The Wolf King

Legends of the Wolf #3

by Alice Borchardt

The Wolf King is set in the world of Charlemagne, a brutal and violent period of change in European history. Charlemagne has massed his army in Geneva, poised to add Italy to his growing list of conquests. Meanwhile, the mercenary forces of King Desiderus are perched on the other side of the Alps, ready to attack anyone moving through the mountain passes. In between live the shapeshifters, protected by their leader, Maenial, and his bride, Regeane.

In a very short time, the war destroys everything that Regeane and Maenial have struggled to accomplish, and soon they are cast into a well of calamity, as Maenial— pledged to Charlemagne as man, loyal to none but himself as wolf—is captured by Desiderus's men. Now Regeane must save him. But to do so, she enlists the aid of another— Saxon whose love for her poses dangers of its own.

About the Author:
Alice Borchardt shared a childhood of story-telling with her sister. Anne Rice, in New Orleans. A professional nurse, she has also nurtured a profound interest in little-known periods of history.

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Fiction, Werewolves, Historical Fiction, Historical, Romance

384 pages, Hardcover

First published February 27, 2001

About the author

Alice O'Brien was born on 6 October 1939 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. She was one of five sister of Katherine "Kay" Allen and Howard O'Brien. The O'Brien family moved to Richardson, Texas, when Alice was a teenager. She began her nursing career in Houston, where she met and married her husband, Clifford Borchardt. After a 30-year career as a licensed vocational nurse, Borchardt faced staff reductions at the hospital where she worked. Alice's sister, the writer Anne Rice, encouraged her, helped her find an agent, and wrote introductions to several of her books. She wrote seven books. She passed away on 24 July 2007 in Houston, Texas.

Reviews

[Dani Cabrera · Rating 3 out of 5]

What the hell? What a shitty ending! I'm dumbfounded. Are there missing pages or something?

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first book in this series is good. Sadly, the rest of the series does not live up to the first book. The plot sounds good; the problem, however, is the book is a loosely strung together series of scenes.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing read!

This author is not as prolific of a writer as her sister Anne Rice is as good if not better! I wish that more of her stories and books were published and do hope they will be some day! Somehow these wolves that are involved in this story line are part of another two more books called the Dragon Queen & the Raven Warrior is its follow up book of the time of Aruther and Guinvere! Enjoy her books as I certainly have!

[JW USA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brutal

War is brutal and Borchardt does not hide from this fact. The lives of women rich and poor are awful. Be warned frequent references to rape and other forms of abuse and torture. I was disappointed in that we didn’t really see he love story evolve. Again they were apart more than together.

[Aura Nizharu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't like as much as the first one - skipped the second because prequel - my grip is the stupid not ending, and, well the next books were prequels and the Author died so, this series will never get an ending.
But what we have is so good, so very, very good...

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is my least favorite of the series. Mainly because it takes off on a different branch of the original story. While still a great read, this one could have been a standalone story.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel was great, a fine ending to the series. I'm not sure if the author intended to write more entries, but luckily this one gave me a good sense of closure. Loved all three books.

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the enigmatic ending.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Werewolf Regeanne searches for her mate, who disappeared on a mission for Charlemagne.

[DJ Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little anti-climactic at the end, but plenty of good action before then.

[Jordan Chetcuti · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with the others in the series a little strangely written. The stories compelling, but I think this the least good of the series. Ended rather abruptly really.

[Eli]

Borchardt should stick to simple eroto-historical works; this book tries to do too much.

[Helen Solle-Conner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous addition to the series

[Rowena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had been looking forward to reading this book for a long time, to see the continuation of Regeane and Maenial's stories, see how they worked together... 'The Silver Wolf' is one of my favourite books, but this one did not live up to my hopes and expectations.

It felt like the author had too many concepts that she wished to include, but couldn't give any of them the focus they required to make sense. Was my attention meant to be on military history, the lives of people during Charlemagne's reign, a melding of the supernatural with historical fiction, or the abstract dreamlike sequences and their resulting philosophical musings? None could ever really get off the ground, and attempting to weave them into a fluid narrative was impossible for one short book.

This time around, I struggled to relate to Regeane as she flounced from bashful young wife to fierce supernatural force within consecutive sentences. The big supernatural bad that had been built up dissolved into a married couple-style comedic duo with a young woman millennia his junior, Hugo - still rotting about since the first book - was taken out with an anti-climactic handwave, and almost all of the new characters failed to make an impression. I was more intrigued by the adventures of Lucilla and by Matrona's backstory than by the heroes. Maenial seemed sidelined, and the ending was a bizarre choice - Charlemagne's conflict being resolved couldn't stir any triumph in me, since he'd not been in the spotlight enough for me to care. To have his thoughts as the final image was like reading the last paragraph of a different book.

I may try it again sometime, hoping that I just wasn't in the right mood, but... You can see by how long it took me to read that this was no spellbinding tale. Plus, talking horses? Ridiculous addition.

[Merredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third in the Legends of the Wolves trilogy. I liked the first one, the second one was a prequel, which was a bit drawn out and confused me, and now the third one was a continuation from the first. I read the first back in 2009 or so and it's 2014 now so it was hard to remember some things. the things we learned in the second book did give me a different perspective on the characters now, so i wish i'd read the second one first. This book felt like i was moving through quicksand, just like the second (which i read a few weeks ago). Some parts would be interesting, then i'd feel like i was in an alternate reality where the book went on and on. and it's not even that long! When i was almost done, i just stopped. I thought well, most of everything is resolved i honestly just DONT CARE anymore to see the rest. i think the fact that i enjoyed the first book was the only reason i read the other two. The author was Anne Rice's (now deceased) sister, but she doesn't have the gift her sibling does. This is a book about a wolf who can become a man at times, who has a pack, mostly consisting of people who become wolves at times, including his wife, and some humans and at least one woman who is wolf/neanderthal or something. They're trying to help Charlemagne and there's this other supernatural being and it's really just weird. If I were you, I'd just never start this series. I'm glad I'm done!

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third book in a series. Unfortunately, I have not read the other two. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if I had read the other two first, but I don't think it was necessary to read them in order to follow the story.

I felt like the book started very abruptly, and ended abruptly too. I would have preferred to be eased into it a little more in the beginning, and to have more closure at the end.

I enjoyed the first part of the book the most. When Regeane and the Saxon were in the monestary with the possessed priests, it was really exciting. The story seemed to shift between the viewpoints of several different people. I enjoyed the story of Hugo and Chiara the most. Regeane was also interesting. I felt the sections focused on Maeniel were boring. As the story progressed, it was hard for me to keep all the characters straight. There was so much corruption among the various kings and their courts, that I wondered how anyone survived in those times. People were always getting killed and/or raped. The character of the bear spirit was by far the most interesting to me. I still am not sure if it was supposed to be an evil spirit, or just the spirit of something so different than humans that it doesn't know what to do about them.

[Dearbhla · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found this to be a very disappointing read. I read the previous two in this series: The Silver Wolf and The Night of the Wolf and while neither of them are spectacularly great novels they were both interesting, well-written stories.

Despite being set in the same world, and dealing with many of the same characters this novel feels half-hearted. As though Borchardt started out with the idea of writing it, but didn’t really put any effort into actually developing the story or the characters. They react and emote, but in sudden outbursts that seem to come from nowhere, and the entire story seems confused and badly laid out. There is a brief flashback that is badly executed and until I had finished reading it I wasn’t actually sure when it had occurred at all.

There is also the fact that there is a main character who never seems to get a name, instead is always described as “The Saxon”.
Overall I just found this lacking in any commitment, as though Borchardt wasn’t that interested in it.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is set in the time of Charlemagne, his armies poised to invade Italy. Lord Maeniel, leader of a pack of shape shifting werewolves, agrees to help his King, but doesn't account for the actions of his young bride. Regeane, loyal and loving, is soon embroiled in her own adventure as she begins to discover her own powers. And behind them both is the shadow of an old enemy, Bear.

I have to admit to not liking this that much - the cover is probably the best bit of the whole book. The story was ok, but I was really conscious of this being a sequel and, as I haven't read the previous, found myself lost with all the characters. The author seemed to presume that you knew what she was talking about. But I did get into it and was drawn along with the faster paced action in the second half of the book. Being horsey, I obviously loved the character of Audovald and the friend he gives to the Saxon.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun but meandering ending to the trilogy . . .

So, I read "The Silver Wolf" a few years ago and enjoyed it. I recently read the second book, which is set centuries before, and is also enjoyable, though the fact that it was the 2nd book in a trilogy and a prequel seemed a bit odd. Now, the third book in the trilogy picks up more-or-less where the first book left off, a tale of werewolves in Carolingian Europe during the rise of Charlemagne. The story meanders a bit, and returns to more fully explore the mysterious spirit-world antagonist from the first book, which is arguably the most interesting part of this book. If you liked the first two books, it's definitely worth it to see it through to the end, I think!

[Jeanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had an extremely hard time getting through this book. The writing style becomes increasingly more long-winded and flowery as the book progresses. I found the 'fluff' unnecessary and detrimental to the flow of the story, leaving it stagnant on multiple occasions.

I also felt that much of the character development achieved in the first two books took several serious steps backwards in this book.

All in all, this book was a considerable disappointment as the conclusion to a trilogy. I will not be reading any more of her books.

[Marjorie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Wolf King is the final book of a three-book series. The first book, The Silver Wolf, was the favorite for me. The main character from that novel, Regeane, returns as well as others. There are many plot lines that don’t start becoming clear until halfway through the book. What I thought to be a major plot/character storyline is solved before the book is close to done and then just a few loose storyline was wrapped up very abruptly.
So, according to goodread's rating system 2 stars is "it was ok." I might have given it 2 and half stars if I could. In the end, for me, it was ok.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this largely because I had just come off of reading all of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles in order, and figured since Borchardt is Anne Rice's sister, this might be like the Vampire Chronicles for werewolves. This was what I believed was a prequel and so I read it first, but therein lies the danger of a prequel where you probably ought to have some knowledge of the characters, setting, etc. I was totally lost and couldn't finish.

[BookAddict ✒ La Crimson Femme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Regeane and Maeniel are back. This one more political intrigue is afoot and with a rather unreasonable king. Although really, are any kings reasonable? Aren't most so inbred that they are crazy, spoiled and commit hubris on a daily basis? This was a fitting ending to the trilogy. I just don't have as much to say about it because I've figured out, I don't particular enjoy books with so much political intrigue. I get sleepy.

[Janin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so pleased to discover that Alice Borchardt had written another book in this series. I hadn't realized when I started it that there is another book between it and the first, Silver Wolf. So I'll definitely have to get that one as well. It was so nice to revisit favored characters and I have to admit, I was unpleasantly surprised when I reached the end of the book and discovered that Alice passed away in 2007.

[RealmsQueen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Better than the first, worse than the second. For the most part, it wasn't all that bad, but towards the middle end it got weird again. The author started reference, inferring, insuniating, and giving us no facts at all. Rather frustrating because it makes no sense.

Despite being the sister to one of the horror genre queens, I really would not reccomend this trilogy unless you have a really abstract way of thinking. Maybe then you can undertand what she's saying...

[Renee B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars!

I read this back in university and while browsing through my to-read books, it popped up in my head (I can't possibly remember every single book I've read >.<)

This was a great story and set in the time of Charlemagne. I will have to re-read it to give it a proper review but I remember that I was very happy after reading the story. I do wish I'd read the first two books in the trilogy though. :/

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars. I really wanted to like this trilogy. I thought the premise had so much promise. This being the third and last book, my overall impression is just meh. They were OK. It was a bit of a disappointment; particularly the flat ending. Perhaps Alice Borchardt intended to continue the story, in the same manner as sister Anne Rice has done. Borchardt's writing seemed to be trying too hard to be Rice's, yet couldn't achieve it. Yet Borchardt had a great idea for this trilogy.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, second fav from Alice Borchardt after the Silver Wolf. Regeane reprises her role from the Silver Wolf, this time as a desperate woman who is first lost in the snow then forgets her identity as Manael searches all over Europe for her and is eventually drawn into the great events occurring at the time.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ratings - completed series:
#1 The Silver Wolf: ★★★☆☆
#2 Night of the Wolf: ★★★☆☆
#3 The Wolf King (this book): ★★★☆☆

[Lemon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not *quite* as good as The Silver Wolf, but I was still delighted to return to the series' world and characters. While Regeane and Maeniel play a major role in this one, I found myself much more interested in the new characters this book adds. I don't think this one stands as well on its own, so you should definitely read Silver Wolf first.