5 out of 5 stars
E-book. Kindle Unlimited. 277 pages. Published September 1st 2017 by Cal Matthews
Blurb:
A wolf on the run
Cyrus Del Basque has been running his whole life. Born to a pack of fugitive werewolves, he travels the country with his family, trying to stay one step ahead of the hunters who pursue them. With only each other to rely on, his family roams from town to town, never stopping long enough for Cyrus to make friends, let alone have a relationship.
But living under constant threat has taken its toll, and when Cyrus’s grandfather falls ill, his desperate family takes refuge in the most unlikely of places—a drive-in movie theater outside of tiny Modesty Creek, Montana.
A man looking forward
Nathan Anderson is comfortable in his world. Proud owner of the Throwback Theater, Nate’s life revolves around movies, books, and World of Warcraft raids with his long-distance best friend. He’s spent the last few years healing from a car accident that left him in a wheelchair, and though he has lingering mental and physical scars, Nate is happy and content in the life he has built.
But Modesty Creek is small, and the dating options slim. So when the strange family blows into town, Nate is immediately drawn to the quiet, intense oldest son. And when sparks fly, Nate—ever the romantic—can’t help but start imagining the future they might have together.
Two world colliding
But Cyrus knows he can’t risk putting Nate and his family in danger. How could he even begin to explain? He knows that, at best, they can only have a few days together. But even as Nate and Cyrus are drawn closer together, Cyrus knows that at any moment, hunters could arrive to tear them all apart… and burn down the world that Nate has created.
Likes:
- Handicapped main character.
- Tough subjects handled well.
- Nate’s disability was a part of him without defining him.
- Nate didn’t immediately believe that Cyrus was a werewolf.
- Nerd references.
- Everything about Nate and most things about Cyrus.
- Nate’s family.
Dislikes:
- No trigger warnings.
- Not immediately hooked.
- Multiple tough subjects.
- Confusing beginning.
If I had to describe the characters in this book in a few words, it would be ‘damaged, but still trying’. If you’re looking for a happy, fluffy book, keep moving. I normally don’t go for stories where the main characters have suffered extensive physical and/or psychological trauma. But something about this story called to me, and I’m glad I read it.
I am a big fan of HEAs and HFNs, and this book definitely had an HFN. It’s tentative, but reminded me of the first flower to bloom in spring – a sign of better things to come. Again, not my normal type of book. I like the big production ‘and then they rode happily into the sunset’ kind of endings. But the ending fit. Nate and Cyrus chose to take a chance on happiness and each other. After everything they’d been through, together and separately, that was a wonderful thing.
That being said, this book was a little tough to get through. All the characters, major and minor, have gone through a lot before the story started, and proceeded to go through a lot during it. Which brings me to my first major dislike: no trigger warnings. So I’ll put them here. This book touches on/deals with subjects of disability, self-harm, sexual assault, incest, assault, abduction, death, and murder.
But here’s the part that mattered most to me – everything was handled well. I’ve read books where an amputee’s missing appendage is barely mentioned (looking at you, Merrychurch Mysteries). Reading this book, I never forgot that Nate was in a wheelchair, but it didn’t define him. I was happy to see that Nate thought of his wheelchair as a form of liberation. That without it, he wouldn’t be able to get around. I also thought that Emily’s decision at the end made sense with everything that she’d been through. Even though she’s a side character, it was nice to see her get a tentative HFN as well.
Nate was hands down my favorite character. I loved that he was fairly happy with his life, despite being in a wheelchair. He turned to books, movies, TV shows, and video games to take him on adventures to far off places. Which meant that his nerd culture was on point. Watching him teach Cyrus about video games and slowly open up to being intimate was wonderful.
Cyrus gets major brownie points for letting Nate set the pace. Nate was extremely self-conscious, but Cyrus never pressured him. It was the opposite of how I normally think of shifter romances. This wasn’t a book about fated mates, it was about two people who have both been hurt in the past, finding each other and wanting to try even though they don’t think it will last.
I will say, the beginning of the book was a little confusing. It took me a while to understand the pack dynamics and what was going on with Cyrus’s grandfather. Information was sprinkled through the beginning, which made me curious about what was going on, even if I wasn’t immediately hooked.
The way that Nate didn’t immediately believe that Cyrus was a werewolf, even when the evidence was right in front of him, was a new way of handling the typical werewolf coming out scene. In fact, everything about this book was different from the normal shifter romance. I’d recommend Lupine Road to anyone looking for a different kind of shifter romance.
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