Season of the Wolf (The Legend of All Wolves #4) by Maria Vale

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 25, 2020

In a world of danger and uncertainty, the Alpha has enough to worry about without him…

For Alpha Evie Kitwanasdottir, things are never easy. The Great North Pack has just survived a deadly attack. Evie is determined to do whatever is necessary to keep her Pack safe, especially from the four Shifters who are their prisoners.

Constantine lost his parents and his humanity on the same devastating day. He has been a thoughtless killer ever since. When Constantine is moved to live under Evie’s watchful eye, he discovers that taking directions and having a purpose are not the same thing.

Each moment spent together brings new revelations to Constantine, who begins to understand the loneliness of being Alpha. He finds strength and direction in helping Evie, but there is no room for a small love in the Pack, so Constantine must work harder than ever to prove to Evie he is capable of a love big enough for the Great North Pack itself.

•••••••

REVIEW: Constantine knows how hard life is. A killer for the pack, he’s not sure if he fits the pack now, his deceased leader had different views, but the more time he spends with Evie, the more he knows this is home.

And when Evie finally comes round, he needs to prove to her that he loves the pack, and not just her. She not an easy wolf to know, but he keeps at it, he feels her pain and he feels like he’s the wolf for the job.

Evie is alpha, it’s a cold and lonely position. After losing her mate in the previous book (see you do have to read in order)she needs to carry on for the pack. It’s hard, but it’s her duty, so basically suck it up and get on with it.

Her ideas are simple, keep the pack safe at all times.

I’ve read the previous 3 books, and the series just keeps getting better.

The characters although not as good as the previous books hold onto your heart and make you believe in their story. It was great to catch up with older characters from previous books.

This series really is different from most shifter books. These are wolves that can change into humans, it’s not their preferred form, they love being wolves, it’s what they are.

And the wolf pack is EVERYTHING, above family and even mates. The pack provides protection, security and unconditional loyalty.

The world is harsh and unforgiving, the scenes can upset you, but that’s the sign of a good book.

I couldn’t put it down.

Constantine was in the last book like Evie and I liked him immensely and I’m glad it’s his turn for a story.

We meet up with previous characters from the last three books.

I feel you definitely need to read in order, there is a story that if you skip books you’ll miss out on information.

They are difficult to read, but please persevere. They are well worth the effort. This book although not action packed, I don’t think it was necessary (that was in the last book) we focused on how the pack was reforming and licking their wounds from the last battle, (maybe the next book will have more action?)

I’m not sure if I can stand another book in this series, it tugs at the heart string too much, but it’s a book that once your in, you are trapped till the end.

Another great read, and one I’m glad to have read. Highly recommend this book.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
The Last Wolf
A Wolf apart
Forever Wolf

Copy supplied by Netgalley

? Julie B.

Forever Wolf and The Legend of All Wolves Series 1-3 by Marie Vale-Review, Excerpt & Giveaway Tour

FOREVER WOLF
(The Legend of All Wolves #3)
by Maria Vale
Release Date: March 26, 2019
Genre: adult, contemporary, paranormal, romance

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / Chapters Indigo /Apple / BAM / Indiebound

ABOUT THE BOOK: Born with one blue eye and one green, Eyulf was abandoned as an infant and has never understood why, or what he is…Varya is fiercely loyal to the Great North Pack, which took her in when she was a teenager. While out on patrol, Varya finds Eyulf wounded and starving and saves his life, at great risk to her own.

Legend says his eyes portend the end of the world…or perhaps, the beginning…

With old and new enemies threatening the Great North, Varya knows as soon as she sees his eyes that she must keep Eyulf hidden away from the superstitious wolves who would doom them both. Until the day they must fight to the death for the Pack’s survival, side by side and heart to heart…

The Legend of All Wolves Series:
The Last Wolf (Book 1)
A Wolf Apart (Book 2)
Forever Wolf (Book 3)

•••••••••••••

REVIEW: I think you need to read, in order, the other books in the series, but saying that, I don’t think it detracts from a really good read.

It’s a very different read from the usual shifter books I’ve read. The wolves are human, but most live as a wolf, they think as wolves, their hierarchy is very different from what I’ve read.

Varya is very disconnected from the pack, everything she does is a duty, she is extremely loyal, and there is nothing she won’t do as a “shielder” (a guardian or enforcer) this isn’t her original pack, she moved to this group as a teenager, so is that why she doesn’t connect with anyone ?

Whilst on patrol, Varya finds an injured wolf, now by rights she should have killed it, or at least inform her pack, but there is something about this white wolf that calls to her, it’s stirred up emotions that Varya didn’t realise she had.

Eyulf is different from the other wolves, his eyes give him away, one is blue, the other is green, he carries a heavy prophecy on his shoulders, he could start the end of the world, but he could also save it.

There are many characters from the previous books that we catch up with. And how Varya interacts with them all is very interesting. Most of the book is told from her POV (her point of view) and although not my favourite thing to read, it does give you an insight into Varya and her emotions (or lack of)

So what does the future have for Varya and Eyulf ? In fact, what does the future hold for the pack and the world?

Copy supplied by the publisher

? Reviewed by Julie B

_________________

The Last Wolf
The Legend of All Wolves #1
by Maria Vale
Release Date: February 6, 2018
Genre: adult, contemporary, paranormal, romance

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: For three days out of thirty, when the moon is full and her law is iron, the Great North Pack must be wild….

If she returns to her Pack, the stranger will die.
But if she stays…
Silver Nilsdottir is at the bottom of her Pack’s social order, with little chance for a decent mate and a better life. Until the day a stranger stumbles into their territory, wounded and beaten, and Silver decides to risk everything on Tiberius Leveraux. But Tiberius isn’t all he seems, and in the fragile balance of the Pack and wild, he may tip the destiny of all wolves…

••••••••••••

REVIEW: At the start of trilogy a series.

This isn’t a typical shifter book, the author has gone for a different spin. These are wolves that change into humans, most don’t like to be humans for long. They aren’t comfortable in the human skin, nor the surroundings of being trapped in a human body, they prefer the hierarchy that the wolf pack brings them. To a wolf, it’s all about the pack, and feelings don’t usually come into it. So romance isn’t really high on their list of things that is important. They mate, not necessarily for love, it’s more of an alliance between packs or for the good of the pack.

Silver isn’t a typical wolf shifter, she has a disability, but it doesn’t stop her, in fact I think it’s made her more determined. She knows she won’t get a chance at getting a mate, the best she can hope for is being a “servant” to the alpha pair.
She is strong willed and will speak her mind when warranted.

She doesn’t really get noticed, but all that changes when she meets Tiberius…..

Tiberius beaten and wounded badly, stumbles into the Great North pack’s territory.

He spends most of his time in human form (living with an abusive parent, he suppresses that side of himself). But the pack of wolves won’t be as understanding as the single she wolf who found him. They don’t accept the wolves who live a human life.

As I said before, the romance isn’t a big thing in this book, it does focus on how they feel, and reading how Silver thinks and feels about Tiberius, it really gives us a different opinion.

It does make it hard to keep reading, but if you forget about the other shifter books you’ve read, and read it for what the book is trying to tell you, then it’s a really good read.

We start in the past, and how the Pack was created.

We learn about pack through Silver’s eyes, and the love she has for her pack. But we also learn that Silver wants a life and a mate of her own.

Copy supplied by the publisher

Reviewed by Julie B ?

_______________

A Wolf Apart
The Legend of All Wolves #2
by Maria Vale
Release Date: July 31, 2018
Genre: adult, contemporary, paranormal, romance

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: Can a human truly make room in her heart for the Wild?

Thea Villalobos has long since given up trying to be what others expect of her. So in Elijah Sorensson she can see through the man of the world to a man who is passionate to the point of heartbreak. But something inside him is dying…

Elijah Sorensson has all kinds of outward success: bespoke suits, designer New York City apartment, women clamoring for his attention. Except Elijah despises the human life he’s forced to endure. He’s Alpha of his generation of the Great North Pack, and the wolf inside him will no longer be restrained…

••••••••

REVIEW: Elijah is a success in the human world, women, apartments and money. It’s all his, on a plate for him, but he hates the human world. It’s a facade he can’t continue for much longer, but he has to, his pack rely on him. But it’s killing him slowly.

We see this story through Elijah’s eyes. His loyalty and duty to the pack is evident in his sacrifice. He longs to be free, he longs for the pack life.

The levels in the pack hierarchy is very insightful. The stories are so different from what I’ve read before. These wolves live and breathe pack life. They shift into their “human skins” only when necessary.
The structure is different in these books. There are alphas for each age group(called an echelon), and they in turn answer to an alpha pair.

Thea is human, she doesn’t live like other people. She doesn’t suffer fools, she speaks her mind, so she is an ideal mate for Elijah, but wolves don’t mate humans, so if he takes her back to the pack, this could spell trouble for the couple. She makes him feel alive, as only being in his wolf form could bring him.

So, will they be allowed to stay together? Will Elijah sacrifice his happiness with Thea? Will he choose pack over his own happiness?

I guess your going to have to read the book to find out ?

Copy supplied by the publisher

Reviewed by Julie B ?

I focus on the still-pink circlet of scars around his leg, pulling the scar tissue gently apart with two fingers to see how elastic it is. Then I push down, softly at first, and gradually harder. If it starts to swell or bruise, the change will tear apart the underlying network of blood vessels.
He jerks.
“That’s a bad sign.” “What?”
“Well, it shouldn’t hurt that much.” “Doesn’t,” he says.
“This is not the time to hide what you’re feeling. If you change before you’re fully healed, you will tear yourself open again. I know what I’m doing.”
He leans forward, his arms draped between his legs. “I’m not sure you do.”
Ah. The towel that was barely adequate before is simply laughable now that it is also responsible for covering a thickly engorged cock.
I look up, up, up to his eyes. They’ve changed, darkened. They are no longer the pale blue of old ice and bright variegated green of forest depths, but the deep blue of late evening and the dark green of rain- drenched fir. His white hair loops forward and then falls over his shoulder. A sharp, green muskiness like rubbed coriander bothers my nose with something warm and dangerous.
I jump away, like a skittish fawn.
“I don’t think it’ll open up. Remember, your trigger is here.” I point without touching toward the place I’d found before. “It’s inside, not outside, so you need to tighten those muscles. But take your shirt off first.”
“Okay,” he says, pulling off his shirt. “Why?” “Because if by some miracle you get it right, I’ll have to cut you out of it, and we don’t have that many changes of clothes.”
Turning away, I smooth the T-shirt still warm from his body against my chest. Philadelphia Frostbite Regatta, it says. When I glance back, his eyes are closed and a tremor roils through the cut muscles. Parts of him around his pelvis that don’t look like they could tighten any more ripple.
Sitting down on a dry trunk, I stare at the lower slopes of Norþdæl, blanketed with wine and gray and dark gold, dotted with dark-green evergreens and occasional skeletal fingers of white birch.
“How are you doing over there?”
“Working on it.” He coughs a handful of fake coughs, trying, I suppose, to reproduce whatever caused that earlier change.
“Hey?” he says.
“Yes?”
“I’m going to be able to change back, right?”
“Of course. Once you learn what your trigger is, you’ll never forget it.”
“Like riding a bike.”
I scratch my ear. “It’s nothing like riding a bike. You’re changing into a wolf. Wolves don’t ride bikes.”
“It’s a… That’s not what I… Never mind.”
A squirrel squats on his hind legs, eyeing me from a distance. At this moment, from this angle, the daylight moon forms a curved crown above his head. “Except… you do know not to change before the Iron Moon, right?”
“Why?”
The squirrel’s whiskered nose twitches, worriedly. “Because the Iron Moon takes us as she finds us and makes us wilder. If she finds us in skin, she makes us wild. But if she finds us wild, she makes us æcewulfs. Real wolves. Forever wolves.”
“And you don’t change back?”
“That’s why they’re called forever wolves.”
He stares down at his feet, clenching and stretching his toes, as though confirming that for now at least, he still looks human. “Is it like when you’re a wolf, but you still know who you are? You still remember everything?”
“Nobody knows what they remember or don’t, but they’re definitely not the same. They’re not Pack any- more.” Over my shoulder, I see the panic on his face, his hand clinging to the little towel, like the last vestiges of his humanity.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen to you,” I say. His eyes consider mine for a moment. I nod at him, and he starts again, pressing harder, moving, clenching, roiling, undulating.
The squirrel takes advantage of my distraction and bolts up a nearby tree. High up, he hangs, head down, legs splayed, and chitters at me for invading his territory.
“Varya!”
I leap at Eyulf’s strangled cry, just managing to catch him as he pitches forward, his feet narrowing, arch elongating, calf muscle tightening.
How did I forget to tell him to lie down?
I stagger to the ground, his body writhing in my arms. His green eye searches blindly, his grotesque mouth mangles a groan before going silent. The towel drops away from his narrowing hips and his clutching fingers. My hair falls forward over him.
Astille, wulf. Þu eart gesund mid me.
Hush, wolf, you are safe with me.
My hands run over his skin, like water.

A logophile and bibliovore and worrier about the world, Vale lives in New York with her husband, two sons and a long line of dead plants. No one will let her have a pet.

Follow: Goodreads / Website /Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest