E-Book, 494 Pages
Adult/ Paranormal Fantasy/ LGBT
By: T.J. Klune
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
“I couldn’t find the words to say what I wanted. Sometimes, when your heart gets so full, it takes away your voice and all you can do it hold on for dear life.”
I always wanted to read this series because let’s be real, most of the adult fantasy stories are written by cis white straight men so to have an own voice story by a male LGBT author is not something you see often. In fact, I only know two authors who this applies to.
I was hesitant to go into this one because it is a commitment with 4 books that are not short. But ever since I read The House in the Cerulean Sea by the author, I wanted to read more by him which brought me back to this.
To put it simply, this series is not for everyone. The writing is different from THITCS or UTWD because of the genre itself but also because Klune got better at writing in general with the latter books. This series is occasionally described as gay Twilight with werewolves and it is kind of accurate. I mean the cheesy writing and hot romance are both there and it is funny how Klune makes fun of that series at one point.
“Oh my god, Ox, your life is like those shitty sparkly vampire movies. That I’ve never seen and don’t like at all, shut up.”
Klune is best known for his found family stories which is one of my favorite tropes and it was well done in this story. Ox is an intriguing protagonist and it is cool to see him grow -both literally and figuratively- through this story along with the Bennetts and all of the secondary characters. The writing also reminded me of SJM writing but make it gay with all the territorial shit and sniffing and alpha males. This means that some of the quotes are good in the story but would sound very cheesy and weird out of context!
The plot is interesting and I initially thought that the series exclusively follows Ox as a protagonist but it is not. Each book follows one protagonist from the characters that we know and moves the story from there onward. This means that each book contains a smaller story and antagonist that the characters are facing and I find it a bit weird but fascinating still. The pacing slows down in the middle of the story which was the weakest part for me but the ending is faster and much better which make up for that.
“Because revenge is the lesson taught by animals. Because it’s more difficult to show mercy. I showed him mercy because he’d never shown my family the same.”
Summary: This is not a story for everyone but if you’re fan of found families, LGBT stories and don’t mind some cheese then this is the book for you. The writing is good -Although the repetitive PackPackPack and similar stuff were annoying- the characters are the best part of the book and the plot is enjoyable. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the series hides.
The book prescription 
You got me at LGBT. 👌🏽
LikeLiked by 1 person