Review: GEAUX RUGAROUS
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 4, 2011
I've long liked this author's novels about Louisiana, since I grew up there and love my home state and the many things about it that make it unique to all other states.  This is the second book in her series about gay "swamp werewolves" (or, as she calls them, "rugarous," similar to the French "Loup-garoux," or werewolf) building a life for themselves in a small town in southern Louisiana among the swamps and live oaks and spanish moss.  It includes a witchy woman (she means kindly), gay bashing, rape, werewolf mates meeting and quickly falling for each other.  The two main characters, Billy and Peter, are likeable, if a bit predictable.  Billy is a senior deputy sheriff in the small town, while Peter, an artist, is on the run from his previous lover, who allowed him to be raped and beaten.  They meet and love is inevitable, since they quickly realize that they are fated mates.  The story line is rather predictable, once we meet a few additional characters, and I easily guessed the "mystery" in the plot rather early on.  Because the characters were not a well developed as I'd have liked and the "mystery" was not difficult to figure out, I can only give the story four stars (wish I could give it four and a half).  Still, the setting, the feel of Louisiana, the warmth and sheer likeability of the characters and the "all's well with the world" ending left me feeling good, so I can't knock the story too much.  If you like Ms. Lorenz's previous work, and the above sounds interesting to you, by all means "grab a root and growl" you wolves out there and have a fun read.