Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Draakenwood
SERIES: Whyborne & Griffin #9
AUTHOR: Jordan L. Hawk
PUBLISHER: Widdershins Press
LENGTH: 246 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2017
BLURB:
Someone is killing members of the old families…and the evidence points to Whyborne.
Widdershins has been unusually quiet for months. But now a mysterious creature from the Outside is on the loose, assassinating members of the town’s old families by draining their blood. Whyborne and Griffin set out to solve the mystery—but as the evidence piles up, the police begin to suspect Whyborne himself is the murderer.
Now Whyborne must both clear his name and stop the horrors the monster threatens to unleash. His only hope: an alliance with his old enemies the Endicotts.
Because something terrible lurks in the Draakenwood, and it will stop at nothing to seize control of the maelstrom itself.
Draakenwood is the ninth book in the Whyborne & Griffin series, where magic, mystery, and m/m romance collide with Victorian era America.
REVIEW:
Hi, my name is Sarina and I’m addicted to the Whyborne & Griffin series. I have a confession to make, however; that wasn’t always the case. Shameful, I know, but when I’d originally picked up the first book in the series I just wasn’t able to get into it. I love historical novels and mysteries and pretty much paranormal everything but, for some reason, I just wasn’t clicking with the men of Widdershins so I put the book down and walked away from it for a while. Maybe I just wasn’t ready for the level of amazing that Whyborne & Griffin represent yet. Regardless, I eventually went back to try reading the book again, was sucked into it, and have found myself a willing and eager tagalong with the residents of Widdershins ever since. I’m thrilled to say that this latest book is just as engaging and enthralling as the rest of the series has proved to be and I LOVED it!
While I’ve enjoyed every book regardless of where it takes place, there was just something really satisfying about being back in Widdershins again; much like the main characters, the town has evolved and grown in complexity and has been just as interesting to read about. The Draakenwood in particular has been featured before but was always this great, dark mysterious entity that you learned to avoid like the plague if you knew what was good for you. The fact that people continue to walk into it only to never be seen again hasn’t helped its reputation any.
Location aside, the story itself was amazing and had so much going for it that its kind of hard not to just start gushing about the entire thing all over the place. Along with the usual cast of characters, there were quite a few new faces (as well as an unexpected reappearance from the past) that helped shed some light on more of Widdershins’ past, most notably about the founding families. I loved watching Whyborne try and muddle through with everything that was being thrown at him and every time I thought I had a handle of what was going on, the author threw something else in that showed me how very wrong I was. And the ending? I’ll admit I was in no way prepared for how amazing it was; between the final showdown with the big bad of the book and what happens with Whyborne and Griffin on a more personal level, I thought I’d just combust on the spot. It was also made fairly clear that there will be at least two more books after this so I’m full of excitement and anticipation over where the series will be going next!
There’s no way I can gush about this book enough but I can’t actually talk about it too much without giving things away that would potentially spoil it and that would seriously be a crime. All I can say is that if you’ve enjoyed any of the previous books you have to read this one and seriously, what are you doing still looking at this review? Go out and get it, right now!
RATING: 
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