Book Review: "Fear the Wolf" by Stefanie Gilmour

 

Since she shifted into a werewolf, Alex was terrified. Of the man who attacked her—then of herself.

If her inner wolf breaks free again, people could die, and she’ll be the one hunted.

Alex struggles to keep her savage passenger caged, but life doesn’t make it easy. The Committee ruling the supernatural community would punish her for the slightest misstep. A group of zealots are targeting supernatural beings of all kinds. Worst of all—some people are just jerks.

For help, she relies on her best friend Emma, a wizard and the only person she trusts with her secret. But Emma has her own secret: Mitch. He’s twisting her into someone unrecognizable… and he may be inflicting the same treatment on other vulnerable supernatural citizens.

To save Emma, Alex must make alliances with wizards and werewolves alike, face the Committee, unravel deadly conspiracies, and confront her own worst fear—herself. - from Booksirens.com

This eARC was provided through Booksirens.com and I am giving an unbiased review.

This is the first book of a shifter series by this new author. The plot description sounded interesting enough, I decided to request it for review. I was not completely disappointed. 

The story follows Alex, aged in her 20's, as she tries to keep the wolf in her contained, afraid it comes out, she will hurt people. While doing this, trying to keep a job, and hiding under the radar of the supernatural Committee, who govern the Supes. Unintentionally, she drags herself into a larger mess, that it seems only she can help clean up.

Overall the story wasn't bad. I enjoyed learning about the characters that revolve around the MC. There isn't a lot of background story to our MC, but it comes out in bits and pieces as the story progresses. There isn't much about the backgrounds of the supporting cast. Worldbuilding was fine, as scenes were easily pictured, and seemed consistent with the timeline and urban-ness of the story setting.

Our MC has several conflicts that almost follow each other with no break in between, and it makes the story drag a bit. I could understand how overall, they all lead to the same conclusion, but I felt like the author was trying to shove too many conflicts into the story. I don't recall specifically which ones could have possibly been omitted, as if I remember correctly, they all introduced something/someone/some group/some-something that the author wanted to be sure the reader knew. It just felt like "c'mon, really? That much conflict?" and my attention would wane a bit.

Aside from the couple small issues I noted, I did enjoy the story, and would be interested in reading future books in this series - I'm always curious where the author(s) go next. 

Book Review: "The Moonshine Messiah" by Russell W Johnson

 

As if being a woman sheriff in the West Virginia coal fields wasn’t tough enough, Mary Beth Cain’s life is complicated by the fact that the local hillbilly crime syndicate is run by her mother, Mamie. It’s an association that, along with Mary Beth’s head-busting ways, has her staring down a corruption investigation when she gets a surprise visit from Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Connelly.

Twenty years earlier, Patrick was Mary Beth’s high school sweetheart, but they broke up because Mary Beth couldn’t cut the loose ties she maintains with her villainous family. Now Patrick’s worked out a deal to wipe Mary Beth’s slate clean if she’ll just do one thing: arrest her brother, Sawyer, who is the cult leader of a booming anti-government militia that’s been giving the Feds headaches.

It’s an offer Mary Beth refuses until Sawyer’s followers blow up a federal courthouse and G-men start swarming into town, preparing for a siege of the commando’s compound. Suddenly Mary Beth is tasked with trying to head off a bloody, Waco-style massacre and the question isn’t whether she should arrest her brother, but if she can do it in time. - from Netgalley.com

I received this eARC from Netgalley.com and am providing an unbiased review.

This story was a bit of a hidden gem that I found (my thought anyways) in the Netgalley gallery. After reading it, I had to look up the author and see if there were any other works he has completed. Unfortunately, the sources I used showed only this one story, and what a story it was! The writing style reminds me of Craig Johnson (Walt Longmire series) telling a tale about a sheriff in the backwoods of West Virginia. Not a big thing, unless you throw in family ties to a 'mountain mafia', and a few rumors of the sheriff using those connections.

Either way, the story is very well told, and I felt like I was 'in the action' as I read it. I also found it quite hard to put down the one night I had to do so. Character backgrounds were good, and the world building was on-spot for what I imagine those small towns and area would be for WV. There were a couple misdirects in the story that caught me, and making the ending come out better than what I thought would happen. Definitely would read more from this author, and almost would like this to become a series if there is somewhere for the stories to go.