Awakened by the Wolf Paranormal Romance
Harlequin Nocturne
June 1, 2016
304
Exiled from his pack by his father, Brice Walker has secretly come home to visit his ailing grandmother only to discover a human and very desirable female sleeping in his bed. Their attraction is instant. But his new bed buddy seems determined to resist his Southern charm and Alpha allure.
For Brice, fiercely independent Cassie not only represents a chance to build a new life in Walker's Run but is also his one true mate. Cassie's reluctance dissolves when a rogue shifter kidnaps her, and now she and Brice must work together to save his pack. But once she witnesses the savagery of wolfan justice, can Cassie accept Brice as man, beast and her true love?
Reviewed by: Douglas C. Meeks
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
You ever read a book that you were not sure you liked but the story was good enough you just kept reading? This book was like that, it was good enough to keep me interested but just a bit irritating a lot of the time (Yes I have used this sentence before).
What we have is a setting in the mountains of Tennessee/Georgia (never quite gave a precise location) where there is a “sanctuary” for wolves, obviously you can deduct from the title that there is a bit more to those wolves.
In a bit of originality (or just weirdness) these wolves do NOT like to be called werewolves but Wahyas but for all practical purposes, they are the same as any other shifter book with maybe a few very minor differences.
Since this is a dual book review the couples that will hopefully get their HEA are Brice/Cassie (Brice is son of the alpha of this pack) and in the 2nd book his best friend Rafe and Cassie’s best friend Grace (I should point out that reading them together makes the story as a whole a much better reading experience)
There is some mystery and as always a threat to the heroine that must be dealt with at some point and I have to tell you that I was almost to the 50% mark in book 1 before I started to like this story so hang in there BUT I have to say I disliked Brice for a long time but Rafe was a better character IMHO but the heroines in both books were inconsistent, tough as nails one minute and swooning the next. If the story was not so interesting I might have subtracted more for that alone.
The main thrust in both books is to “find the mate” even if they are not that interested in it. The story is at time glorious, frustrating and even stupid and there was some minor scanning done. All things considered it was done well enough for a 4 Star rating overall but in a bit of oddity, I cannot remember a pair of books where people vomited so much and the endings of both books bore a lot of general similarity which suggest a bit of a formula but once again while I was not crazy about that I was never inclined to put the book down and find something else after the first few chapters of book 1.
I am sure there will be a 3rd book soon and I will read it, these characters are interesting and while there may be some shortcomings I felt invested in the story and the characters beyond the main couples so here is hope book #3 will be a bit of an improvement while losing nothing from these books that made them a good reading experience.