Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Lone Wolf

SERIES: Bluewater Bay #4

AUTHOR: Aleksandr Voinov & L.A. Witt

PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing

LENGTH: 360 pages

BLURB: 

Hunter Easton is screwed. Fans, producers, and his agent are all chomping at the bit for the next book in his wildly popular Wolf’s Landing series, but he’s got epic writer’s block and is way behind deadline. Then he reads The World Tree, a fanfic novel by his online friend “Lone Wolf.” It isn’t just a great story—it’s exactly what the series needs.

Kevin Hussain is thrilled when “Wolf Hunter” wants to meet up after reading The World Tree. When Wolf Hunter turns out to be Hunter Easton himself, Kevin is starstruck. When Hunter tells him he wants to add The World Tree to Wolf’s Landing, Kevin is sure he’s being pranked. And when their online chemistry carries over—big time—into real life, Kevin is convinced it’s all too good to be true.

The problem is . . . it might be. The book deal, the sex, the money—everything is amazing. But fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and Kevin is left wondering if Hunter really loves him, or just loves his book.

REVIEW:

Wow. With two incredible authors like these two, how could this be anything but fantastic? Guess what? IT IS!!!

I loved this book so much. Let me tell you why! (Other than to just say “Duh, look who wrote it!”)

Both of these authors have written dark, angsty, dramatic, action filled books, as well as some lighter ones. This one is on the lighter side, there is no action, no death, no external drama, just really good characters with an interesting plot. It’s a little bit longer, coming in at 360 pages, and that is just perfect. I can get behind shorter books that I can read in an evening, but I like a longer book with more time to develop characters and a good plot.

Hunter Easton is a popular author, having written a series of paranormal detective books, called Wolf’s Landing. They are set around a town on the Olympic Penninsula in Washington State. The books are popular, but what really did it for him was the books being turned in to a TV series. The problem is, he’s stuck. He’s way past due for book eight in the series, and has gone blank. He’s hiding in his mega house in Bluewater Bay Washington, procrastinating, and heading to Victoria BC twice a week to work out with his trainer (aka fuck buddy). He does spend a fair amount of time in a Wolf’s Landing forum, using the name Wolf Hunter. This is NOT something he should be doing, but it was a temptation he couldn’t resist. He has developed a friendship with Lone Wolf, the forum owner, and writer of fanfiction. Lone Wolf and Wolf Hunter have flirted, and exchanged naughty bits of writing over the two years they have been online friends, but that all changes when Lone Wolf sends Wolf Hunter a fanfiction novel he has written in the Wolf’s Landing world, called The World Tree.

Kevin Hussain is a nerd, he works for a large sofware company based in Washington, that I believe starts with an M…. He paid for his own education, got himself a job, a car, and a condo, all on his own. He’s obsessed with the Wolf’s Landing books and TV series, and runs a forum dedicated to the books. He also writes fanfiction based in the Wolf’s Landing world, posting bits on the forum and sharing some with a group of fellow writers and lovers of Wolf’s Landing. He’s also been sharing bits of his naughty writing with his online friend, Wolf Hunter. His big project has been a fanfiction novel, The World Tree, set in the Wolf’s Landing world. He takes a chance and sends it to Wolf Hunter to read…

Hunter reads Kevin’s book and realizes he’s in trouble. Kevin has solved all of his issues, and potentially gotten his series back on track. If only he can figure out a way to use this book. Not steal it, that never seems to cross his mind, but to work with Kevin and get this book published. He asks Kevin to meet, conveniently they both live in Washington, and Kevin is shocked to speechlessness to see his friend is really THE Hunter Easton. He’s then embarrassed to think what he has done, what he’s written, and what he’s sent to his hero, using his own characters. And the things he’s made those characters do to each other. Kevin wants to die. Then Hunter drops the bomb on him. He loved The World Tree and wants to use it. Kevin’s dream could come true if he doesn’t lose his shit. And it is a close thing for him. Sometimes getting what you think you want has a whole world of issues.

We get a fantastic romance between the two. Hunter is older and jaded, happy having his weekly workout/fuck sessions with Ryan in Victoria, he’s a loner, likes his space, his big house, and his Ferrari, but he’s not looking for more. Kevin is younger, experienced but not overly so. He works, he writes, he does his forum stuff, he goes to cons, has his writer group and friends, and some family, but he’s an introvert at heart. The two of them oddly work well as a couple. Aside from the working part of their relationship, I liked them together to balance each other out. They are also VERY good together in bed. Very yummy I must say!

I liked the mentor relationship they have working together, Hunter soooo could have been a dick about all of this. I mean come on, someone younger than him, with so much talent, writes a book using his characters and his world, and does it better that he could do? I’d want to kill him. Hunter wants to work WITH him, not steal his stuff, and wants to fuck him too! He walks Kevin through the process, introduces him to his agent, helps him all the way through, step by step. Unfortunately he has also freaked him out a lot, about the whole fame and fortune side of his potential life, as well as whatever is developing between them. But they are so good together.

There isn’t a lot of “action” in this book, the story moves along nicely but it isn’t overly exciting. But I didn’t need it to be. That wasn’t what this was about. It’s a romance certainly, but also a good basic story about the collaborative process these two develop with the book and how they can have both a personal relationship and a working one. I love some exciting action packed books, but I equally love a good character driven story. That’s what we have here. It’s all about these two men, who they are as individuals, as a couple, and as collaborators. Damn, it all works so well.

I have a pet peeve…. I live in Washington, and it bugs the crap out of me to read books set here that get details wrong. Yes, I fully acknowledge this is my issue, and every book I read set somewhere else could be just full of inacuracies, but I live here so this is what I know best. This book was pretty good, no big glaring issues, LA Witt is from Washington so has a pretty good grasp of the area. The book in a ficticious town, and other than driving on the highway and taking a ferry now and then to Seattle there aren’t a lot of location details. My only comment would be the likelihood of someone living near Port Angeles taking a ferry to Victoria twice a week to see a personal trainer. Yes, technically it is possible, there is a ferry that runs twice a day, but it is over $100 roundtrip to take a car over there, plus you have to go through the border crossing on both sides, so it would be an all day trip. Hunter is rich, he can afford it, but I’m just not sure he’d take a full day to go work out with Ryan, even if they are having sex as well, twice a week. But I’m not a rich writer, so what do I know!  And that’s just me be being a freak and noticing things like that!

I loved this book so much, I loved the writing, the plot, the characters, the whole concept of a fanfiction writer having his dreams come true. It’s just fantastic! I know it’s part of a world that Riptide has created, I have NOT read the first three books and I got everything just fine out of this book. It is a standalone, I wouldn’t have known from reading it that it was part of a series, but it is, and I love the other authors, so I’ve just downloaded the first two. The third is out on December 1st, and I’ll be buying that one as well as any more that come after Lone Wolf. I love that these authors are using a common… world? Setting? Concept? I’m not sure what I’m looking for, but it’s cool and I want more!

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Riptide Publishing

Amazon

Amazon UK

ARe