Reviewed by Cindy
TITLE: Oakheart
SERIES: Wolves of the Wildwood #1
AUTHOR: Sam Burns and W.M. Fawkes
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 314 Pages
RELEASE DATE: July 30, 2026
BLURB:
Cash grew up in the Wildwood, so nothing here is new to him. The pack is poor, the people are beaten down, and the alpha? He’s the one who does the beating. Cash has spent his whole life trying to satisfy a pack leader who takes everything and demands more. But this time, the demand is his teenage cousin, and he’s not willing to pay that price.
Aleks was raised to be alpha. Sort of. His father was the alpha of the Wildwood pack, but when he was four, his mother took him and fled back to Russia. The fact that she found her childhood home, with an abusive alpha and a government that hunted and killed werewolves, a better choice than her husband told Aleks all he needed to know about his father. After a raid which left little other than broken buildings and people, his uncle Grant found them and asked them to return to Idaho so Aleks could take up his mantel.
But while the Wildwood is better than Russia, it’s no picnic. Grant is little better than Aleks’s father. But then there’s Cash . . . a man so beautiful, and so sweet, that Aleks is willing to do anything to build a real home for everyone he loves.
Even if it means killing his own uncle.
Oakheart is the first book in a new series set in the same world as Witchwolf. It features the saddest carpenter wolf and a brash young alpha who wants the make the world perfect for him, but who’s never seen perfection, so he’s not sure how to get there. Also featured are the best dad ever, a cousin who can run like the wind, and Katya, who will need no introduction by the time you’re done. This book contains an HFN for Aleks and Cash, and an ongoing storyline that will eventually lead to the whole Wildwood pack’s HEAs.
REVIEW:
I was so excited to see this book come out. It gives the reader the back story of the wolves we met in the Witchwolf books and it couldn’t have turned out better.
Cash is a man who is just trying to do his best to make life better for the ones he cares about, his father and younger cousin. Life is hard with Grant as his Alpha but it was worse before…or that’s what Cash keeps telling himself.
Aleks is telling himself the same thing, for different reasons. Wildwood is hard to deal with but Russia was so much worse and more terrifying.
Both men are stuck, just trying to get by until “something better” comes along. But what they both had to learn is that sometimes, you have find that “something better” yourself, even if it’s scary.
I will admit that I am almost a in love with Aleks’ brothers Leo and Victor as I am with the young alpha himself. The instant chemistry between Cash and Aleks works so well, especially as it takes quite some time for the relationship to grow.
Sam Burns and W. M. Fawkes create characters who are easy to love and empathize with and these wolf shifters are no exception. The pain they go through as they find their way together is hard to read sometimes but well worth it in the end. They also excel at love scenes that are hot and sexy and somehow sweet at the same time. There’s always just enough to keep the spark going, but I enjoy that storytelling takes center stage.
Of course, there’s more to come for these characters and I for one cannot wait to see what happens.
RATING: 
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