Shark and the Wolf - Predators and Prey by Daniel D Shields

*This book was given to me for review. Thanks Dan Shields for the opportunity.*

Synopsis from the back cover:

In Las Vegas, Nevada, Shaw, billionaire casino magnate and self proclaimed world's greatest showman, nears completion on the massive Serengeti, Resort & Casino. Its amphitheater, the largest man made structure ever built, seats 500,000 spectators and covers an enclosed area of 1.5 miles. The arena floor is being transformed into an authentic slice of African savanna for the show Predators and Prey which will savagely pit animal against animal in the bloodiest gladiatorial spectacle ever created for human entertainment.
In Key West, Florida, Shark, the world's only Great While pool playing shark, gets hustled by the evil animal slave trading hyena, Old Jack, who dupes Shark into believing his girlfriend, a hot fox named Vixen, is in Fiji and needs his help retrieving a treasure. Old Jack's real plan - lure Shark to Fiji, use him to retrieve the submerged treasure, and then capture Shark, and sell him to Shaw, for use as the star and main attraction in the world's most brutal show. "Come One - Come All To See - The Only Great White Shark In Captivity."
Old Jack's plan works like a charm. Shark is helpless to stop the kidnapping of his girlfriend, Vixen, is forced to watch the heartless execution of his best friend, Dog Z Boy, and is enslaved and sold to Shaw. He is forced to battle animals and his human captives before trying to rescue his girl and seeking revenge on those that have wronged him. Will he succeed?
Shark will stop at nothing to protect his friends in this exotic world where humans remain the dominate species and animals are forced to be their obedient servants.
Sit back and enjoy the wild ride!

My take on this book was a little mixed. The bad stuff first. My imagination is not so great, and I need things detailed out for me a little more than was seen in this book. The animals have all evolved into walking, talking beings with arms and legs and act like humans but apparently don't look like humans. I couldn't quite picture what they did look like. Was Shark 10 feet tall, 20 feet tall, or around 6 feet tall like an average human? Was his head the size of a normal great white sharks, or was it human sized with the skin of a shark? Not that this kind of information would change the story, it just made it really hard for me to picture what was going on when I couldn't picture the players. I thought the dialogue was sometimes very juvenile between Shark and Dog Z Boy and made me feel like I was listening to 15 year old boys (which is not my idea of a good time) but I didn't get that feeling so much with the other characters. There was also quite a bit of violence. A few characters getting severe beatings, one getting shot, and then the Predators and Prey show at the end is very bloody. It works for the book, but is not typically something I personally like to read about.
Now for the good stuff. I actually kind of liked the storyline, which I will admit surprised me a little. I thought it was well-written with something always happening. There was no down time in this book. It goes from Florida to Fiji to South America to Vegas which helped keep it interesting to have different scenery. I hated the bad guys and liked the good guys, and by the end I was really interested to see how Shark was gonna win. I liked the friendships between the characters, and also the romances (although it was hard to picture a shark and a fox being attracted to each other ... ).
Overall, I would give this book 3.8 stars. Not quite 4, but close. =) I would recommend this to just about anyone. It was good. It was fun to give something new a try.