REVIEWED BY CINDY AND ANNIKA
TITLE: Once Upon a Wolf
SERIES: Wayward Wolves Series, Book 1
AUTHOR: Rhys Ford
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 112 Pages
RELEASE DATE: February 16th, 2018
BLURB:
Gibson Keller’s days are fairly routine: wake up early, get some work done, drink lots of coffee, and take care of Ellis, his older brother, stuck in wolf form after coming home from the war. It’s a simple life made up of long runs on two legs—or four—and quiet evenings…. Until Ellis chases a handsome man off a cliff and into the frozen waters beside their cabin, changing Gibson’s life forever.
For Zach Thomas, buying an old B&B is a new start. Leaving behind his city life, he longs to find peace and quiet, and hiking the trails behind his property seems safe enough—right up to the moment an enormous black wolf chases him into a lake, nearly drowning him. Discovering werewolves are real astounds him, but not as much as the man who rescues him from the icy water, then walks into Zach’s heart as if he owns it.
Loving a werewolf—loving Gibson with all his secrets—has its challenges, but Zach believes their love is worth fighting for, especially since his heart knows the big bad wolf is really a prince in disguise.
CINDY’S REVIEW:
Rhys Ford is one of a very few authors that are an automatic must read for me. And I am never disappointed.
Zach is a man who’s looking for his place in life. He buys a business and starts trying to settle in but trouble never seems to be far behind him.
Gideon doesn’t really live for himself anymore. Ever since his brother came back from the war broken, Gideon spends all his time taking care of him. It doesn’t leave a lot of room in his life for “foolish” things like romance. But maybe Ellis is paying more attention than Gideon thinks.
All of these men are struggling with their lives and the author does a brilliant job of helping the reader connect with them so that they can become emotionally invested in the story. I mean, how can you not feel for a man who was so damaged by the horrors he saw during his tours of duty that he doesn’t want to be a man anymore?
Gideon comes across as big and strong but it’s Zach who’s the brave one. He’s the one who’s determine to not let this chance for a happier future escape from him even if it’s with someone he was sure didn’t even exist before he met him.
As usual, I fell head first into this story and I had no trouble letting the character’s carry me away from the real world for a few hours. I wanted to hug all of them at some point.
The only complaint I had was that I would have liked maybe a little more disbelief from Zach when he first finds out about Gideon and Ellis. Or maybe it was just that he got over his fear a little too quickly.
However, it was one hell of a journey that Zach and Gideon took us on and I agree with my partner in reviewing that I hope Ellis get’s a story that will give him a happy ending. He’s suffered enough.
CINDY’S RATING: 
ANNIKA’S REVIEW:
Rhys Ford and what appears to be a fluffy shifter story? Count me in, that book has my name on it and it’s screaming to be read. And that cover is just gorgeous!
For the past two years Gideon has dedicated his life to care for his brother Ellis, who after coming home from the war went completely wolf and hadn’t changed back since. Days are the same as the last ones and their lives silently continues on. Until one day when Ellis wants to have some fun and chases a man out from a cliff. You can feel the love Gideon has for his brother, it’s in everything he does and says; even when he’s threatening to make a pelt out of Ellis’s fur. They are family and nothing and no one can come between them.
Zach, barely recovered from a car accident and a proud new owner of a B&B, decides to take a walk one afternoon. What he didn’t plan on was the wolf chasing him through the woods. And he sure did not plan on taking a bath in the lake in the middle of winter… but no plan is fool proof.
Going into this book I was expecting this story to be pure fluff and sweetness. I was expecting brain candy and a guilty pleasure kind of book. I do think that Ford might have aimed for that, but to me it fell short, it felt lacking. I missed the magic she usually is able to create with her words and have created so many times before, but didn’t quite manage this time around.
I wish this book was much longer, a full length novel. There’s just so much more I wanted to know and left to explore. We barely scraped the surface. We get a lot of hints to past events but it’s all very superficial, we never really learn anything. It’s just a mention here and there but not much else. I wanted a bit more depth to the plot and characters. I feel like I’ve just read the book and I still don’t know much about anyone.
For such a short book, a lot of it, too much really, was focused on Ellis. So much so that the main couple were sidelined and kind of forgotten in order to help him recover, we never really got to know them or their relationship. Don’t get me wrong, my heart breaks for Ellis and everything he must have gone through during the war, but this book was supposed to be about Gideon and Zach, or at least that was the impression I got when going into it. Because the book is so focused on all things Ellis, the relationship between Gideon and Zach has this insta-love vibe to it. It was slow-going, but also sudden, because we weren’t really there for it. Just told that it happened, that the feelings were there and growing stronger with each passing minute they spent together. It just felt kind of off.
While reading it felt like you were on the outside and looking in. There was a distance between you and the characters that kept you from connecting to them and their story. I didn’t feel as invested in the book as I usually do with Ford’s stories. If Ford had written the same story but from Ellis POV I think it would’ve flowed better, or at least the distance would’ve made more sense. But on the other hand it would’ve been a completely different story, it wouldn’t be as light, fluffy or angst free, but most likely have the potential to wreck you. I do think that Ellis telling us the story about how Gideon and Zach met and fell in love would have the same impact as it did now. Have the same kind of distance to the couple that we experience now.
Another thing that didn’t quite work for me was Zach’s reaction to the supernatural world. It just didn’t ring true; it was way too easy and barely made a ripple after the first five minutes of discovery. I don’t need pages and pages of drama and angst, but some reservation and hesitation would be good. And honestly a little bit of fear would probably also be in the realm of possible reactions, I mean Zach’s whole world turned upside down (One’d assume) when he found out about the supernatural, but all is fine and dandy a few minutes later. And what’s worse, he suddenly becomes an expert on all things werewolf… so no, that part didn’t work for me.
While this book wasn’t a masterwork or even remotely one of her best stories, I still enjoyed it for the moment. And I am looking forward to the next story in this series. I’m hoping to learn more about everyone we just met and more about some of the past events that were hinted about but never fully explained. I’m hoping that Ellis’s story will be up next, I want him to have his happily ever after.
ANNIKA’S RATING: 
BUY LINKS: