Reviewed by Sarina

TITLE: Paradise

SERIES: Island Wolfman #1

AUTHOR: Brannan Black

PUBLISHER: Changeling Press

LENGTH: 84 pages

RELEASE DATE: February 3, 2012

BLURB:

Marooned. Alone with only the voices in my head — and an island full of sex crazed wolfmen… They call this Paradise? Really?

What started out as a romantic cruise — a last ditch effort to save our fading marriage — turned ugly when my wife, Cecily, dumps me off me on an island in the middle of the Caribbean. To be fair, the virus was turning the men into monsters. All the men got left behind, to keep the women safe. But did she have to look so happy to get rid of me?

Immune to the virus that’s ripped our world apart, I’m the only human left on this damnable island. I’m a slightly neurotic forty-year-old college professor playing Robinson Crusoe on the Island of Dr. Moreau.

“Oh please, Ari. You’re far from Robinson Crusoe. He was a real man.”

Oh, and my wife? She’s still nagging me, if only in my mind. And now there’s a certain wolfman after me who just doesn’t understand I’m not looking to switch teams. Then there’s the heat and humidity, wild wolfmen ready to attack, and a hurricane looming on the horizon.

Island life is far from paradise.

REVIEW:

After reading and enjoying the Wolfman: Apocalypse Collection so much, I couldn’t wait to get into this one. Paradise takes place in the same universe but in a different locale and showcases life after the virus, not only in the closed environment of an island, but with a group of wolfmen that haven’t got the level of ‘civilization’ the previous series did. Here’s where Ari comes in; the only man on the island that didn’t succumb to the virus and change, Ari has retained all of his memories and skills which makes him valuable to the wolfmen when they find him.

I found the differences between this book and the other series interesting; I liked seeing the ‘start’ of a wolfman society as opposed to one that’s been in place for years already and seeing Ari discover things and make connections about their behavior and pack structure was kind of neat. The one thing I didn’t care for was the remnant of his so called wife as she nagged him relentlessly about pretty much everything but, at the same time, I understand coping mechanisms so it made sense to me that Ari would be having conversations with a voice in his head in order to not feel so alone. I can still wish it had been someone more pleasant, however. 😛

There is sex in the book though most of it takes place between various members of the pack instead of the main characters; they eventually get their own action but there’s a lot of non explicit ‘pack bonding’ going on which was in line with what I’d read before. Overall, I enjoyed the story and this made for an entertaining look at the post apocalyptic world when the survivors are still working to start over. You don’t have to read the previous series in order to understand or enjoy this one, but I’d still recommend it because it was really good. Also, while there hasn’t been a second book released for the Island Wolfman series yet, Paradise has no cliffhangers and works well as a standalone so if you’re interested in it, don’t be afraid to pick it up based on the release date. I enjoyed this and am really hoping the author will pick the series back up at some point as I’d love to read more. 🙂

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Changeling Press

Amazon