Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: How to Run With the Wolves
SERIES: Howl at the Moon #5
AUTHOR: Eli Easton
PUBLISHER: Pinkerton Road
RELEASE DATE: July 19, 2019
LENGTH: 231 pages
BLURB:
Zeus loves his job on the new Mad Creek Search & Rescue team, and his inner Saint Bernard is finally being used to his full potential. When he sees a mysterious and wild-looking quickened—a dog shifter—at an earthquake site in Alaska, Zeus is compelled to investigate. Zeus falls hard for the primal beauty of Timo and of Alaska itself. Both call to his deep canine soul. But the Quimmiq pack’s laws are as harsh as the Alaskan winters, and Timo is out of his reach.
Timo’s pack of dog shifters left their Inuit village generations ago and have lived wild ever since. Not trusting the “one-skinned,” and with their numbers dwindling, the Quimmiq are on the verge of extinction. Timo is shocked to discover a whole group of “two-skinned” working as a rescue team, and he is particularly fascinated by Zeus, a gentle giant. He senses what Zeus feels for him… but it’s forbidden.
Can Mad Creek save this lost quickened clan? Perhaps—if they can learn how to run with the wolves.
REVIEW:
I needed this book today. I needed the happy this series brings. There’s something about Mad Creek that’s pure magic. I’m madly in love with this town and the quickened. They are such a wonderful mix of human and dog, the best of both. It’s quirky and fun. This series never fails to put a smile on my face and genuinely make me feel happy. And I really needed some happy today. And these St. Bernard and Husky shifters really brought that to me.
I fell for Zeus immediately. The St Bernard shifter, a gentle giant of sorts. His whole presence calmed everyone around him, like if he’d wrapped you up and hugged you like a giant teddy bear. He’s not one for crowds – or hugs really. He is the happiest in nature protecting the forest. When we first meet him he’s joining the Mad Creek Search and Rescue team and with that team he truly found his place where he could use all of his skills to the fullest. It was on one such mission in Alaska he saw a strange man looking at him, the man smelling of the wild and of wolves. From that moment he needed to know more about this mysterious shifter.
Timo is equally fascinated by Zeus, the strange two-skinned walking around in Anchorage. But it’s not only Zach he marvels at, but how he and his pack are thriving. He needs to know their secret in order to help his dying pack. But during his time with Zach he learns so much more than he ever thought possible, shifting his view of the world just a bit at a time.
Most of this book is set in Mad Creek with Timo learning and exploring, trying to find the answers to why this pack was thriving when his was not. I loved exploring Mad Creek with Timo, learning with him. I felt his struggle and fight for his dying pack, I felt the urgency. The book kept building towards Timo going back to Alaska with answers of how to make his pack thrive. So I have to admit to being disappointed when that journey home happened off page between the last chapter and the epilogue. I know that there will be a spin-off and this isn’t the last we’ll see of this pack, but I guess I wanted more of Alaska.
What about the romance between Zeus and Timo? Well, it wasn’t really there for me. It did a 180 turnaround almost like an afterthought at the end of the book. There was no building tension, longing glances, anticipation or connection. At least not much beyond a mutual fascination. Sure we were told that Zeus struggled with his attraction for Timo, but we never really felt it. It’s beyond slow-burn, or rather no burn at all.
But you know what, despite all that I had a wonderful time reading this book. I love Mad Creek. I love all the characters in it. And I think that Easton might just make me believe that there are dog-shifters walking among us and that she knows her fair share. Because how else does she manages to capture the essence of each of the shifters? Making you see the dog in the man and vice versa. The most touching moment in the book was without a doubt that last scene, it was filled with so much hope and such yearning to mend the bonds between man and shifter so long ago. I can’t wait to read the next chapter in the Quimmiq story. The weather might be cold up there in Alaska, but I have a feeling the shifters will keep me warm.
RATING: 
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