5 out of 5 stars
Ebook. 250 pages. Published January 23rd 2012 by Dreamspinner Press
Blurb:
It’s nine o’clock the morning after his father’s funeral, and Ezra Jones already knows it’s going to be a bad day. He wakes up hungover, sore, and covered in blood. Then it gets worse: the handsome and compelling Callum Dawson shows up on his doorstep claiming Ezra’s been turned into a werewolf. Ezra wants to be skeptical, but the evidence is hard to ignore.
Ezra doesn’t have a lot of time to get used to the rules Alpha Callum imposes—or the way his body responds to Callum’s dominance—as he’s busily working for the CDC to help uncover the origins of a lycan epidemic. When the sexual tension finally breaks, Ezra barely has time to enjoy it, because a new danger threatens. Someone wants Ezra for their own unscrupulous purposes and will do anything to get him.
Likes:
- Hooked me fast.
- Smart alpha.
- Good main characters.
- Good side characters.
- World building.
- Villains I can hate.
- Working for the CDC.
- Power imbalance was addressed.
- Mystery and romance were well-balanced.
- Hot smut.
Dislikes:
- Callum was given Ezra’s psych evals.
- Callum had no coping mechanisms.
- Little time spent in lycan form.
I picked up this book because I was interested to see what a standalone lycan book would be like. Most werewolf/wolf shifter books are series. I love world building, and that usually takes time away from the romance. And this book had both a romance and a villain with an evil plan.
To my surprise and delight, this book was very well written, with everything in balance. The romance progressed naturally, there was plenty of world building, and the mystery of who was behind the epidemic was played out fully. I was very impressed.
The book hooked me fast. By 5% I was invested. I know I’m enjoying a book when I tell myself I have to stop reading and go do something else, but then I keep reading anyway. This book was like that. The lycans were different enough that it was fun learning about them. I loved that their Alphas were democratically elected. I also loved that Callum was smart, with a PhD, and he worked for the CDC. Smart is sexy, and it made me like Callum.
Ezra was a great character too. He felt like he didn’t have much agency at the very beginning, because everything was happening to him and he didn’t have a say in it. Then he got his backbone back. I liked that, while he enjoyed Callum’s dominance during sex, it was “disconcerting outside the bedroom”. The men had a huge power imbalance, and it was nice that they were both aware of it and worked to make sure they were on a more equal footing.
However, Callum’s lack of coping mechanisms bothered me. He was stressed and sleep deprived and leaking pheromones like a broken faucet. The guy needed a way to handle that, and sadly he didn’t have any sort of system in place. You’d think he would, given that being pack Alpha is stressful. I also didn’t like that he was given Ezra’s psych evaluation. That felt like a huge breach of privacy. Didn’t matter that Callum was the Alpha.
I have as high of standards for villains as I do main characters. I want villains who I can really hate. This book nailed the evil villain, both with what he did and why he did it. The other side characters were also fun, especially the two FBI agents.
If I have one major complaint, it was that the characters weren’t in lycan form much. There was one shifting scene, when Ezra shifts for the first time. That was basically it for the main characters. It’s a glaring point for a book about lycans. Most of what differentiated them from normal humans was the pheromones and the pack structure.
I would have gladly read more books if this had been a series. As it was, I was happy with it as a standalone.
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