Year of the Rabbit

Shifters of the Chinese Zodiac, Book 1

By: Anni Lee

Narrated by: Bret Mykel

Would you like sprinkles on your Murder Cupcakes?

Half rabbit shifter, half warlock, Leveret Wong can help anyone who comes into his magical bakery with sleep inducing raspberry buttercream and scones to make a person fall in love. The only person he can't seem to fix is himself.

Eliot Rand, the dog shifter of the Chinese Zodiac is sick of living under the harsh rule of the stars. He wants nothing more than to take back control of his life by rejecting his Fated Mate once and for all. Everything is going as planned, up until he starts working with the sweet, nerdy, funny, yet damaged and touch adverse rabbit shifter.

When destiny is ruled by the stars, fated mates takes on a whole new meaning, and a whole new dangerous design.

Set in the same Universe as The Zodiac Werewolf, this is the first book in the Shifters of the Chinese Zodiac MM Romance Series. You'll love Year of the Rabbit if you like your book boyfriends feral and protective, with sarcastic humor, hurt/comfort, healing through safe words, morally grey love interests, male male relationships, and slow burn love that turns scorching hot.

Note to listeners: While this book ends with a HFN, this is a continuing series with ever evolving relationships. It is NOT a love triangle.

©2022 Anni Lee (P)2024 Anni Lee

Murder Cupcakes, oh my!!!

This is a review for the first book of Shifters of the Chinese Zodiac brought to Audible. When I read this book 2 years ago I fell in love. When I saw the audio version of the book pop up on Booksprout, I jumped on it quicker than a duck on a June bug.

This is one of the occasions or I can truthfully say the narrator, Bret Mykel, did an outstanding job with his narration. Rumor has it, or when I looked him up on the interweb, he loves cooking French pastries (it also mentioned he's a dork who loves animation and theater as well). What a perfect narrator for this book!!! Anni Lee you picked a winner, you just have to get him to narrate Year of the Dragon too!!!

I love the way Anni Lee thinks and writes. I love a dark, dire, disturbing, disconcerting, devious, distressing read or in this case listen. See how I used all those 'D' words!?! Lol

I love to be surprised by what happens next in a story and how all the twists and turns finally lead us to an HEA. Oh how Anni Lee can weave a story and come through for us in the end.

Wonderful story!

'I really enjoyed the growing connection between these men. I never really fallowed any thing zodiac, so I did learn a lot in this adventure also. I reccomend this book to everyone who loves mm love stories of any kind.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Dark Themes, Excellent Narration

This is the first Audible book from Anni Lee I've listened to and I'm blown away! Bret Mykel does a phenomenal in narrating the book that has so many male characters. His intonation for each character is very distinctive and the depth of their feeling unfurl so well that it was almost like reading it myself. I did not have any trouble following who was says or doing what in book, unlike what I've experienced with virtual voice read books.

Despite the dark content at times, I couldn't help but be vested in the unfolding of Leveret Wong's life. Satisfied with how his life is at the moment, Leveret loves his job at the family bakery but is feeling the pressure from his domineering mother and father who are powerful entities in the Chinese Zodiac Shifters society. Their disappointment with him not being a powerful alpha couldn't be more obvious. Being half rabbit shifter, half warlock isn't all it is cracked up to be. His being gay is less of an issue than one would expect.

Unhappy with his mother's meddling by enrolling him in the local shifter school, he has low expectations of anything positive coming from the experience. Little does he realize two men are about to make him confront the past and grow into his destined future.

Eliot Rand a fellow classmate turned coworker, is dog shifter who also has had a traumatic past. Seemingly the bane of their math instructor Juni's existence, Eliot isn't someone Leveret initially sees as a friend and ally. Burned by friends in the past Leveret shuns any close connections, but slowly finds the benefit of having allies when the full moon appears.

The author handles very dark issues carefully, but very descriptive details. The angst that the characters feel are gripping.

I look forward to reading/listening to other books in the series.

Definitely be aware of the content triggers and warnings before you buy/borrow/ read/listen.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

"He tasted like safety, and he felt like home."

I was riddled with anxiety almost entirely from the beginning. I had to take many breaks throughout the book. The book was a funny/emotional/slightly tragic super slow burn. Elliott is perfection, a fiercely and deadly protective golden retriever with a hidden dark side.

A dark and angsty read with cupcakes

This book was darker and angstier than my normal romance reads but I still enjoyed it and will continue with the next book. I enjoyed the narrator and thought he was able to bring life to each of the POV. I was surprised when I saw this was his first narration.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I Enjoyed It

I really enjoyed this book. Great world building and wonderful characters. It was hard not to get hooked to the story when teased with murder cupcakes- or just the kind to put you to sleep. I liked both Levy (Leveret is such a unique name!) and Eliot and the dynamic of their relationship. I actually wished this story was MMM because there was chemistry with Jun, too.

This was my first time listening to Bret Mykel, and I thought he did a great job narrating this book and bringing these characters to life. I hope to hear more from him and definitely want to listen to more in this series.

Overall: 4 stars
Performance: 4 stars
Story: 4 stars

Beautifully written.

Very well written. The narrator did amazing. The way the narrator changed their voice to fit all the characters was so good. Love the plot and cannot wait for more.

Dark, Magical and Spicy!

This was a fresh listen, from the characters to the new to me narration from Bret Mykel. The story is mostly told from Levy our rabbit shifter's POV but as he gets romantically involved with Eliot our dog shifter, we get both POV's which I loved! Jun our snake shifter is a big part of this story as well, but I will not give anything away. Levy was such a sweetheart trying to learn his way and I was routing for his Happy ending!

Good Story

This really is a good story overall but there were just quite a few things that took away from it for me.I increased my rating on this up from 3 stars (when I first read it) to 4 due to the narration. Bret Mykel did a great job of bringing the story to life.

I received an ARC and this is my unbiased opinion

Interesting story, very good narration

Levy comes from a powerful rabbit shifter family. His mum signs him up for college where he meets 2 men that will impact his life - Jun, his college professor and Eliot, an alpha dog.
What I found interesting is that at first, I wasn't sure who Levy would end up with. All 3 men belong to the Zodiac shifters, so it could have gone either way. Levy's backstory shows why he's so distrustful of alphas, though Eliot did a good job of breaking through his barriers.
I couldn't (still can't) decide if Jun was good guy or villain, so will err on the side of 'morally grey' :)
There is quite a bit that goes on before Levy gets his HEA, but it's interesting getting there.

Bret Mykel was really good - he had distinct voices, tones for each of the main male characters, especially Jun's darker (to me) tone. Overall, the narration kept me engaged, even when there was a change in POV, he handled it well. Hope to hear more from him.