Reviewed by Tara
TITLE: Run With The Moon
SERIES: Valen’s Pack # 1
AUTHOR: Bailey Bradford
PUBLISHER: Totally Bound
LENGTH: 144 pages
BLURB:
Two species that have always kept themselves separated are about to collide and create a new world. Humanity almost managed to do itself in. Ravaged by wars and plagues, the human population on earth has been bordering on extinction, although pockets of people have been forging on over the past few hundred years. It’s a hard life, and one Aaron Olsen fears he doesn’t fit into. As a son of a village leader, there are pressures on him he can’t manage, and things he keeps hidden, desires he doesn’t know how to express that keep him up many nights as he worries over them. Valen is an alpha, born with the crescent moon mark on his chest. It means he’ll have to leave the pack he was born and raised in. It is the way of the wolf, and the only way to prevent it is to fight his father. Valen has no intention of doing such a dishonorable thing. He leaves as he’s supposed to, only to find himself the victim of thievery. When he hunts down the party responsible for stealing his belongings, Valen finds himself attracted to the human Aaron Olsen. Now, if they can only survive their own pride and insecurities, and an attack that threatens everything they love, they just might have a chance at happiness in Valen’s Pack.
REVIEW:
In “Run With The Moon”, the first in a new series called Valen’s Pack, we meet Valen. Valen is a born alpha, the first in the many litters that his parents birthed, and destined to start his own pack. Valen doesn’t want to leave the only place he has known all his life, and despite his older brother Rivvie’s arguments on how lucky he is, he goes through the alpha ritual reluctantly. He leaves his home pack with all that he needs wrapped in a leather bag. Humans are very scarce, after being killed by both disease and war; they haven’t been seen in years. It was just Valen’s luck to stumble upon a few and become a victim of their thievery at the same time. Aaron Olsen is one of the few humans left, and supplies are incredibly hard to come by. Desperation causes him to take the seemingly abandoned bag, not realizing it belonged to a wolf or that the wolf would be a man that he finds extremely attractive. In Aaron’s village sex is about procreation and being gay is definitely not appreciated.
After Valen warns his home pack through his brother Rivvie, he tracks down the humans and gains much to his dismay Rivvie as his first pack member. Aaron had decided to stay behind and gets hurt while running from Valen. But Valen finds him equally attractive and decides to spend one night fulfilling their urges with each other. When the night is over, they both leave each other feeling like something is missing. Valen stays nearby and Aaron returns home to find his father, the chief of the village had a change of heart. After Aaron and Valen meet again, tragedy strikes. Both human and wolf find they have a decision to make as they fight a common enemy.
This was an interesting start to the series. I liked how it was set in a future time, when humans are the ones that are outnumbered and the wolf shifters prospered. Valen was your typical alpha, dominant, smart, but likeable. Aaron was sweet and it was cute how he interacted with Valen. He constantly blushed every time Valen complimented him, or when sex was brought up when talking to his father, it made me laugh how he wanted to crawl away in embarrassment. You could see immediate chemistry and I was glad not to have the usual fighting of feelings. They met each other, and boom destiny happened. The real character I loved was Rivvie. He was just so funny as he teased Valen and Aaron. But he also had a serious side, and he wanted to prove that he was more than just jokes. It was wonderful to see him grow into himself at Valens side. I’m itching to see if he will get his happy ever after in the next addition of the series. I know that many fans of shifters will love this new series. It is filled with plenty of sex, interesting secondary characters, and has a good plot.
RATING: 
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