100 Things Challenge: #1 Good Bones by Kim Fielding

As promised, in no particular order, the first of my 100 Favourite M/M Works. Here's the summary:

Skinny, quiet hipster Dylan Warner was the kind of guy other men barely glanced at until an evening’s indiscretion with a handsome stranger turned him into a werewolf. Now, despite a slightly hairy handicap, he just wants to live an ordinary—if lonely—life as an architect. He tries to keep his wild impulses in check, but after one too many close calls, Dylan gives up his urban life and moves to the country, where he will be less likely to harm someone else. His new home is a dilapidated but promising house that comes with a former Christmas tree farm and a solitary neighbor: sexy, rustic Chris Nock.
Dylan hires Chris to help him renovate the farmhouse and quickly discovers his assumptions about his neighbor are inaccurate—and that he’d very much like Chris to become a permanent fixture in his life as well as his home. Between proving himself to his boss, coping with the seductive lure of his dangerous ex-lover, and his limited romantic experience, Dylan finds it hard enough to express himself—how can he bring up his monthly urge to howl at the moon?

This is quite a recent read of mine and I was surprised! I love being surprised.
What I liked about it is that, although this is a werewolf novel, it almost doesn't read like one. It was like reading a contemporary novel that has a main character that happens to have a werewolf. I get that this might actually come across as a fault, but to me it really wasn't. I loved that the focus was how being a werewolf affected Dylan and his life, his own issues with accepting it as part of his life and how he has to adapt. It's something that's a bit rare at the moment in shifter novels which tend to centre more around pack politics or an alpha, beta or omega's duty to the pack.
Another thing that I liked was that it touched on the darker side of being one with an animal, and how the animal instincts can consume and take over the rationale, and not in a good way. I liked how Fielding showed transformation of man to animal and then back again, the change in thought process and the way instinct becomes the main navigator. Really nicely done.
And can I just say I love, love, love Chris! The moment he showed up in the book, I actually had to put the book down because I was grinning so hard and people on the bus were probably finding it creepy. I loved that both Dylan and Chris had preconceptions about each other that are completely dashed. The friendship that forms is tentative, with attraction coming in to spice things up, stir the waters in the best of ways. Both characters are strong, individually and opposites, both in ways of thinking and living, but that just makes them even hotter together—and believable as couple too, because they just fill the gaps in each other (trying not to make it sound corny). Besides, the chemistry between them is just fantastic!
It is definitely one my favourites for the werewolf themed books. Hot and fun with just the right dash of angst and you'll even get a bit of action ;)
Read it ♥ I'm sure you'll enjoy it just as much as I did.


Cover and summary taken from Goodreads.
1/100 Favourite M/M Works