Review: How to Howl at the Moon by Eli Easton

Title: How to Howl at the Moon

Author: Eli Easton

Publisher: Pinkerton Road

Pages/Word Count: 196 Pages

At a Glance: How to Howl at the Moon is a book you should read.

Reviewed By: Janet

Blurb: Sheriff Lance Beaufort is not going to let trouble into his town, no sir. Tucked away in the California mountains, Mad Creek has secrets to keep, like the fact that half the town consists of ‘quickened’—dogs who have gained the ability to become human. Descended on both sides from Border Collies, Lance is as alert a guardian as they come.

Tim Weston is looking for a safe haven. After learning that his boss patented all of Tim’s work on vegetable hybrids in his own name, Tim quit his old job. A client offers him use of her cabin in Mad Creek, and Tim sees a chance for a new start. But the shy gardener has a way of fumbling and sounding like a liar around strangers, particularly gorgeous alpha men like Sheriff Beaufort.

Lance’s hackles are definitely raised by the lanky young stranger. He’s concerned about marijuana growers moving into Mad Creek, and he’s not satisfied with the boy’s story. Lance decides a bit of undercover work is called for. When Tim hits a beautiful black collie with his car and adopts the dog, its love at first sight for both Tim and Lance’s inner dog. Pretending to be a pet is about to get Sheriff Beaufort in very hot water.

Review: Once again Eli Easton has nailed it. She has written a humorous story about shifters that is sweet, and has a little bit of a mystery woven into it, but that has a major twist – the shifters are dogs!

Lance is the alpha of the pack in Mad Creek. He is also the Sheriff of the small town where the pack makes its home, and he takes all of his responsibilities very seriously. Tim is human; he has had a hard life and has run away to Mad Creek to try to rebuild his life. He has a home there for 6 months in exchange for trying to grow a hybrid rose no one has ever developed before. He has strong hopes but little money, and needs the haven Mad Creek provides.

I am so grateful that the M/M genre has grown so much in recent years to allow authors like Eli Easton a home here – talented romantic comedy writers are few and far between. And talent is the operative word here. Eli Easton has written a shifter comedy, without farce but with plenty of pratfalls, in such a way that her love of dogs is obvious; she uses her knowledge of the characteristics of different breeds to create the characters in this book. It is done in a way that both pokes fun at the shifter genre, but also allows for a truly fun bunch of characters that we are able to be invested in and enjoy.

Eli Easton is a technically perfect author. Her plot flows well, with no stumbles or holes. The story and the relationships grow with conflicts and resolutions, and the character are well built and fully developed. They are believable, as is the world she builds for them in Mad Creek. This is all absorbed by the reader and because the base is so solid, she is able to direct the focus of the book to the story itself; the “aw” moments and the smiles and outright laughing we do are a result of these skills, and reflect the feelings her words invoke in us.

How to Howl at the Moon is a book you should read. It is a well written, fun book. It will capture your attention and hold it firmly until the last page, although you will probably smile at random memories for a few days after you have read it, because that is another skill that this author has – her words stay with you, and just seeing the cover of the book on my kindle makes me smile still weeks later. This story has cemented Eli Easton as an auto-buy author for me. I loved this book. I could not put it down until I had read it all the way to the end, and I enjoyed every moment. I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next!

You can buy How to Howl at the Moon here: