Reviewed by Jess

TITLE: Kennel Club

SERIES: Underdogs #7

AUTHOR: Geonn Cannon

PUBLISHER: Supposed Crimes

LENGTH: 251 pages

RELEASE DATE:  July 1, 2018

BLURB:

The wolf has been caged.

Ariadne Willow has been framed for murder. Upon her arrival at the police station, she’s given a choice: accept GG&M’s offer in exchange for her freedom, or risk going up against GG&M in court. Ari refuses and is sent to prison to await trial. Dale teams up with Ari’s mom and, along with Milo Duncan’s British pack, begins looking for ways to either prove Ari’s innocence or take down Cecily Parrish once and for all.

Time is not on their side. In addition to the usual dangers of prison, Ari only has four weeks before the wolf forces her to transform, exposing her as a canidae.

With the clock ticking on her secret and a seemingly all-powerful enemy who holds all the cards, the odds against Ari and Dale have never been higher. This time, if they can’t find a way to turn the tables, the underdogs might be out of the game for good.

REVIEW:

Geonn Cannon never fails to impress. I’ve read many of his books, and this one is definitely high on my list of favorites. It’s the juicy, action-packed, character-driven, tightly-written paranormal lesbian crime drama I’ve been so desperately craving after a long line of generally fluffy romances.

After six books set in the “Underdogs” series, it’s time for a new twist on the classic werewolf dilemma—what happens when you try to cage an animal that is meant to be free? There’s been a lot of great sci-fi/fantasy plots involving canidae and hunters in the series, and there have been a lot of crime drama plots that kept me on my toes, but this is the first book that intersects the two worlds perfectly. When Ariadne is falsely accused and sent to prison, she has to deal with the isolation and heartbreak of being away from her mother, Gwen, and her soul-mate, Dale—but she also has to deal with the fact that it’s pretty hard to hide a full-wolf transformation when you live on top of a hundred other women. We definitely didn’t see that in the last season of Orange Is the New Black.

We’re thrust into the action right away and it never stops for a second. This book gives both Ari and Dale a real chance to shine as strong POV characters. Dale is usually the “woman behind the curtain”—though she’s good at research and detail, field work isn’t her area of expertise. But with Ari behind bars, she has to step it up and take charge, and seeing her in full bad-ass mode is absolutely amazing (and often hilarious). Ari is also great, but I think her strong personality takes a bit of a backseat as she uses her wits instead of her mouth to get around in prison.

I wasn’t expecting to like the side romance between Gwen and her much-younger lover, Milo, as much as I did. Their chemistry has been building, but in this story, they get the perfect romantic arc they deserve. Cannon is so good at writing full casts of diverse, kick-ass women who are strong in their own ways, and Gwen’s quiet power mixes perfectly with Milo’s brash confidence. Other awesome female characters, like Ari’s prison cellmate Segura and instant rival Kunz, leap off the page and come into themselves so quickly that it feels like we’ve been reading about them forever. And the familial bond that continues to blossom between Gwen and Dale got me misty-eyed quite a few times.

This book can certainly be read outside of the series timeline. Cannon does a great job bringing back much-loved characters while still writing a great standalone mystery. If you’re a fan of the series already, you’ll love the progression of certain relationships and the downfall of a few familiar villains, but if you’re new to “Underdogs,” many of the important plots of previous books are nicely recapped to prevent confusion. This is a hard balance to strike, but it felt absolutely perfect. Highly recommended in every way.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

Supposed Crimes

Amazon