Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Cry Wolf

Audiobook Review.

Don't read this if you haven't first read Alpha & Omega, the novella that introduces Charles and Anna. Every list says Cry Wolf is the first of the series, but it's really not - that novella is. It also may be helpful to know this ties into the Mercy Thompson series, but for this book at least it is unnecessary to read Moon Called before you read this.

I really enjoyed this book, though it moved a little slowly and the audiobook at times made perspective changes a little difficult to pick up on right away. You might see the "Alpha and Omega" title and think this is going to be Omegaverse, but while it shares some conventions with that trope, this isn't erotica even in the slightest. This is Urban Fantasy. Anna is an Omega, a rare type of werewolf who exists between and outside the werewolf hierarchy of Dominant Alpha's and Submissive Beta's. As a long-time victim of abuse, she doesn't have any faith in her strength or her power, and a lot of this book is about her learning how to trust both others and herself.

It's also about a weird left-field villain who shows up at the midpoint of the book with little to no preamble. You just find out about a Thing which has happened, and that leads down the path to said Villain, and then the rest of the book is about defeating them. I'm hopeful this isn't going to be a pattern, that it was simply a consequence of this being the first novel in the series and thus had to introduce and explain a lot, especially for folks who haven't read Moon Called and thus are meeting many of the Montana wolves for the first time. There also needed to be time to develop Anna and Charles' relationship. Still, that plus the constant POV switching and backtracking narrative to fill you in on the bits you missed while in the wrong POV made parts of the book drag. Overall though, if you're okay with the content warnings (see below) I give this one a hearty recommend.

The audiobook is narrated by Holter Graham, who also did the novella audiobook, and continues to do a fantastic job. I'm not usually a fan of male narrators for female POVs, but Holter avoids a lot of the really off-putting vocal styles many of his peers employ, and creates really distinct voices for every character that make it fairly easy to always tell who is speaking. This is a DENSE book though, so it was definitely a 1.25x or less listen, as opposed to my usual 1.5x. So beware you might not speed through this one like other books.

Content Warnings

bookfun's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I am quite torn about this book and I think the reason is, that I didn't read the novella "alpha&omega", so the beginning of this book felt rather abrupt and made it hard to instantly conenct with the characters.

I loved Charles, his kind of brokenness that he hides so well, his protectivness of Anna and his silent determination and I love most how he relaxes because of Anna and how she is able to see his soft and fun side, without him actually having to change himself. I love seing the relationship between him and Samuel and him and Bran, I loooooved seing so much more of Bran and getting insights into him and I love that Patricia Briggs made him a kind of ambivalent good character. We know he is a good guy and he means good, but he is also ruthless in a way a truly good guy wouldn't be. He has to decide some things and act in ways that are kind of morally grey, like his relationship with Lea, but he has very good reasons for it and you feel for him, even as you wish that he would find another solution. It's really interesting getting to know him more.

I didn't like Anna too muc hin this book, but that is mostly becaus she is so passive and insecure and honestly, I don't think she could have been written differently, seeing her past, her trauma and her abuse. It makes sense, it just didn't make me like her, but she did came out of her shell from time to time and that made me confident that I will like her in the future. I'm a sucker for the silent strong woman in books and she seems to be exactly that. Strong and badass but in a different way than the kickass fighters (don't get me wrong, I love them too, but this is just a bit rarer, so I love reading about it).

Oh, and I absolutely loved Asil and I hope to read much much more of him in the future.

I didn't really read the Mercy Thompson world books in order unfortunately, I started with the Mercy Thompson series and didn't realize this series exists in the same universe and time, so I have to catch up a bit before I can go back to Mercy, and I would highly encourage people to read all the books in this world in the correct order, even the novellas.

Content Warnings

catchstanly's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Content Warnings

vexbatch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

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