Review: Excellent werewolf fantasy
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 1, 2014
I have a love/hate relationship with werewolf books. So many of them use endless sex scenes to make up for the fact that there's no plot, character development, or world-building. But I keep reading, because now and then I stumble across a gem like this.Prisoner is a companion book to Laura's Wolf, which I also thoroughly enjoyed. With some of the same themes (PTSD and the war in Afghanistan), Prisoner also expands the world-building out to follow a born wolf who has a very severe form of dyslexia. Once again, the author's experience as a therapist makes the difficulties our hero goes through realistic and believable, but the real reason I loved the book was the characters.Prisoner is told from two points of view, which I usually hate but which worked well here since I loved both the hero and the heroine. The latter isn't a werewolf, and we meet her when she's forced to assassinate a supposed terrorist. Echo is definitely the spunky heroine I'm always looking for, tough on the outside but who will do anything to protect her romance-novel-reading sister.There are lots of little funny bits, plenty of relatively non-gory action, and one love scene near the end. I read the whole thing with a little smile on my lips, which makes it definitely a five-star book. As the author explained, "It's a full-length novel, but the first of three books in a mini-series, 'Echo's Wolf.' It has a happily-for-now ending. The third book will have the happily-ever-after."Highly recommended for those of you who enjoy werewolf fantasy with a hint or romance (rather than werewolf romance with a hint of fantasy).