Long and Short Reviews
Rocko had been alpha of his pack for many years and was happy to do what was needed – including killing many humans – to protect his people and keep his pack safe. When Rocko comes across a woman who had been imprisoned by her own human kind, having heard about her protecting an injured pack child Rocko decided to enslave her to take care of the infant girl in his charge. Winter – given the choice between dying along with everyone from her town or being a prisoner and responsible for the life and wellbeing of the baby girl decides to embrace faux motherhood and being the child’s nanny. Will Winter or Rocko regret their hasty decisions? This is an interesting and fairly intense story. Readers looking for a light or fluffy werewolf/paranormal story won’t find that here. I was a little surprised at how intense I found Rocko – his violent streak, while suppressed, bubbled just under the surface and his near-hatred of all humans had me surprised he chose Winter to become part of his household, albeit in an enslaved and very limited sense. The author explained Rocko’s reasoning very well, but it still surprised me. Winter had been punished and hated by her fellow humans for showing compassion to an injured child of the pack, and Rocko was a believer in the old adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, but it still felt a little bit contrived. I really enjoyed the plot around the baby girl – Daphne – and Winter. It was clear that the circumstances surrounding Rocko getting custody of the child were complicated and something he absolutely wasn’t going to discuss with anyone, especially not Winter in the beginning – so watching that unfold was delightful. There is also a strong plotline revolving around the continual conflict between the humans and the wolves. I feel this lends an edge to the story as the skirmishes – while off screen and not descriptively written for the most part – are quite bloody and violent. I really felt it gave the story an air of barely suppressed violence and a darker edge than I’m used to with my paranormal romances. The growing chemistry and attraction between Rocko and Winter was steamy and very well written to my mind. I was thrilled that the author gave them both some time and space to circle and slowly come together. Had they simply jumped into bed together from the start I really feel their romance and the strength and trust they both came to feel for the other would have had far less of an impact. The longer length of the story and the numerous other aspects of the story helped highlight to me just how fragile and deep the connection and eventual relationship between Rocko and Winter grew to be. I really loved this aspect of the story and felt it was really well written. The steamy hot, smoking and explicit sex was pretty good too. Readers looking for a slightly edgier and harder style of paranormal romance with a bit of clashing between the wolves and humans and sex hot enough to burn the page should find this story really fits their needs.
