The Stray

by Amanda Geisler

Life has been anything but easy for Rya Garcia, and life isn’t going to get any easier. With a rogue werewolf in town, humans are closer than ever to discovering the pack's existence. Meanwhile old and new enemies begin to stir, making secrecy the least of Rya’s concern.

244 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2017

About the author

Amanda has been a dedicated reader since a young age, always searching for new material to devour. She began writing short stories at the age of 9, musing over the worlds she created before she began exploring the world of novels during her teen years. She is an enthusiastic reader and writer of young adult, fantasy and paranormal novels. The White Wolf Trilogy has been Amanda’s foundation project, writing and rewriting as she honed her skills until she came up with a finished novel. The first book of this trilogy, The Stray, is due to be released later in 2017, with the consecutive books in the two years following. She also has many other projects that she intends to explore and create as she embarks through her writing journey with Ouroborus Books.

Reviews

[Annalise Azevedo · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who likes the werewolf genre, I did find this book enjoyable. It follows the Greek Mythology of werewolves and has the classic legends mixed with modern day story. I do hope that we get to explore more characters with the books to come.

It also ends with a cliffhanger so it will leave you wanting more.

[Shayla Morgansen]

A young adult novella in the same stream as Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf and New Moon, The Stray follows the perspective of a number of supernatural teens living in small-town New Jersey. Rya Garcia, a werewolf and the heir to position of alpha to her pack, makes a bold move when she insists on breaking a stray werewolf out of captivity in order to help preserve the secrecy of their existence. She uses her influence with Zac, the son of the town's resident werewolf researcher, to gain entry onto the compound where the stray is kept, but quickly discovers that interest in her kind is much more prolific and advanced than any of them had known.

Geisler begins her story with impact, straight into the action of a wolfpack meeting out in the forest at night. Rya attends with her trusty sidekick Toby, and puts forward her suggestion about the stray to Erik, the bitter, angry black wolf who has forced his way into power over the rest of the werewolves in the absence of Rya's parents. The lore of werewolves is clearly significant to the author, and is woven throughout the story. With two more books in the series yet to be released, and with Geisler just starting out in her authorial career, I look forward to seeing how these characters and subplots are more fully developed in coming stories.