Reviewed by Dan

TITLE:    Werewolves of Brooklyn

AUTHOR:     Brad Vance

PUBLISHER:  Brad Vance

LENGTH:     185 Pages

BLURB:

Darien Mackey wasn’t looking for an adventure. For ten years, he’d been happy living in Brooklyn, working as a butcher in the same job, living in the same apartment, dating some “nothing-special” guys. Until one night his buddy Jacob talked him into taking ayahuasca, the soul-changing drug. And Darien had a vision…of a wolf, its all-too-human eyes on him, its paws on his chest, its enquiring mind in his own…

Darien Mackey is changing. He’s more confident, more assertive, hungrier, hornier. And his world is changing around him – his job, his home, his beloved Mechanic’s Library all falling victim to the predations of unscrupulous developers, bent on demolishing the old Brooklyn he loves and replacing it with a forest of condos. But he’s no longer a passive observer of his own life, and as this thing, this power, grows inside of him, he resolves to fight back, to preserve the way of life he loves.

And he’s not alone in the fight. The Lipsius Preservation Society of Brooklyn stands ready to assist in the battle, even though it seems like a bit of a joke to Darien, with its King and its Duke, Marquess, Earl and Viscount.

But there’s nothing funny about his growing attraction to Albeus Finley, King of this mysterious Court. And when slumlords and condo-mongers start to die mysterious, violent deaths at the hands of savage animals, Darien begins to realize that something is afoot in Brooklyn – something supernatural.

And it’s afoot in him, too…

REVIEW:

I really liked this book. The main thing I took from it? I feel like I need to find a shaman who can brew me up some Ayahuasca, the soul-changing drug. I too want to be a werewolf. And I already have the beard and the tats, so I’m ready! What? It is fiction? Damn….sigh. But the Ayahausca is real….all I need to do is travel to the rainforests of South America and I could come back a whole new Dan!

Brad Vance has brought us a whole new take on the werewolf legends. This isn’t your grandfather’s shifter novel, nor is it the shifter novel that most authors are regurgitating over and over and over and over and over in this genre. Did you pick up that I’m a little sick of those? I really came close to not reading this book, because I was afraid it would be more of the same. It wasn’t. Mr. Vance brings us a totally different take on where werewolves come from, without the bites and the howling at the moon, the uncontrollable changing during a full moon, and all that other stuff that we’ve all read way too many times.

I loved the character of Darien Mackey. A native Californian who fled the glass and steel world of Palo Alto and fled to an older neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY for a more “real” life, Darien has worked his way up from apprentice butcher to being one of the best butchers in New York. He still works for the family that helped him train, and he likes his quiet, (ok boring), life. But all that changes when his best friend drags him to this undercover event where he is introduced to the soul-changing drug Ayahausca. At first he believes it won’t affect him, but soon he is seeing and conversing with a wolf, and when he awakens his whole world has shifted.

In the days following the soul changing drug use, Darien starts to notice things are different. He is much more aggressive, wants sex all the time, and is always hungry! He can see and hear more clearly and has a heightened sense of smell. Best of all is his “take no shit” attitude.   Can he use that new attitude and confidence to stop the sleazy developer from acquiring the local library and turning it into million dollar studio apartments?

Along the way he will meet talking Ravens, and a group of men with royal titles. Who are these men, and what do they want from him. He knows what he wants from King Albeus Finley, but they are both tops…how would that work? I liked how Albeus’ history was woven into the book as well, so we knew his backstory. My only slightly negative comment on the book, was that I wish Albeus’ story had been told in broken up flashbacks. The one big flashback, for me, pulled me out of Darien’s story a little too much, and it took me a minute to catch back up when it switched back. But that was just me, and it might be because I read too darn fast.  Not that I don’t still want more of Albeus’ story. How did he go from selling shoe laces to being a multi-billionaire??  Overall it was a great book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I highly recommend you pick up this book and give it a read. I’m expecting more to the story, since there are some answers we don’t have yet, and the book just seemed like it wants to go on. I’m sure the voices are still speaking in Brad’s head. Hopefully he lets them out to play. If you are a fan of hot, bearded, tatted up men, who also happen to be werewolves…hit one click today, you can thank me later.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon