Series: Wolf Hollow Shifters #1
Audience: +18
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Dystopia
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: October 23rd 2017
My Rating: 3 Cups
Source: Netgalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):
A REBELLIOUS OUTCAST*Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley and Nikki Jefford in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my rating or the content of my review in any way.
Cocky. Coy. Wolf shifter. Tabor is the hollow's only half-breed, scorned and forbidden to use his powers. Constantly overlooked despite his strengths, Tabor believes Sasha is as shortsighted as the rest of the pack until she proves there's more to her than a blindly obedient lapdog to the council.
A DUTIFUL PUREBLOOD
Spirited, stubborn, and deeply loyal, Sasha feels the pressure from her pack to claim another pureblood, yet no one is brazen enough to defy the elders and toy with her . . . no one besides a sexy, hotheaded half-breed.
AN ATTRACTION THAT THREATENS THE FUTURE OF THE PACK
Bewildered by the deceptively proud and surprisingly sensual Sasha, Tabor would risk everything to claim her. Despite her vanishing bloodline, Sasha can't resist the charismatic half-breed even as predators threaten their pack and the elders pressure her to breed with a pureblood.
In a fantastical post-apocalyptic world, where only the strongest survive, sometimes trusting the heart is the bravest act of all.
**Disclaimer: This book contains mature content. As a result, my review may contain references to content intended for mature audiences only.
I never imagined dystopia and paranormal could be combined into one book, but then I read about Wolf Hollow and I was intrigued.
Wolf Hollow is at its core a story about the struggles of a wolf pack to live. There are a number of things that endanger the pack: from wild vicious animals called vulhenas, to wizards, humans and rabid wolves, and even their own dwindling numbers. This world had some new to me rules. Wolves could only get pregnant during the full moon, there were a lot of steps to go through in order to participate in the full moon celebration. There was also a council formed by the alpha, Sasha, and the elders of the pack, that actually ruled the pack. That was new for me. It seemed to me like Sasha was alpha in name only, because she didn't have all that much power to speak of.
Sasha is an interesting character. She's strong and she's a very capable warrior, even though the elders in her pack don't see her as such, because she's a female. I wanted to understand Sasha more, but I can't really say I connected with her all that much. I liked her, but I didn't fully understand her. I liked that she didn't sit on the sidelines, instead she participated in the protection of the pack and in the supply runs whenever they were being made. I liked seeing her in that role, because that's what showed me she could be a strong leader, not just her lineage or the title she has.
Tabor is a half-wizard/half-wolf male, and for that most pack mates hate him. He is a good guy, that unfortunately because of his heritage is being hated on by everyone, being accused of bewitching the females of the pack, or of endangering the pack just by existing. I truly felt for him. So I was glad when towards the end his friends step in to save him, especially when he saved the pack.
The thing I didn't enjoy all that much was the constant reminder that Sasha had a duty towards the pack to mate with someone the pack deemed worthy of an alpha. Everybody else had a choice of accepting a mating or not, she didn't. And it wasn't just the elders that reminded her of that, it was the other pack members too, both males and females. It got to the point where I wanted to be able to jump in the book and smack a few people around. It was enough to pull me out of the story a few times, and that doesn't happen quite so often for me. I talked about how this story had some new elements, and some new ideas for how a pack should function, but I didn't fully understand those rules. We also aren't told all that much about where the shifters and the wizards come from, they just exist, and we also don't have a lot of information about the apocalypse itself. So a lot of times I didn't understand what was going on and how exactly does this world function outside of the pack.
There was a lot of potential to this story, but I admit that, sadly, I didn't fully click with this book. I hope that the next book in the series sheds some more light into the mythology of this world and that we learn more about the wizards and the shifters.
All in all, an interesting start for a new series.
