Reviewed by: Sue Eaton
TITLE: To Hunt A Moonborn Beast
SERIES: The Lycanthrope Protection Agency #1
AUTHOR: CJ Ravenna
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 362 Pages
RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2023
BLURB:
This world isn’t kind to werewolves. Especially wolves without a pack.
It’s a lesson that human-werewolf hybrid Max Gallagher learns when he’s abducted by the Moonborn cult. Scared and on the run, Max has learned that the only one he can trust is himself.
Until Agent Gabe Reyes rescues him, and Max finds sanctuary with the wolves of the Lycanthrope Protection Agency. The moment Max catches Gabe’s scent, Max’s wolf knows he’s found his fated mate.
But there’s no room for love in the fight to come. When the cult arrives on the agency’s doorstep, Max and Gabe find themselves in the battle for their lives. The Moonborn will kill to get their hands on Max, and Max fears he may lose Gabe and his found family for good.
Unless Max is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.
REVIEW:
This is the first book of the series, and I really enjoyed the world building, it’s set in modern day, with werewolves co-existing with humans and the bigotry associated with being different. Then there is another layer of bigotry within werewolf society, between “pure blood” and “hybrid”. There is a slow burn romance, very slow, with lots of questioning, angst and thinking you are doing it for their own good, which is total nonsense, and had me shouting at my kindle “Don’t presume ASK, just Talk”
Max is lovely, but we meet him being abused physically and mentally by his evil Stepfather which makes him retreat so far inside his wolf, he is feral. Even when he is rescued the trauma is never far away and understandably, he feels it difficult to trust anyone, or even know how he is feeling, he is scared of his own judgement as that has let him down badly in the past and he is always expecting the other shoe to drop and find himself back in a bad place again.
Gabe appears like a hero, rescuing Max and feeling that connection between them. He is everything you would want strong, gallant, handsome but surprisingly he is also hiding a dark past, a past that cost him everything and continues to torture him, years after the event. He is fixated on getting revenge and nothing is going to stop him, not even his connection to Max.
There are many points in the book when I just wanted to shake the two of them and get them to get out of their own heads, but I think that is the point of the book, trauma that these two people endured does not just go away when you meet the right person, it colours everything about your life and it takes years to come to terms with it. Whilst it was frustrating to read, I really appreciated the care the author took in not diminishing their past experiences.
I also thought that the way that bigotry was explored in the book within werewolf society was interesting and relevant to how we as society today, insist on slicing and dicing everyone into little boxes, and have a small facet of our lives be the focus of hate.
Overarching the slow burn romance between Max and Gabe there is an interesting storyline and plenty of action scenes which I enjoyed. I’m looking forward to seeing where the next book goes.
RATING: 
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