruits, I decided to write a new Circ book. I wanted to see how my original shifters turned out, and how they’d handled marriage and babies, as well as dealing with a new group of Circs who’ve never played by the rules.

Make no mistake. This book is really about Gideon and his crew. They aren’t disciplined. They aren’t military. Most of them are barely a step up from being criminals, and now they have fangs and claws and drives they can’t control. I can’t wait to see how they turn into the heroes they were born to be.

Visit Marie at http://marieharte.com/