Crying Wolf is a werewolf shifter romance by Rochelle Paige, the first in the Black River Pack Trilogy. Grace Shaw has been forced to run from everyone she has left in the world because a dangerous ex-boyfriend has friends in high places. In running, she finds a place to work in Wolf Point, owned by Hunter Tate. Grace tries to keep her distance from Hunter, and Hunter tries to give her time, but fate is stronger than will, and unfortunately, trouble never stays where you left it, especially if trouble is crazy.
The way Grace planned her escape from her ex-boyfriend was genius, but it never really solved her problem. Sam, the ex-boyfriend, is crazy, and trying to run from crazy is next to impossible when crazy has the connections he has. Admittedly, he could not use most of them because of Grace’s plan, but he still found her somehow. But his role in the novella was more of a catalyst for what was always meant to be.
I am a big sucker for fated mates and prophecies, so I am not surprised that I liked the way both main characters fell for each other. Especially the differences in it. For Hunter, it was almost instantaneous; he loved her long before he ever met her, and for Grace, it was a little slower. She liked Hunter, but she had been hurt a lot and was still reeling from it, so she was fighting her feelings in fear she could be wrong again. Hunter, who is the typical alpha werewolf, practically owns the town, and he helps everyone in his pack that he can. I like to describe his behaviour with Grace as sweet restraint; he tries to give her time because Grace is almost a rabbit getting ready to run at the change of the wind, but he is trying so hard to fight his instinct to claim her, and she is trying to fight her feelings towards him. It is a sweet give-and-take and then it intensifies very quickly.
I have a love-hate relationship with novellas; I feel like they last too long on areas of non-interest and then speed through the good bits. I do not mind fast-paced books, but I hate the feeling I get from what I think could be a great slow-burn book, but it suddenly jumps to an inferno, and then it is wrapped up all pretty at the end for a novella. Not to say this book was high on the spice rating, but it had some heat.
I had a few dislikes with this novella that lowered my star rating. One is that there are a few areas in which Hunter speaks in German. I get the idea behind it, but there were few translations given. I then had to translate it myself, and that just pulled me out of the book, which seems to be my common problem with Crying Wolf. The nickname Hunter gives Grace just did not work for me; I was actively replacing it with her name because ‘Gracie-mine’ felt both childish and hard to swallow during the spice. It was like I was being dragged out of the scene, brought back in by the next sentence, and then pulled out again by an action. It was irksome. Finally, I am a big fan of the lovey-dovey stuff, but I was having a hard time with the abundance of lines about being ‘whole’. The sentiment is sweet, but to me, Grace did not seem ‘broken’; she is strong; she would not have been able to do what she did if she were not; I just thought of her as being a little lost.
I am rating Crying Wolf by Rochelle Paige Three out of Five Stars. I did enjoy it and have already purchased the next because I need to know more about the brothers and the prophecies foretold, but I doubt I will be reading it again. I was pulled out of the books on multiple occasions, which became a little irksome, all of which have been mentioned above.
Crying Wolf is a sweet little novella with some spice. Full of prophecies, fated mates, werewolf shifters, an alpha trying his hardest to restrain himself, a human trying to survive being hunted by an ex-boyfriend, and a HEA with a cute little epilogue. I look forward to seeing how Spencer Tate plans on making up for his mistake in the next installment, Shoot for the Moon.
Favourite Quotes
“What I didn’t realize was that falling head over heels for Hunter would more than make up for all the bad that had come before him, because he wouldn’t have it any other way.”
page 9
““Grace,” he growled in that rumbly voice of his that sent shivers up my spine. “Don’t start something you don’t intend to finish.””
page 22
““After all, I’ve trusted my brother with something far more precious than my life these last few weeks.” “And what’s that?” I asked. “Yours,” he replied.”
page 28
““From the moment we met, I knew you were meant to be mine. Nothing in the future, the present, and sure as hell not the past will ever make me love you any less than I do right now.””
page 58
““From day one, I’ve been yours, and if I never had the chance to mate you, I still would be yours until my dying breath,” he revealed.”
page 84
Finer Details
Title: Crying Wolf
Author: Rochelle Paige
Pages: 165
Publisher: Rochelle Paige Popovic
Publication: 2015
Language: English
Rating: 3/5