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A review by caughtbetweenpages
Shift by Ruby Dixon
funny
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
The Shift series takes place on an Earth town known as Pine Falls, which feels very Pacific Northwest town, except instead of the Twilight vampires, we have a town full of best shifters. These shifters live right alongside the human population and in theory it's meant to be a secret (but they do a pretty bad job of keeping it so, at least within the context of these novellas).
Again, sometimes what you need from your entertainment is a little bit of predictability, a little bit of knowing how the story is going to go, and Ruby Dixon just always delivers for me, what can I say? The Shift novellas were quite distinct from her sort of Risdaverse, books in that the shifters are simply different; the bear shifters are far more human-adjacent, not just probably from living in such close proximity to humans, but because they have a literal human form (albeit one that's quite large and sort of ursine.) But I think having more of a tether to humanity allows for Ruby Dixon's bear shifters to... well, be a little bit more human. to be a little bit more varied and complex and to have those humanlike quirks that we have, for better and for worse.
Where it's familiar (and where Ruby's books shine for me) is in the male leads' devotion towards their partners. It does, in the case of the shifters, veer a little bit towards territorial the way that it does in Ruby's dragon books more so than in her masaka books. But because it's less "fated mate"-y, and because the shifters are more human, the level of obsession is just a little bit toned down, like they're a little bit more normal about it? Not that they're normal about it at all but, like, I'm not normal either so like? who am I to judge?
These novellas were spicy, but they were also very very sweet, and they put me in mind of a certain Baldur's Gate 3 druid who I just love so so so dearly.
I think part of the reason that I enjoyed the Shift novellas so much was because we were on Earth rather than in the wide galaxy where humans are at such a distinct disadvantage species-wise. These human women were allowed to have more agency and sort of exist on their own turf and, thus, not be in sort of constant survival mode and fear mode. At no point do any of Ruby's relationships ever feel non-consensual or like dubiously consensual, but I feel like she doesn't shy away in her sort of Risdaverse series from telling you "no, the world is bad, actually. Like, it's really rough to be a human out here." And while those women do love their partners, the partners also in a very real and tangible sense offer them a tremendous amount of safety that they wouldn't have otherwise. In the Shift novellas, that safety was sort of understood as much as safety is for any human woman, and I think removing that sort of looming sense of danger allowed for the romances to take more Center Stage if that makes sense. I had an absolute blast with these.
Again, sometimes what you need from your entertainment is a little bit of predictability, a little bit of knowing how the story is going to go, and Ruby Dixon just always delivers for me, what can I say? The Shift novellas were quite distinct from her sort of Risdaverse, books in that the shifters are simply different; the bear shifters are far more human-adjacent, not just probably from living in such close proximity to humans, but because they have a literal human form (albeit one that's quite large and sort of ursine.) But I think having more of a tether to humanity allows for Ruby Dixon's bear shifters to... well, be a little bit more human. to be a little bit more varied and complex and to have those humanlike quirks that we have, for better and for worse.
Where it's familiar (and where Ruby's books shine for me) is in the male leads' devotion towards their partners. It does, in the case of the shifters, veer a little bit towards territorial the way that it does in Ruby's dragon books more so than in her masaka books. But because it's less "fated mate"-y, and because the shifters are more human, the level of obsession is just a little bit toned down, like they're a little bit more normal about it? Not that they're normal about it at all but, like, I'm not normal either so like? who am I to judge?
These novellas were spicy, but they were also very very sweet, and they put me in mind of a certain Baldur's Gate 3 druid who I just love so so so dearly.
I think part of the reason that I enjoyed the Shift novellas so much was because we were on Earth rather than in the wide galaxy where humans are at such a distinct disadvantage species-wise. These human women were allowed to have more agency and sort of exist on their own turf and, thus, not be in sort of constant survival mode and fear mode. At no point do any of Ruby's relationships ever feel non-consensual or like dubiously consensual, but I feel like she doesn't shy away in her sort of Risdaverse series from telling you "no, the world is bad, actually. Like, it's really rough to be a human out here." And while those women do love their partners, the partners also in a very real and tangible sense offer them a tremendous amount of safety that they wouldn't have otherwise. In the Shift novellas, that safety was sort of understood as much as safety is for any human woman, and I think removing that sort of looming sense of danger allowed for the romances to take more Center Stage if that makes sense. I had an absolute blast with these.