Review: Thrown to the Wolves (Big Bad Wolf #3) by Charlie Adhara

Agent Cooper Dayton is going to meet his boyfriend’s werewolf family. Unarmed. On their turf. 

And he’s bringing his cat. 

When Agent Cooper Dayton agreed to attend the funeral for Oliver Park’s grandfather, he didn’t know what he was getting into. Turns out, the deceased was the alpha of the most powerful werewolf pack on the eastern seaboard. And his death is highly suspicious. Regardless, Cooper is determined to love and support Park the way Park has been there for him.

But Park left him woefully unprepared for the wolf pack politics and etiquette. Rival packs? A seating order at the dinner table? A mysterious figure named the Shepherd? The worst is that Park didn’t tell his family one key thing about Cooper. Cooper feels two steps behind, and reticent Park is no help.

There are plenty of pack members eager to open up about Park and why Cooper is wrong for him. Their stories make Cooper wonder if he’s holding Park back. But there’s no time to get into it…as lethal tranquilizer darts start to fly, Cooper needs to solve the mystery of the alpha’s death and fight for the man he loves—all before someone else dies.

This book did my squishy marshmallow heart GOOD and quickly became my favorite of the series so far. 🤞 I do so hope there is more to come from Cooper and Park. I'll beg if need be.

"You've seen the worst of me. You are the best of me. I won't ever risk losing that again."

Thrown to the Wolves finds Cooper and Park at Park's family compound for his grandfather's memorial along with Cooper's cat, Boogie, who comes in handy a time or two. From the very beginning Adhara sets a metronome-like pace with unexpected things happening and odd people emerging, all of which leaves the reader wondering if all of this is going to be important later and/or how it's all going to tie together. Cooper is mostly recovered from his leg injury and Park is as doting as ever. It's adorable.

Park is still harboring some secrets, mostly of the omission variety but many of the burning questions I had about him and his origins were answered. Park's family are quite the interesting bunch. I'll say no more but several of them kept me on my toes collecting all those dropped breadcrumbs.

Even better, Cooper is back to his entertaining self, in his own special droll way. I hadn't realized how much I missed that guy in The Wolf at Bay. He's happy and it shows and that made me happy.

However, Rome wasn't built in a day and they are by no means perfect in the communication department but they are both trying and get points for that. They implicitly trust each other and the love they share is the force that drives them both to strive for something bigger and stronger, something unique unto them.

One person can't love you enough to make up for all the people who don't, but Cooper wasn't trying for all the people. Just the one. Just for right now.

Their sex lives continue to surprise and delight me. This role playing thing they've got going... 🙌🤪👍🤯💪 ASDFGHJKLOIUYTREW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Sex Gods,

Hi there! YUGE fan of your work.

Please if you could find it in your heart to continue to inspire Charlie Adhara with a certain hunky werewolf and his slightly neurotic but totally lovable human, I'd be SUPER grateful were there to be more of their particular brand of reindeer games in my future. Perhaps something of the mating variety that included some biting? 😘

Good talk.

🍆🍑,

Me

My only quibble is the mystery wasn't as engrossing as previous one, but I quickly forgot all about that when the twist at the end came. Did not see that coming. At all. But I dug it. And I want to see how it plays out in the next book. 🙏🙏

Fans of this series should be happy with this installment and if you've not started the series, it's not a standalone so skedattle on back to The Wolf at the Door and get to work!

An ARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Just Like Cats and Dogs (Sanctuary #1) by BA Tortuga

2nd Edition

A Sanctuary Novel

Can cats and dogs ever get along, let alone fall in love?

Sam knows you can never go home again. As an orphaned feline shifter raised by wolves, being an outcast is nothing new to him. But the pack is still his family, and when one of them passes away, Sam returns to the New Mexico desert to say good-bye.

Gus is a loner who rarely returns to his pack, but as fate would have it, Sam is there when he chooses to visit. The history between Gus and Sam is tumultuous, to say the least, but when Gus gets an eyeful of the grown-up and gorgeous version of his childhood bully, he can’t control his reaction. And he isn’t alone.

The attraction is powerful, but so are their differences. And with trouble brewing in the pack and danger surrounding them, Sam and Gus might not have the opportunity to seek common ground.

This action-packed shifter novel is the ultimate opposites attract and enemies-to-lovers romance, and it includes a bonus novella, In the Dog House.

First Edition published by Torquere Press, 2011.

Shifter stories are always fun, and as this is an inter-species shifter story, there was the added spice of how they interacted and worked around their differences.

Sam was a spicey kitty, and I really loved his sass and take no shit attitude when it came to Gus. The problems that I had occured when he wasn’t interacting with Gus, and was back in his own space. Until Gus, it just seemed like none of Sam’s family really had his back. It didn’t make a great deal of sense to me, how Sam was so separate from his family, even as a different species, because in his internal musings, they came across as close. That wasn’t the case once we get to know them and this left me questioning why. He was still human as well, but it appeared this didn’t factor into the mix when dealing with his family. It was all about his feline to their lupine. I didn’t like that at all.

The fact that Sam was apart from the wolves did carry the story to where it was, so I’m going to go along with it, and pretend that it was necessary to get Gus and Sam where they needed to be. It did leave me a bit sour about the whole thing, but the relationship development managed to temper my bad feelings about Sam’s source of support.

Gus was a nice strong lead, and while I became somewhat frustrated with him, I think his development worked well. He is a lone wolf, so it’s ok for him to be away for extended periods of time, but I would have preferred a quicker resolution to the whole struggle with interspecies dating.

The second half of the story took a bit of a surprise turn, and I’m not sure how I feel about it all. I can’t give it away, but I’m not convinced by it really. It seemed so simple, and yet no one thought about it until that point?

Anyway. I will say that as always, the erotic parts of this story were steamy. The connection was there, and the push and pull in the beginning was convincing.

I am looking forward to the second book in this series.

A review copy was provided for an honest opinion

Find on Dreamspinner Press or Goodreads!

Audiobook Review: Wolfsong by T.J. Klune

Ox was twelve when his daddy taught him a very valuable lesson. He said that Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then he left.

Ox was sixteen when he met the boy on the road. The little boy who talked and talked and talked. Ox found out later the little boy hadn’t spoken in almost two years before that day, and that the little boy belonged to a family who had moved into the house at the end of the lane.

Ox was seventeen when he found out the little boy’s secret and it painted the world around him in colors of red and orange and violet, of Alpha and Beta and Omega.

Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his head and heart. The boy chased after the monster with revenge in his bloodred eyes, leaving Ox behind to pick up the pieces.

It’s been three years since that fateful day—and the boy is back. Except now he’s a man, and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.

Listening Length: 18 hours and 40 minutes
Narrator: Kirt Graves

Before I even start to review the book, I need to tell you all how FUCKING AMAZING the narration is for this story. A narrator can make or break an audio title, or maybe not break it but keep it on the okay side. Kirt Graves took this story to another level, now I can't speak for TJ Klune, but as the listener I can't imagine this being read in any other way; Kirt absolutely nails it as far as this reader is concerned. A story I listened to today was... not ruined, but marred, by the fact that the narration felt off to me, and I was repeating lines in my head emphasising the words how I would have read them. The Wolfsong narration was so good I just melted into the story and got absolutely lost in it. I will be keeping my eye out for narration from Kirt Graves from now on, because he was Ox as far as I was concerned.

Okay, so moving onto the story. I'm glad Klune had a top-notch narrator because this story utterly deserved it. I mean, it's not a secret how good his writing is, nor is it a secret how this talent extends across genres; he can be hilariously lighthearted or tug on every single last heart string. Admittedly, all his stories contain a bit of both but they are all fantastically unique. Talented author is talented - but you all know that, right?

So Wolfsong... what was it that makes it so special? Well anyone who has ever read a review by me knows I am a character gal through and through. If I fall for the characters then I am sold pretty much on the story and this book was jam packed with characters to love.

Ox, the MC,  for starters is quietly understated yet he manages to be a growing strength all through the book. You know they say it's the silent ones you need to watch out for? Well that is Ox; to underestimate him is a folly. He's a real hero as far as I'm concerned; strong and true and honest and utterly humble. Joe is the perfect opposite for him, the perfect partner. Joe is Joe, he is the sunshine on a gloomy day. Always bright, well almost always, but he could so easily have been a broken parody of a character and I am so glad he wasn't. My other favourite character was Gordy, I would really, really like his story. Father figure, friend, boss - and so much more to Ox, his presence in the story was important to me, without him I don't think Ox would have been the man he became.

TJ didn't just work his magic by creating fantastic characters though, he also wrote a wonderful world. It was our world, particularly a small town USA world, but with a magical, supernatural presence that only a few know of. The world he wrote though was lyrical in its own right. He makes it so easy to picture in my head that when I think of Wolfsong I see greens and browns and woods and home and family and love. I see small town USA, though I've never been stateside.

The other important element to the writing is the vivid emotional imagery. He wrote feeling. He didn't write about feelings, he wrote them so they were tangible, so they were mine as well as Ox's or Joe's or whoever's. The storyline was almost just a by-product of the other three things; characters, setting and emotions. I mean, obviously it's not, I'm sure every author out there would have my head on a plate for suggesting the storyline just eases into place once characters etc are there. I can only imagine the hours of hard work that goes into a story like this. The talent though is making it appear effortless, by not adding in cliches and over used plot devices to get a story to work. If I was attempting to get poetical about it, I would say the storyline is the material the tapestry is done on and the other  elements are the threads that weave the picture. 

I would really recommend this story to anyone who enjoys good writing and it is as simple as that. If you enjoy being lost in a book - choose this story. Again, I cannot recommend highly enough the quality of this audible version; TJ Klune wrote a stunning story and Kirt Graves managed, somehow, to take it to another level.

A copy of this audio book was given in exchange for an honest review.

For more information see on Dreamspinner Press or Goodreads.

See our ebook uni gangbang review here!