Day: September 1, 2021

Review: Of Secrets and Wolves (Winsford Shifters #1) by Alice Winters

Some great humor, but also a lot of discrimination against shifters.

3.5 out of 5 stars

E-book. Kindle Unlimited. 345 pages. Published January 28th 2021

Blurb:

Rowan
My whole life, I’ve been taught to despise shifters. So when I’m hired to track two escaped convicts, I’m suddenly thrust into the world I hate—or thought I did. Yet I’m inexplicably drawn to the alpha of the pack whose land the convicts may be hiding on. He’s different than any shifter I’ve ever met—laid back and quick to laugh, caring and protective, and makes me feel complete for the first time in my life. As secrets are revealed, I start to wonder if everything I’ve been raised to believe was a lie, though it may not matter because it seems like someone wants us dead.

Quinn
I’m no stranger to prejudice from humans, but it’s different when Rowan comes into my life. Though I shouldn’t let myself be distracted, I’m captivated by him. At first, he’s stiff, fighting to keep his misconstrued beliefs intact, but as I break down the wall he’s created, I’m able to show him a place among the fun chaos of my pack. After one of my pack goes missing, it leaves Rowan and me racing to bring them home, but the only way we’re going to survive this is if Rowan learns to accept the bond that’s growing between us—a bond that could give us the strength to put aside our reservations and give in to what both of us want.

Of Secrets and Wolves is an action-filled romance with a dash of comedy. It’s the first book in a series with a continuing storyline and an HFN. 

Likes:

  • Quinn is a different kind of alpha.
  • Rowan’s journey of self-acceptance.
  • Catnip hijinks.
  • The humor I’ve come to expect from Alice Winters.
  • The town and pack Quinn built.

Dislikes:

  • Took me a while to get invested.
  • Not a ton of backstory on Quinn or Rowan.
  • Some of the world building doesn’t make sense.
  • How horribly shifters are treated.
  • The tone didn’t always work for me.

I’m a huge fan of Alice Winters, but I’m mature enough to realize that not everything she writes is going to be a perfect fit for me. And while I enjoyed this book, it paled in comparison to some of her other books.

It took me a while to get invested, in part because of how the story starts. Events are already in motion at the beginning, with Rowan having been brought in to help track the escaped prisoners. Tensions are high as Rowan and Scott meet Quinn for the first time. And Scott’s presence didn’t help matters much.

I’m not the biggest fan of scenarios where a marginalized group is heavily and openly discriminated against, and the shifters in this book are treated like trash by society. It definitely put a dampener on the overall tone, as well as not making a ton of sense. If you have people with enhanced senses and abilities, why prevent them from joining the military or police force? I understand that the second class citizen aspect was what moved the plot forward in many ways, but man was that a lot of unfair treatment for one book.

It was the hint that Rowan was hiding a big secret, then the reveal of that secret, that finally got me invested. Rowan had a lot of personal things to sort through, and had to go through a lot before accepting himself. It was alternatively fun and a little cringe to watch. And as much as I liked the journey, Rowan definitely believed all the negative stereotypes about shifters, even if he wasn’t as much as an asshole as Scott.

Quinn was a fun character. He was easy to like from the get go, especially with how he refused to let other people’s cruelty keep him down. He’s a different type of Alpha, not big and strong, but smart and caring. The pack he built and the town they made was a big testament to him. I do wish he’d been more than just the quirky, non-typical Alpha. We don’t learn much about his backstory, other than that he had a hard life, and I feel like he could have been a more rounded character. Maybe that’ll happen in the next books.

My final complaint about the book is the tone. It’s inconsistent, flipping from the humor that I’ve come to expect from Alice Winters (hello catnip shenanigans) to gut-wrenching cruelty. There’s not an excess of blood or violence in the story, but the implications of what the bad guys are doing is horrendous. It does fit with the way society treats shifters, but it was definitely hard at times to watch characters I’d grown attached to get treated so badly.

I actually expect things to get worse in the next book, rather than better. The note at the end of the book says it’s tentatively a trilogy right now, so hopefully the final book will show things getting better for shifter society at large.

Be sure to check out the final two books – Of Betrayal and Monsters (Winsford Shifters #2) and Of Redemption and Vengeance (Winsford Shifters #3)