Publisher: Dreamspinner
Publish Date: Out Now!
How I got this book: NetGalley
It’s nine o’clock the morning after his father’s funeral, and Ezra Jones already knows it’s going to be a bad day. He wakes up hungover, sore, and covered in blood. Then it gets worse: the handsome and compelling Callum Dawson shows up on his doorstep claiming Ezra’s been turned into a werewolf. Ezra wants to be skeptical, but the evidence is hard to ignore.
Ezra doesn’t have a lot of time to get used to the rules Alpha Callum imposes—or the way his body responds to Callum’s dominance—as he’s busily working for the CDC to help uncover the origins of a lycan epidemic. When the sexual tension finally breaks, Ezra barely has time to enjoy it, because a new danger threatens. Someone wants Ezra for their own unscrupulous purposes and will do anything to get him.
*Blurb from Goodreads*
Ever since I read JL Langley’s With or Without series, I’ve been looking for some good m/m paranormal. When I first saw the blurb of this book I knew that I needed to get it right away! Sexy m/m shifters with a little bit of dominance thrown in? YES PLEASE!
Ezra wakes up one morning to find himself covered in blood and wondering just what the hell happened the night before. When a sexy but stern man shows up at his door and tells him he’s been turned to a werewolf, Ezra is confused and concerned but goes along with Callum.
Callum has enough to worry about with the rogue wolf on the loose, the new werewolf disease and general pack Alpha responsibilities. But one look at Ezra and Callum struggles with keeping his distance. His wolf wants Ezra and although Callum normally has control over his wolf, he is finding it harder and harder to keep that control around Ezra. But when the looming danger finds it’s way to Callum’s door, he will have to find a way to control himself long enough to stop the threat and save his newest pack member.
I really enjoyed the world that Kane & James created. Although there wasn’t anything super different or new with their shifters, I liked the dominance/submission issues that strongly impacted in each shifter. I liked that those roles played a critical factor in how people related to each other as well. In this book it seemed to be a recurring theme that weighs more heavily than other shifter books I’ve read.
I also really liked Callum and Ezra as a couple. At first I was a little concerned that they wouldn’t work well together, especially since Ezra kept loosing himself in every command that Callum gave him. I worried that Ezra wouldn’t be able to really be his own person and would just get lost in the lust and pleasure of submitting to a more dominant wolf. When Callum stepped up to teach Ezra how to resist and really forge his own way as a new wolf, I knew that I wouldn’t have anything else to be worried about. I loved that despite their vast differences, they both found ways to support one another. Callum teaching Ezra how to be a new wolf, how to resist the strong pulls from an alpha. Ezra was there to support Callum on all fronts: home, work and inter-pack relations. They quickly became an equal pair and I loved that.
I thought Kane and James also did a good job with the suspense and mystery aspect of this story. The plot moved along at a quick pace and there was a wonderful back story to the suspense plot. I liked that the villain was creepy and a little difficult to figure out. I enjoyed trying to guess who the big bad was, and actually did a pretty good job of narrowing it down from early on in the story.
I don’t know if this is planning on being part of a series, but I sincerely hope that it is. I enjoyed the secondary characters and world-building and can definitely see coming back for more. I think subsequent books would have the chance to really explore more of the pack dynamics, give a better foundation for the world and paint a better picture of the relationship between wolves.
All in all I really enjoyed this story. While I wish that the dominance/submission would have been explored more in the bedroom, I love the play between Ezra and Callum as it was. The suspense was wonderfully done and kept me on the edge of my seat, especially in the end. I hope that we get to see more of this world and will be picking up more books from Kane and James in the future.
I give Hair of the Dog a B-