Reviewed by Jen B.

TITLE: Ashland
SERIES: WereWolf Fight League #2
AUTHOR: Lynn Lorenz
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: 151 pages
BLURB: Dan Stoltz has worked for years under his mentor Murphy to train sparring werewolves for the WWFL. Finally ready to start his own business he takes the money he’s saved, buys a license to train, and goes to the slave auction house to buy his first fighter.

Ashland’s owner has lost him for failure to pay back taxes and he’s up on the auction block. His former master abused him, underfed him, didn’t put him in fights or keep up with his training, and he’s not in the best shape.

When Dan sets his sights elsewhere, Murphy insists Ash is the better choice, and so, against his better judgment, Dan purchases Ash. Ash might not look like much at first, but as they work together, Ash looks better than better. Now it seems Dan might get a better return on his investment than he could have expected, because he discovers that he burns with desire for his slave and Ash might just feel the same.

REVIEW:

This installment jumps right in with Dan buying Ash at the slave auction in an attempt to procure a sparring wolf to get his training business up and running.  Even though Ash is half starved and clearly an abused wolf, Dan sees beyond all that, even sensing a connection between them.

Then things slow down a bit, as Ash learns what it is like to actually have a caring Master, and Dan fights his growing feelings towards Ash.  Dan is determined to not ever be with Ash, believing a slave never has the option of giving himself freely to a Master.  Knowing what had been done to Ash by his previous owner, Dan goes out of his way to make sure Ash never has to face that again.  This goes round and round for a while, while they each fantasize about the other.

After about halfway through this story, things pick up.  Ash’s training is coming together and they are obtaining more and more clients.  Eventually, they are unable to keep their feelings from one another and things spice up a bit.

This story actually takes place prior to Tor’s story, as we get to see Tor and Jin in action a little bit here, which was nice to see.  More detail is given about how this world works, with the slaves and the Fight League, etc., though it still felt like it was missing a certain depth, for lack of a better term.  I really enjoyed watching Ashland get a second chance, and even though there was a bit of excitement with his old owner attempting to reclaim him, Dan and Ash had a plan that thankfully didn’t need to be played out.

There are some other interesting characters here, including Dan’s old mentor, Murphy, and one of Dan and Ash’s sparring clients, Antonio.  It seemed like there could have been more surrounding Antonio, but perhaps he will get his own story.

Jen rates it –

BUY LINKS: Loose Id :: Amazon :: All Romance eBooks

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Jennifer B. is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: JENNIFER B’S REVIEWS
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