The Howling Heart
Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance
DESCRIPTION
Paige Donovan is an ambitious college graduate who aspires to reach the top of the corporate ladder. She’s climbing fast when given the promotion of a lifetime at a prestigious fashion magazine in New York City. Her bright future comes to an unexpected halt after news of her father’s death.
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Paige Donovan is just about to grab life by the balls and take her chances climbing the fashion magazine ladder when her father dies and she has to take a leave of absence to handle the funeral. She discovers that a long forgotten log cabin that she and her family used to vacation at was never sold, and she is now the proud owner. Against her mother’s wishes Paige extends her leave to go up to the cabin and check it out. She had a strange experience at the cabin when she was a small child, one where she met a white wolf pup, and that memory is making a new appearance in her dreams. Almost as soon as she rolls into town she has an encounter with hottie Riley Gray, and almost as instantly, she also begins seeing a white wolf in her bedroom.
This whole beginning was a bit instant for me. Too many coincidences, too many first sight kind of things… but the book was actually pretty good. It has a lot of action, Riley, although at times sorta needy and clingy, also had a very bad ass side to him, so it evened out.
I’m not huge into the shifter world as far as reading goes, but I’ve read a few and most of what’s here sorta falls along that same side of things. The pack is above all else, the females are combative with each other but are supposed to be submissive to the men, and there’s a lot of lore. I liked the lore in this. It was interesting and played a direct role in the story.
The romance between Riley and Paige was unexpected in some ways. Paige took almost all the initiative sexually, as Riley had lots of mating rules to abide by, so that’s what sorta made me feel like Riley was not dominant enough, just not quite Alpha enough. That part was steamy though, because that darn Paige is persistent! Also, as he is constantly shifting into a wolf, Riley has a lot of naked time in this book! (Which was quite nice to picture!)
I also enjoyed the setting. I live in Colorado, so that tends to hook me in right away.
Beyond Riley not being Alpha enough, I just got a feeling that he was hiding things. I’m not sure if this is a series, so I’m not sure how to feel about that. Did I get the wrong message about him? Or is there really more to this story that hasn’t been revealed yet?
I think the best part of this novel was the actual plot. There were several twists and even though they are fairly common as far as shifter novels go, I liked the actual story. I think Paige had just enough resistance to what Riley wanted from her to make it believable, yet, she didn’t’ act stupid or throw a bunch of dramatic temper tantrums. She was pretty mature and handled herself well.
For me, The Howling Heart was a fun, sexy, shapeshifter story that held my attention the entire time.
April Bostic is a New Jersey-based romance author who enjoys unleashing her creativity and letting her imagination run wild. Her love of romance books inspired her to become not just a reader, but also a writer.
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April
Julie, thank you for my reviewing my book! I will be posting a blurb from your review on my site.
J. Anne Huss
You are very welcome, April!
Kelly
I do like shifters. Thanks for the review.
Kelly Walker
I haven’t read many shifter stories other than SMReine’s stuff.
Love the cover on this.