Audiobook Review: Just Like Cats and Dogs (Sanctuary #1) by B.A. Tortuga

If there’s one thing Sam knows for sure it’s that you can never go home again. As a feline shifter who grew up in a family of wolves, he’s used to being a freak. He stays in the city and tries to get his family to visit him, but when a loved one passes away, Sam has to go back to the New Mexico desert for a last goodbye.

Gus only comes back to the pack at gathering time, once in a blue moon. He’s usually a wanderer, but he’s with the pack when Sam comes home. Gus and Sam have never gotten along, but this time around Gus is surprised by the attraction he feels for this new, slinky version of his high school nemesis.

Sam and Gus may not be able to resist each other, but finding time to be together and overcome their differences might be too much for them, especially when danger lurks just around the corner, and all around the world. Can cats and dogs live to learn together, or are Gus and Sam destined to fail?

Listening Length: 6 hours and 41 minutes
Narrator: Joe Formichella

For those who have read Tortuga, you know she has a distinct voice when it comes to romance, and this doesn’t deviate far from what I’ve experienced already. This was tongue in cheek with plenty of puns and cat/dog terms, it was often silly fun and sweet, while at other times, quite intense and violent.


Sam is a cat shifter raised by a wolf pack, and not surprisingly, has never fully fit in with his surrogate family despite the mutual love. When tragedy brings Sam home, he meets up with his childhood nemesis, a wolf named Gus. These two are like oil and water, but when they get together and shake things up, they surprisingly click with sexy ease. The irresistible pull is hard to deny, and deny they must because who ever heard of a dog and cat being mates? Not them and unfortunately, not many of either of their kind would tolerate such a union.


What ensues is these two coming together and leaving each other several times over many many months, which some may find a bit frustrating. However, both Sam and Gus find themselves in various harrowing situations, each saving the other, making them realize what’s important. When push comes to shove, they do finally get their heads outta their asses to go forth and forge a new beginning together. Damn everyone else who doesn’t agree.


Granted, I’ve only listened to one other Tortuga story, and despite the fact that it was narrated by a different person, I still have similar complaints. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, perhaps not, but both times the narrators simply read the story, failing to distinguish between characters, and thus making it difficult to differentiate who was saying what. I’ve said this before - Tortuga isn’t the smoothest of writers to begin with, and again, I wonder if Joe Formichella too, was often confused about who was speaking, hence the lack of distinct voices. Overall though, this is comfort reading when you know what you want and what to expect, and I think fans will be pleased with this sexy, opposites attract, shifter/mates romance about embracing one’s self and who they love, no matter what the opposition.


Thanks to the author/publisher for the audio in exchange for an honest review