What a snorefest. I keep thinking about how to write a thoughtful review, but how do you write about something that you found tedious?

Borchardt's basic story is probably only 100 pages. The rests she rambles and rambles. She talks about the plight of women, about Roman history, Roman mythology, and Roman medieval politics. She writes about ghosts with skin peeling away from the skull that Regeane sees (but has nothing to do with the plot and is only there for shock value.) She goes into nauseati More...

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The Storyline
Regeane is a half-Saxon and half-Frankish woman without a father; her mother, Gisela is the cause of his death. After Gisela discovers that Woflstan, Regeane’s father, is a shape shifter and is able to take the form of a wolf she is convinced by her brother Gundabald that he must be the devils child and must be killed. Gisela is thankful that her daughter doesn’t appear to have any of the traits of her father; however, when she gets ol More...

The Silver Wolf (Legends of the Wolves, Book #1) by Alice Borchardt was recommended to me by my friend Lainey as sort of a substitute for Anne Rice. Turns out that Alice Borchardt is actually Anne Rice's sister, or at least was Anne Rice's sister, as Wikipedia reports that Borchardt passed away in 2007.

Knowing that, there are some interesting similarities. Borchardt trends a bit voluptuous with her language, while still seeming to hold her characters at an arms length. Both sisters are happy t More...

What can I say about this book without coming across as mean-spirited and sarcastic? Uhm. It had good bones. It could have been a good book with a good editor behind it.

This book wandered around like a blind man. The story looped back over its self to little purpose. While I don't expect a high level of historical accuracy in a fantasy novel, the inaccuracies and liberties in this book really irritated.

I don't understand how this book is rated so highly by goodreads readers. To receive the rat More...

I'm a sucker for historical fiction and for novels focused on protagonist character development, so I expected to enjoy this book. What surprised me was that Alice Borchardt went beyond introducing me to a time period I know little about (Rome in the time of Charlemagne) and to a heroine I could become attached to. Perhaps it is because she grew up telling stories in New Orleans with her sister (Anne Rice) - the dust jacket on my book seems to think so.
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I am having a hard time collecting my thoughts for this review, so to the lists it is:

- Something just feels off when the highest praise for the book is from Anne Rice, then we find out Borchardt is her sister.

- I love historical fiction, because I love it when history is enlivened. I think it takes as much artistry to create new and believable characters when they live within a preordained world, and certain events are absolutely set to occur, as it does to create something entirely new. I fel More...

This is the first book in the Legends of the Wolves trilogy. Borchardt, the sister of vampire maven Anne Rice, spins an amazingly descriptive tale set in the waning years of the Roman Empire as Charles struggles to become Charlemagne and Hadrian struggles to remain pope. Regeane is a shape shifter, woman and wolf, cursed and blessed, hunter and hunted. Distantly related to Charlemagne she is betrothed to a barbarian chieftain she has never seen to secure a mountain pass needed to keep Charlemagn More...

"The Silver Wolf" by Alice Borchardt is a haunting story that follows Regeane, a young woman who has the ability to shapeshift into a wolf. Beyond such a fantastical theme as this, the settings and character interactions in the story bring it to a decadent level of sensory experience. The story is set in Rome during the Dark Ages, where Regeane lives with a dominating uncle and cousin who keep her locked up and control what wealth she has inherited from her deceased parents. Throughout the story More...

Regeane is a beautiful young woman with werewolf blood. Because of this, her nasty uncle has kept her captive and beaten and starved her. When she discovers that he plans to sell her to a wealthy barbarian she risks her life and escapes. The remainder of the book concentrates on Regeane's self-discovery and the other, often odd, sometimes depraved people she encounters. She's known she can shape-shift but she also learns that she has visions and can speak to the dead. Eventually she becomes embr More...

Alice Borchardt was Anne Rice's (older?) sister. She wrote a series of paranormal novels in the late 90s. This is the first of her first trilogy.

I've read this before at least once. And it has stood up to rereading it. There are no vampires in Borchardt's universe, only werewolves. And from this book all you can tell is that they all seem to have been born that way, and although the protagonist is a young girl, they also seem to have the ability to live a very long time.

One of the things I liked More...

Set in the Rome of the Dark Ages, Regeane is a shape-shifter, a gift inherited from her father. After her mother's death she is raised by her uncle, a cruel man bent on using Regeane, who is distantly related to the great Charlemagne, to better his own station in life. She is betrothed to a barbarian lord she's never met and surrounded by enemies on all sides while she struggles to accept the wolf half of herself.

This book was filled with too much political intrigue for my taste. I'm not really More...

Beautifully written, descriptive without being boring, fascinating characters, and a good balance of magic and history. Quite a bit of poetic descriptions as well which I particularly loved.

We are introduced to Regan, a distant relation to a king who is locked way in a room, chained to a wall every night, imprisoned by her greedy uncle and sniveling coward of a cousin as they drink and whore her fortune away.

But Regan is no ordinary woman. She is a shape shifter who can change her form into that More...

As 8th-century Rome dies, Regeane struggles to survive: a disenfranchised woman of noble blood--and also a werewolf--she's kept in poverty and forced into marriage. But, with the introduction of a few key players and an unknown wolf, she's beginning to take back control. The Silver Wolf is bombastic, artless, and overdrawn. Its grimdark setting never jives with its idealized protagonist or intrusive off-color humor, yet the book is full of good intentions: an unusual historical setting, realized More...

Read this one on vacation in Colorado. I had picked it up because of the title (I love books with wolves in them.) and it was not what I had expected but it was still very good. The author seemed to have done some research on the time period (though don't ask me if she's right, history is not my forte) and the characters acted appropriatly for the setting. A little predictable with Regeane and Maeniel but that was okay.

This is the first in a trilogy about a female werewolf, set in 8the century Roman times. Synopsis: "Regeane is a fatherless royal relation who happens to be a werewolf. Her guardian, Gundabald, and his venal son Hugo plan to recoup their fortunes by marrying Regeane to a wealthy bridegroom, even though she might inadvertently make him into a bedtime snack. Gundabald forces her into apparent compliance by threatening to reveal her secret to the Church, which would burn her at the stake. As the br More...

I found Alice Borchardt's The Silver Wolf during a library search on NoveList - it was recommended to me based on other books I have read and enjoyed. I was expecting a light, paranormal romance type novel, easily read and enjoyed, and just as easily forgotten. What I got from reading The Silver Wolf however, was so much more...

Hidden within the pages of The Silver Wolf is an expertly crafted work of historical fiction. Borchardt has created a world of political intrigue and deadly suspense with More...

I was very unsurprised to discover that Alice was the sister of Anne Rice. I've been a fan of Anne's work for as long as I can remember, and comparing the two authors' writing, it isn't hard to imagine that their creative ability stemmed from the same genetics. Both have the ability to craft words that paint such an illustrious picture that your mind can grab hold of to carry you away into their created worlds. Both have leanings toward the mystical and magical ideas in our imaginations, and bot More...

Wow, Anne Rice's sister can write just as fantastically as she can! This was nearly epic. The writing was superb and gripping. It is a hellish and brutal tale that doesn't leave the truth behind in it's romance.

Best Quotes from the Book:

"I have no doubt the crabs that cluster around her source of income are sufficiently large and numerous to march on a walled city."
----Lucilla

"Without love we are as the painted images on the glass windows of a church are without the sun, only shadows."
----Ce More...

I loved it! There were few places too immature... not any that I consider too immature now that I think about it.

I chanced upon this book years ago at the library when I was looking for a different author. This is the first Alice Borchardt book I ever read, and it was a very good read. It's so rare to find books set in Dark Age Europe, since it was so... well, for lack of a better word, dark. Rome has fallen, and the glory of the Middle Ages is a long way off, but the people living in the remnants of Rome certainly made do.

The book starts off really well - always a good sign for a book - and left me intrig More...

1. An "innocent" heroine with a difficult upbringing - who is nevertheless intelligent and pragmatic (ex. no exclamations over her appearance or necessary measures for survival) - and kind...

2. Byzantine Rome - with espionage and political intrigue

3. A touch of the supernatural (Celtic wolf shape-shifters) that does not override the rest of the plot (re: "logical" spying, assassination, etc. that isn't resolved by some sudden supernatural activity or power)

4. Relatively lovely prose - despite More...

3.5 stars. Fascinating, intriguing and kept me in suspense. Although, confusing and sometimes too in depth, I couldn't seem to put it down. I loved the characters, which were well developed, yet I'm not sure if I can endure another 500 pages of the next book in the series, with Borchardt's serious tone and detailed descriptions. I was fascinated by the time period and found myself looking up characters and information in my sons latin books. I'd like to read, Night of the Wolf, but I need a "qui More...

I'm a sucker for both historical fantasy and werewolf stories, but this novel set in the declining days of the Rome just fails to ever generate a likeable, compelling story. Perhaps it's the dwelling on the depravity and licentiousness of Rome of the period--certainly, that's not ahistorical, but it gets tiresome; or maybe the lack of interesting characters, or the confused and rambling plot. There's some hints that Borchardt might improve as a writer in later books, but this first novel is a de More...

This is the first book I've read by Alice Borchardt. I was drawn to this book for two reasons: one, for the cover. Two, because I've been itching for a good werewolf story and this seems the one to subdue a werewolf-fix. I will say this here and now....I didn't know that Miss Alice was Anne Rice's sister until after I was nearly done. Even though I like Anne Rice, my opinion will NOT be swayed. Just saying...
This book did subdue the need for a good werewolf story (for the moment). It was everyth More...

I suppose it happens to everyone who owns quite some books. There just are those books who happen to migrate to the dark corners of the bookcase and turn up only once in a blue moon, after which you forget about them again. I, too, have books like that and when I come across them, I tend to put them back. In the end, there is a reason why they migrated to those dark corners, right? However, sometimes a book ends up there, but should have been read all along because it was better than its habitat More...

My first warning should probably have been that the author is Anne Rice's sister, but despite that I still went ahead with the swap...

Our protagonist is Regeane, a woman from a noble family around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire - effectively held captive by her uncle and cousin, who both fear and hate her because she is a shapechanger (able to take the form of a wolf, if you hadn't guessed from the title), her only protection is the fact she has been promised in marriage to a mercenary More...

Do you ever have these authors that make you want to say, "She could be so great if she only applied herself"? Well, that's how I feel about Alice Borchardt, who is apparantly Anne Rice's sister (no resemblance in the writing, however, and may I be the first to say I don't find Rice's epics all that scintillating)?

Wishful thinking about the author aside, this book is arguably Borchardt's best to date (though I do find her Guinevere series compelling).

Set in the ruins of ancient Rome, our protag More...

This book was written by the sister of the great Anne Rice, which proves writing talent runs in the family. Alice Borchardt was a nurse for 40 years before turning to writing, so time has deprived us of the other books she maybe have written (she wrote six more before her death). As for The Silver Wolf, it is a well written, funny, sexy, look into werewolves and an often unwritten about time in history, the reign of Charlemagne.
The writing is wonderful, the characters well formed, and the plot More...