werewolves

Bride

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by Ali Hazelwood
First sentence: “This war of ours, the one between the Vampyres and the Weres, began several centuries ago with brutal escalations of violence, culminated amid flowing torrents of varicolored blood, and ended in a whimper of buttercream cake, on the day I met my husband for the first time.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: February 6, 2024
ARC pilfered from the shelves at my place of employment.
Content: This is very, sweary, very violent, and very, very spicy. Quite a bit of on-screen interspecies sex. It will be in the romance section of the bookstore.

Misery is used to being, well, miserable. Having spent her entire childhood as the Vampyre collateral in the human world, she never really fit in with her people. And because she’s a vampyre, she doesn’t fit in with the humans, even though she’s been “passing” for a few years. And now, as she’s being “given” (generous word; forced? compelled?) to be the bride of the Were alpha, she figures it will just be another place she doesn’t fit in. In fact, the only person she cares about is Serena, her companion in childhood and best friend, who has gone missing. Misery is determined to figure out what happened to Serena, and she won’t let anyone – least of all her Were husband – get in her way.

The only other Ali Hazelwood book I’ve read is her YA Check & Mate, which was cute, so I really don’t have a frame of reference for her books. On the one hand, she’s doing some fascinating things with vampire and werewolf lore. I liked that she leaned into them being different species, and the politics of dealing between the three – humans, vampires, werewolves. I can see where she’s pulling things from – the idea of mates on the Were side, or how vampires drink pre-packaged blood – but I thought she had a fresh take.

The sex scenes were good, although, by the end, I had issues with the direction she was taking them. I just felt that Misery at the beginning was not quite the same character as Misery at the end. The best part of this one, though, was the secondary characters. They were a lot of fun and kept me going through the book. There was a pretty good twist I didn’t see coming, but it didn’t bother me. I thought it was pretty clever. i am guessing it’s going to be a series, based on the ending, and I do have to admit that I’m curious as to where Hazelwood is going to take the story.

Wolfsong

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by TJ Klune
First sentence: “I was twelve when my daddy put a suitcase by the door.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: July 4, 2023
Review copy pilfered from the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There is a lot of violence, swearing, and sex (on-screen and talked about). There is mention of child abuse and pedophilia. It will be in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Ox Matheson has spent most of his life believing he was nothing – it’s what his father told him, after all. But then, at age 16, he meets 10-year-old Joe Bennett, and the whole Bennet clan, and Ox’s life is forever changed. Over the 10 years that this book takes place, Ox and Joe grow into each other, as Joe grows into manhood, and Ox learns more about the Bennett family and their werewolf ways (not sure if that’s a spoiler, sorry). Additionally, the wolf clan will fight a rogue wolf, one who blames Joe’s dad for the death of his family, and who will stop at nothing to hurt the Bennetts. This will shape not only Ox and Joe and their relationship, but the whole town they live in. 

On the one hand: while this is early Klune (it’s a re-issue of his first book), there are still some elements of his writing in there that I love. it was very funny at points, and Klune has this way of writing characters that are just good at their core. Ox is one of those characters, and I really enjoyed spending time with him. 

On the other hand, there was a LOT of violence. A lot. It got to the point whenever one character threatened to show up, I had to put the book down because I knew people – often children – would be hurt. And if you ever wondered if Klune could write a very graphic but also very hot gay sex scene, the answer is: yes, he can. But it was also 500 pages of angst and violence and werewolves, and I’m just not sure I want to read the three more books in the series. 

So, while I liked this one, I didn’t love it the way I love Klune’s other books. I’m glad I read it, though.

Fangs

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by Sarah Anderson
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There is some swearing. It’s in the graphic novel section of the bookstore.

Okay, I have to admit that this one caught my attention because I unpack the freight at the bookstore now, and a whole bunch of people were ordering it. I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

And I get it. It was stinking cute! It’s basically snapshots over the course of a relationship between a vampire and a werewolf. Their compromises (he, the werewolf loves the sun and outdoors; she, the vampire, does not) and fights and joys. It’s a celebration of differences — they don’t try to change each other, but are accepting of any quirks and oddities and weird habits — and of relationships.

It didn’t take long to read, but I found it utterly charming. More like this, please!