“So you want to know what you are?” “Yes.” “Better hold on to your hat, then. Because this one’s a doozy.” A strange energy filled the room, and the huge man in front of her blurred, shifted, changed into… Dee stared at the huge black wolf that now dominated the room… and let out an ear-piercing scream.
Dee Carman considers herself to be quite ordinary, your average, run-of-the-mill office worker. That is, until the day she is kidnapped by the ruthless ‘Noturatii’ and converted into a shape shifter, a human capable of turning herself into a living, breathing wolf.
Terrified by the conversion, Dee escapes from the horrifying lab and is taken in by ‘Il Trosa’, a community of wolf shifters living in England’s north. But danger is lurking on all sides, as Dee finds herself caught up in an ancient war between Il Trosa and the Noturatii, a six hundred year old conflict that threatens not just Dee’s newfound family, but the survival of their entire species.
Laura Taylor is a pseudonym for Gabriel Danes. Gabriel is a bisexual, transgender writer of fantasy and romance novels. He likes watching ice hockey, reading about vampires and werewolves, cooking, and has fantasies of one day becoming a firefighter.
Gabriel lives on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia.
Brilliant first book. The series involves a new and unique take on shape shifting, complete with its own mythologies and secret organisations. With intriguing characters and motivation delivered with quality writing often lacking in the genre, I would highly recommend he book to anyone who enjoys fantasy set in the modern world. Thoroughly looking forward to the next book to explore more of the cast of characters.
This book couldn’t hold my attention. I lost interest pretty quickly and after several forced attempts to start reading again, I gave up at about 30% of the book.
This book has a romantic storyline, and an urban fantasy storyline. It is New Adult in nature (sex scenes, but not as explicit as some), with an interesting take on the shifter world. In general, the chemistry between the main character and her romantic interest is there, but under developed. Like many first books in a series, it struggles under the weight of trying to resolve a relationship into a HFN ending, while laying a sophisticated ground work for the world (and overarching series plot). It succeeds better at the latter.
There should be some trigger warnings. This is a rough world. There is at least one case of dubious consent (There is a man involved, but frankly, it's female to female sexual violence.) and ongoing physical and emotional abuse (although not in the "Good" pack), torture (not described in detail), PTSD (thank you, author, for not putting characters in horrific situations and then suggesting that after a good night's sleep or roll in the sack, that they'll be fine), and an unexplained dysfunctional relationship between two of the men in the pack (although I'd bet money this is explained in one of the later books in the series).
Another reviewer complained about homosexual sex. Yes, there is the relationship mentioned above, but the sex is not remotely explicit. It's a "closed door" description (you know they're having it, but you know none of the details). Same sex relationships between adults don't bother me.
Overall, I didn't find the book unsuccessful in its attempt to entertain, but it's themes would be too mature for young teen audiences, and older readers might wish for more sophistication.
There is one element that puzzles me. Where are the reviews? This book came out in 2015. There have been four more written since then. At the time I write this, there are twenty reviews for this book. At least one of the later books only has two reviews. This is a solid four star book. Some of the reviews are exceptionally brief for Kindle. It's... odd.
Végre egy jó alakváltó történet, amiért megéri hajnal háromig fennmaradni és olvasni csak még egy oldalt. Már rég olvastam olyan alakváltókról – farkasokról – szóló történetet, ami ennyire érdekes lett volna és szórakoztató. Adott a modern világ, ahol titokban élnek a farkasok és az esküdt ellenségeik a Noturatii, akiknek feltett szándéka, hogy kiirtsák őket. Bármit megtesznek, semmi sem akadály nekik, még ártatlan, mit sem sejtő emberek elrablása sem okoz gondot nekik, akiken aztán kísérleteznek, hogy rájöjjenek hogyan is pusztítsák és az alakváltókat. Itt jön a képbe Dee, akit elraboltak, megkínoztak és akarata ellenére átváltoztatnak farkassá. Épp meg akarják ölni őt, amikor váratlan események következtében kiszabadul és a londoni falkához kerül. Ott beavatják őt a titokba, az életükbe és elkezdődik Dee második élete. Kicsit döcögősen indul, de a végére tökéletesen beilleszkedik és teljes jogú tagja lesz a falkának. Van benne minden az akciótól kezdve a misztikumig, az oktalan gyűlölet, életteli jelenetek, játékosság, szerelem, család, komolyság, élet és halál, döntések és választások. Nagyon bejött, rég olvastam ilyen jó alakváltós történetet. Csak ajánlani tudom.
exceedingly Well Written Shifter Paranormal Fiction
First I want to give accolades to the illustrator for a beautiful cover. It’s so disheartening to see paranormal fiction with stereotyped, misogynist covers using teen models in heavy makeup, oversized lips and skimpy leather outfits. The Wolf’s Blood cover is graphically mysterious, beautiful and artistic. The story itself is unlike any other shifter story I’ve read. It is the author’s imaginative exploration of what shifter culture IS, it’s mythical history, how it impacts the humans who become shifters from necessity or unwillingly and their interactions as humans and wolves. The 600 year war with the Noturrati plays a key role in the story arc as well as the transformation of Dee, our lead, female wolf shifter character who as a simple, normal office worker gets kidnapped for a gruesome experiment. Her inner core of determination, kindness and logic leads her down a most unexpected and romantic (loving vs overly erotic, thank goodness) path and the reader shares this journey. A delightful find on Kindle Unlimited. Kudos to the editor too. Can’t wait for book 2.
There a number of themes and events in this book that can be triggers like rape, animal sacrifice, homosexual sex and control and dominance. Parts of this book go very dark.
That said this book was far too expensive for what it delivers. I bought it intrigued by the unique plot. The execution fell way short.
This book is full of my pet peeves: changing POV with no rhyme or reason, disjointed flow in plot, non existent editing, failure to disclose themes in book in the summary, overpriced to name a few
I think this author has talent but needs good editing assistance
Dee is kidnapped and subjected to scientific experiments which leave her sharing her body with a wolf. When she manages to get away, a local wolf pack take her in, but she finds she is part pack, part prisoner as they teach her about her new life.
This was okay, but not great. There were far too many different viewpoints in this book and most were unnecessary. After a while, the story started to drag and I lost interest. I did also note that someone went to “collage” instead of “college”. There was promise here, but the characters needed to be a bit more developed, particularly Mark. For a character that should be important, he was incredibly bland.
Excellent story that’s very different from the usual shifter story! I can’t explain because it would definitely ruin story! I loved first book and look forward to reading the series if they are as well written! I don’t usually use so many exclamation points but they express my feelings. If u read this book and don’t like it or the authors writing PLEASE tell me why and give me idea of what u usually read. I highly recommend this book 📚.
To have two minds. One human, one beast. Then staying rational through a great change which originally this melding of the two was forced rather than knowingly put there. To have the power to become a wolf at any given time all the while holding onto your humanity. Could you do it?
What a beautiful beginning. This takes a slightly common concept- human scientists against the shifter world- but takes a whole new path. Dee is awesome and I love her wolf!! Mark is adorable and I love that they found each other. And I can’t wait to see what is to come!
This book was a little bit of a guilty pleasure for me. The story was fun, and imagining a secret society of werewolves was a nice form of escapism. However, the writing could have been better. There were lots of cliches in the writing, and to be completely honest, it was sometimes pretty cheesy.
It was still quite fun to read though, and I will be reading the next book.
I loved this story. Can't wait to read the next one. It was a very interesting twist on shifters and once I started reading it it I couldn't put it down.
The story didn't follow the typical turn of events where new werewolf ends up mating with the alpha....so that was great and the concept was rather unique and the history of the wolves, their traditions and magic was well thought out. I enjoyed it.
Could not wait to finish reading this book to know how the plot would enfold! Loved the heroine and surprisingly all the other characters in the den! Looking forward to reading Caroline story!
I didn't enjoy this read, I felt like I was unsure of which characters to pay attention to and I felt like the motivations behind characters behaviours was not explored/explained well. For me it was a bit of a mess.
Interesting world building, characters that grab your attention and lots of adventure. This book is worth reading. There's a tangible struggle within the dynamics of wolves and their enemies.
Wolf shifters and their enemies! Will they survive?
These shifters do not have pups! New shifters are created with blood transfers and electric shock! Enemies found a way to make shifters! Good vs evil! Try this out!
I enjoyed this take on shifters--itnwss interesting to.see the differences and similarities in the mythos and how supernatural and mundane elements interact. The approach to clothing and armor was different from what I am used to in other shifter series, but in the big battle scene, it painted some really neat pictures and possibilities.
When I started this book, immediately brought into a story that kept me reading all day to finish. A different approach to the shifter’s story. I recommend reading. Going to get the next book. Read worth the binge day. Thank you Laura Taylor.
Okay... where to begin? There were a lot of themes that were hard to read through and I thought of not finishing this book. But I made it through and I´m not mad about it, it really wasn´t as bad as I thought it would be. What I didn´t like was the lack of explanations and it wasn`t adressed until the end of the book. The characters were... meh. The story was ok but kind of ... meh... too.
Liked the premise of the story, but felt the writing drag a little bit. Not sure that I will continue with the series. I think it could get to long winded.