Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: Red
SERIES: Once Upon a Future #1
AUTHOR: Pelaam
PUBLISHER: MLR Press
LENGTH: 14, 000 words
RELEASE DATE: September 9, 2019
BLURB:
Red is a re-telling of a classic fairy tale, and the first in the Once Upon a Future series.
Ceron, known as “Red”, comes from the village neighbouring a Wolven pack. Storm, son of the Wolven Alpha, befriends Ceron who finds that friendship soon becomes something much deeper.
For generations, Ceron’s people and the Wolven have lived in peace, but now, the Wolven are accused of attacking villagers.
Ceron and Storm know they’ll face prejudice as their relationship deepens. But more dangerous and deadly is an unknown enemy.
REVIEW:
Be forewarned: there is an attempted rape and murder of innocents in this. If it is a trigger, be careful.
This was a twist on Little Red Riding Hood and I loved how it turned out. In this book, the wolf isn’t the bad guy. He and his pack are the good guys amnd there is an asshole in the village who is trying to take over everything sneakily and trying to rape Ceron or as the dickhead calls him…Red.
Ceron is trying to do the best he can. His parents died of a sickness leaving him to care for himself and his grandmother. If it weren’t for his grandmother, he wouldn’t have made it either, because the doctor refused to treat them anymore with no payment. But now, Ceron has a job working for the miller and his wife really tries to take care of Ceron with extra food and stuff as much as she can. The village isn’t a wealthy one and they make trade and bargains with the Wolven in order to survive. The Wolven hunt for them as well and use the furs and such to make clothing and jewelry to barter with. But someone is trying to give the Wolven a bad name and run them off. And Torrin, the asshole, is determined to take Ceron for himself. Thankfully, Storm, the Alpha’s son, has saved him and walks with him daily now to take care of him. The more the get to know each other, and after a passionate kiss, Storm knows Ceron is his mate. But he’s scared his father will not accept a human for his mate. When they meet his father, all is well, but trouble is brewing elsewhere. Ceron is taken at his grandmother’s by Torrin and his goons, while his grandmother was locked up. Storm gets to Torrin in time to stop him, but his goons get to Storm and are about to hang him. He howls for help, but it doesn’t look like anyone will get to him to save him in time. Or will they?
I love it when fairy tales are twisted to another perspective. It’s nice to see the wolf as the good guy this time and not as a bad guy. Humans can be so evil, so it was good to see that the wolf not have a bad name in this as they are inherently good. Just survivors. Ceron was just a sweet young man. So innocent but a hard worker and just wanting to take care of his grandmother. He never in his life thought he’d find someone he was attracted to as much as he was Storm. With as little as he had in life, he honestly never thought he’d have someone to love. He had nothing to offer. And no one knew he had a thing for men. But Storm ticked all his boxes and when it came time to seal the deal, he was all in. He was nervous and scared of course, but he knew he loved Storm with all he was, so that made it worth it.
It’s such a good little story. I enjoyed it so much. I’m ready to see if another fairy tale twist is next. I like them.
RATING: 
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