Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Ravensong

SERIES: Green Creek #2

AUTHOR: TJ Klune

PUBLISHER: BOATK Books

RELEASE DATE: July 31, 2018

LENGTH: 400 pages

BLURB:

Gordo Livingstone never forgot the lessons carved into his skin. Hardened by the betrayal of a pack who left him behind, he sought solace in the garage in his tiny mountain town, vowing never again to involve himself in the affairs of wolves.

It should have been enough.

And it was, until the wolves came back, and with them, Mark Bennett. In the end, they faced the beast together as a pack… and won.

Now, a year later, Gordo has found himself once again the witch of the Bennett pack. Green Creek has settled after the death of Richard Collins, and Gordo constantly struggles to ignore Mark and the song that howls between them.

But time is running out. Something is coming. And this time, it’s crawling from within.

Some bonds, no matter how strong, were made to be broken.

REVIEW:

Wow… I’m kind of speechless right now. What an incredible book! I could add so many adjectives of how wonderful this book was, but I’ll try to tell you why. Then you need to read it, like right after finishing reading this review.

Ravensong is told solely from Gordo Livingstone’s POV and while it might be possible to read it as a standalone I don’t think that’s the way to go. It builds heavily on the events that transpired in the previous book. Not only that, not reading Wolfsong would be a huge mistake as you’d miss out on a great book. Anyway, in Wolfsong Gordo was always on the outside, the one with vast knowledge and very powerful, but we didn’t really know him or his story. We knew he hurt, we knew he had a mate but also that there was a lot of pain there. We just never knew why.

In this book we really get to know Gordo. His past, how he became the Bennett which and everything that happened before and shaped him into the hardened man he is today. With every word you are reading you can feel how his backstory slowly leads up to some major heartbreak. The deceptions, the secrets and you know that one day those will come back and claim their victims and leave a lot of sorrow in its wake. We get to know Mark and Gordo growing up, falling for each other, leaving each other. We feel the love and loss, the longing. We can smell the dirt, leaves and rain.
Some bonds, no matter how strong, were made to be broken. And boy is Gordo’s past lined with broken bonds. I ached for him, hurt for him and at times raged with him for the unfairness of it all. And after all was said and done, there’s no wonder why he had walls as thick as the Chinese Wall is long. Why he had such a hard time trusting people and letting them in.

Ravensong is divided into two parts; the first one is the three years when Joe, Gordo, Carter and Kelly are on the road, hunting for the man that killed their alpha. The second part takes place about a year after they returned home again. Interwoven in it all are glimpses of the past, Gordo growing up. But after returning home he finds himself once again being part of a pack, a pack with two alphas no less. Then shit got real. You kind of expected things to happen but you never really saw where things were headed. Things got a lot bigger than the pack, darker and more ominous. And then things got really big, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, I just had to know what happened next. And all I can say in the end is; wow.

I loved Gordo and Mark’s story. It was beautiful. Not overly (or really) romantic to be honest, the timing was never really there for that. But you felt the bond between them. It was strong and unfailing. Until it wasn’t. There are soo many feelings brewing between Gordo and Mark throughout this book, hurt, sadness, longing, sexual tension and buried deep inside it all is a deep unshakable love that might just save them both – if they believe and want it enough.

TJ Klune is a master with words. At first glance his writing might seem a bit simplistic and repetitive, but it’s anything but. The depth, the emotions he manages to evoke in his readers is awe inspiring. It does take me a few pages to get into and used to his writing, but in the end it gets me every time. Hits me right in the feels. He manages to make me laugh in the middle of heartbreak and he truly makes you a part of the story he’s crafted. I can honestly say that while reading this book I truly felt like I was living in Green Creek with these amazing characters.

From the teasers Klune’s been giving about this book, I was fully expecting to be a crying, sobbing mess, curled in the fetal position while reading this book. I expected this book to be so full of angst and pain that I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. That never happened for me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of angst and hurt and a tear or two might have been shed, but it wasn’t gutted by it. And I have to say I’m kind of thankful for that. This book hit just the right notes for me.

Ravensong was an amazing follow up to Wolfsong and I just hope the wait for the next book isn’t too long, because that ending… well things are far from over for this pack, and there are more fights looming in the horizon.

So highly recommended I don’t even have words for it.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon