Reviewed by Cheryl
TITLE: The Night Wolf
SERIES: The Wolves of Lydon #1
AUTHOR: Parker Williams
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 206 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 26 2020
BLURB:
The night wolf is a legend told to scare children into obeying their parents. It is said that to control a night wolf is to harness limitless power….
Gareth Blackthorn has been Alpha of the prosperous Lydon pack for nearly two decades. Breaking with tradition, Gareth doesn’t take over other packs by challenge. Instead, he lets wolves come to him and petition for admittance. He’s had his pick of the best, the brightest, and the most talented.
Until now.
A power-hungry Alpha desires Omega Sean Adler’s talent… and his submission, whether given freely or not. He’s been on the run since he was fifteen, surviving any way he could, until one night, he knows he’ll finally succumb to the injuries from his latest attack—and he’s ready to go. That’s when Gareth finds him, and Gareth’s wolf insists on claiming Sean as his mate. But there’s something mysterious about Sean, something tied to the mark on his shoulder….
Now Gareth must decide. Will he keep Sean despite the dangers that will arise, or will he throw the young man back to the wolves?
REVIEW:
In some ways, nothing is new with this book, in others everything is new. There are various familiar tropes – Alpha/Omega, big bad Alpha wanting his abused boy back, war between tribes etc – along with some devices that I have read in other books and felt to be trite (not talking about because of spoilers)
HOWEVER I love the way this author writes them all and gives them all a fresh twist. There is nothing predictable about this story. Surprises, big and small, come one after another but it never feels like a device, always driving the story forward. There was almost too much story to fit in the pages, but unlike some others, it doesn’t feel rushed. The story is tightly woven and nothing feels like filler. Even when the characters are not doing much, they’re still moving the story along.
The book tells us a lot about the nature of shifters (as they are in the book) the make-up of their society, their history and the background and current make-up of the town. There are many characters, large and small with different jobs and places in the town/pack. There could very easily have been info dumps all over the place, but nothing interferes with the flow of the story.
The characters, main and background, are all well rounded and undergo growth. The story is well paced and the writing is excellent.
I can’t honestly say this is completely different to any other shifter book you’ve ever read, but I think that’s part of the charm. We are familiar with shifter books, so we can appreciate the little, but significant, ways in which this one is different.
I particularly like the way the mpreg was handled, although as mother to two children I was jealous.
I very much enjoyed reading about Sean and Gareth and all their friends and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
RATING: 
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