Johnnie (Siphon Book 1) Kindle Edition

This is a very interesting and entertaining book about two people born into a certain position in society who act the way they are expected to act until something propels them to change. Hugh was born a Premier Lion and Johnnie was born a Siphon Lion and those roles have very delineated aspects to them. I never hated Hugh for him treatment of Johnnie because he just went along with how things have always been. I didn't hate Johnnie's pride for treating him the way they did because if they hadn't, I suspect his fate would'v been much worse given that he came from a weak, dying, sick and hungry pride that couldn't have protected him if word had gotten out that he existed. To me, both characters were a victim of the place in society they were born. Hugh was selfish because he's a premier lion and was courted and coveted by multiple prides, so his sense of self-worth and ego were inflated. Johnnie was selfless because that's what a Siphon is supposed to be; thier only purpose is to hold a premier's power. Now, as neglected and insignificant as Johnnie was viewed, he was the one with all the power in the relationship and Hugh finally realises this when Johnnie sets aside his selflessness and does something for himself. Granted, it was to attempt suicide, but it was the catalyst that took Hugh down some notches for him to see that it's not all about him and that he needs to give the correct consideration to the person keeping him alive. When these two finally step outside of the role that society has given them is when the story takes off and becomes truly a great read. If you choose to read this story, and I highly recommend you do, you have to take the world as the author gives it to you and don't interject your own beliefs because if you do, you'll hate Hugh intensely and might never truly appreciate his growth.

I’m a sucker for this author, and this book hit the things I need in a shifter book. First shout out to a Black shifter. This is the first book I’ve read with a Black MC shifter. So thank you. This book was about realizing you have everything you only need to open your eyes to see. This was a beautiful beginning story. I think if I was thinking about fated mates started this would be the book that would be book number one. It slowly touched on things that we’ve come to know as fated mates. I could see it going beyond to the beginning of alpha omega mpreg. The writing was great, the smexy was amazing, I just wish there were more books in this world.

This was a good book. You will need to suspend some disbelief but if you can do that, this is a very sweet story at its core. The Siphon, or Johnnie as he comes to be known, is miserable in his life. He may be vital and treasured to the pride but he is utterly and totally alone. Hugh is the Premier, the leader of the pride, and he would die without the Siphon but he has never taken note of him. Until Johnnie almost succeeds in killing himself. As he tries to understand, Hugh begins to realize that while prides may hold a Siphon in high regard, they treat them abysmally as second class citizens not even worthy of a name. This is actually a very sweet love story about realizing what someone means to you and taking care of those closest to you.

It is a very rare occurrence that I have such a powerful negative reaction to one of the MC’s within a couple of chapters.Hugh is a premier lion who at over 100 years old has too much power to exist without a siphon lion. For a siphon to carry the premier’s power he must remain close to the premier at all times. Siphons are so rare that only 1 in 100 premiers ever get one, so you would think that they would be a highly valued and regarded member of the pride. Not in this pride.When we first meet Hugh he is having an orgy with 4 other members of his pride, when all of a sudden he starts feeling over full from all of his power. Realising that something has happened to his siphon of 10 years, the other members of the orgy investigate to find that the siphon has tried to hang himself.Hugh’s first reaction to this is “why did you try and kill me and destroy the pride” (I find destroying the pride laughable, but I will come back to that later). Yeap the big JERK only wonders about himself. Not once did he wonder, what had made the siphon want to kill himself? What could have been so bad in his life that that was the only option? Nope it was all about him and his precious pride. Now that Hugh’s life is in danger, from the one actually keeping him alive, Hugh actually starts talking to the siphon and more information comes out. Now these guys have been together for 10 years, in that 10 years Hugh has NEVER spoken to the Siphon, in fact he doesn’t even know that the Siphon doesn’t have a name. At 26 years old he has never been named and is always referred to as “The Siphon”. Now Hugh doesn’t think this is a big deal as he is the Siphon so why does he need a name and quickly throws out a name for him. Here we have Johnnie. At this point Hugh still can’t understand why Johnnie has tried to kill himself countless times and is horrified to hear that he has tried for nearly all of their 10 years together.See the part I find appalling is that not only Hugh has never spoken to Johnnie, not one member of the 1000 plus (actually I think it was closer to 2000) pride has ever acknowledged or spoken to the siphon in 10 years. Here is Johnnie, the one person keeping their Premier alive, who should be the most valued member of their pride and he is worse than mud on their boots, he is invisible to everyone. No wonder Johnnie did what he did, I’d want to escape an eternity of being nothing to these people as well. There is a lot of talk during this book that a lion can’t live without a pride. This is hilarious because Johnnie has been living his entire life without a pride. He may be classified loosely as part of the pride but he was never treated as a member of this pride.Johnnie is such a sweet character. Born as a siphon he never had a chance. He was always going to be a tool, for his home pride and the Premier who he would eventually end up with. I found it devastating that in 10 years not one person had ever acknowledged him or spoken to him. He escaped into books. He knew instinctively what his relationship was meant to be with the Premier, in fact he was looking forward to being with the Premier and when that was denied to him, he went into a deep depression that no one was aware of. Once he was out of that depression we started seeing things from his POV. He general happiness at Hugh actually seeing him was beautiful and yet painful.Johnnie should have been the most important member of the pride to Hugh, and when he finally pulls his head out of his own butt, he finally starts to realise this, but it was too little too late for me, the damage had already been done in the first few chapters. Hugh never really had to grovel, he apologised to Johnnie, but never really had to go out of his way to make things better, all he did was take notice and talk to Johnnie.The pride was never taken to account either for their treatment of Johnnie. The general reason for this was that Hugh being Premier had to be considered by the rest of the Pride as flawless and couldn’t be seen as being either unsure or making mistakes. This is a CROCK, everyone in that pride should have been taken to task for their treatment of Johnnie. Yes Hugh was to blame but so was everyone else who ignored himI’ve given this one 2.5 stars, because the author should get credit for making me feel so passionately about Johnnie’s treatment that I hated Hugh and the pride from the first 4 chapters. Unfortunately the author did such a good job that he never recovered in my eyes.

I’ve read a few Cardeno C. shifter series, but this one novel really tops them all!Johnnie is just a curious puppy who pines for love from his protector, Hugh. Their relationship takes pretty big steps, so definitely not a slow burn, but whatever it was, the growth of their love was just so heartwarming.I love the characters, but I’d say the rest of the details of the plot are just okay. I haven’t read a lot of lion shifter MM romances but definitely enjoyed this one.I think it’s hard to write shifter romances. There’s a very fine line between a good shifter romance and a corny Wattpad-esque shifter romance. This one’s on the side of a good shifter romance so props to Cardeno C. Time to continue the series!

This is one of my favourite books! I really wish the author would continue this series!

wow, wow, wow, ,wow, Cardeno is pure love !! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 I'm waiting for the next

I loved this. I'm a fan of cardeno c and this was a great offering. I loved the way at the start Hugh had no clue why his Siphon had acted the way he did when it was as clear as day to the reader. I loved how he slowly understood the problem and got closer to the newly named Johnnie. It's a great story and the subject matter is one not often covered in books - often the MC has a history of abuse but here it shows doing nothing can be as damaging as physical trauma- if you read the book you will soon understand my meaning and its well worth reading.

Once again, Cardeno C was able to deliver a Story which totally caught me off guard. The first few pages were a little bit difficult for me to understand but once They got to know each other everything fell into place and the growing relationship between them had me hooked. i simply couldnt put this book down, not even for a minute. I wont spoil the story but all i can say is that if you have liked all this author's books i am 200% sure that You Will YOU not be deceived at all. And I just can't wait for more if this series !!!! I am so greedy 😁😁😁

For a shifter story this one is really ok.When you like alpha/omega storys (even though here its called prime/siphon) with a little h&c and a nice HEA, this is the right story for you.You can't expect something deep and life changing but Cardeno C is a great author and this story is worth reading.