Title: The Half Wolf
Author: Jay Northcote
Publisher: Self-Published/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 193 Pages
Category: Paranormal, Shifters
At a Glance: Jay Northcote’s first dance with shifters is a good one. He built a world that wasn’t so different from our own.
Reviewed By: Ky
Blurb: Mate, family, pack, home… can Quinn and Kellan have it all?
Quinn grew up feeling out of place in the small town he calls home. Yearning for something he can’t name, he’s always felt different but never known why.
Kellan is part of a nomadic shifter pack. When they set up camp in the woods near Quinn’s town, the humans are unwelcoming and suspicious of the newcomers. The moment Kellan catches sight—and scent—of Quinn, he knows Quinn is special. But for the first time in his life, Kellan can’t trust his instincts. Quinn is human, and Kellan is a wolf shifter, so how can they ever be mates?
Their bond is instant and exhilarating. It breaks Quinn’s heart to know their relationship can only be temporary. Love isn’t enough when pack law forbids shifters to mate with humans. Tension explodes between pack and humans, and when Quinn discovers a shocking truth about himself that changes everything, he fears he’ll have to choose between the only life he’s ever known and the man he loves.
Review: The Half Wolf is a story about self-discovery, about learning your true self, about being who you are. It’s about family and about love. But most of all it’s about accepting the differences that exist between us all.
It’s Jay Northcote’s first dance with shifters, and it was a good one. He built a world that wasn’t so different from our own. There were shifters and there was magic, but other than that, everything was just the same. Because of that it was easy to get in the story. I like it when there is world building in paranormal books, but this worked just fine for me too. In this case we are focused on the main pair, and Quinn discovering things about himself.
In the world that Northcote created, humans know about shifters, but most of them don’t accept them. They are skeptical and often hostile towards them. They are afraid of those who are different and don’t want to have anything to do with them. Of course, there are exceptions to those behaviours. There are those who give shifters jobs and treat them as equals. They accept them and don’t blame them for everything.
I won’t go into the story other than to say it had romance, but it also had action, mystery and one or two fight scenes.
Quinn and Kellan’s relationship progressed rather quickly—just think that the whole book took place in a little over a week—but I can get past that since we are talking about shifters here. They were truly supportive of each other and a great match. Quinn’s self-discovery and the changes he went through were captivating to see. He felt different and he know something was going on, but until the last moment, he couldn’t put his finger on it. My heart broke for his family’s story and for him once he learned of the deception he lived with his whole life.
The secondary characters were well developed and I liked all of them, even those who were hostile towards the shifters in the beginning. In the end they redeemed themselves and changed their minds in a believable way, and only after facing facts. It wasn’t just a change of heart during a discussion. It was a realisation based on events that happened before their eyes. It seemed much more honest and long-term.
You can buy The Half Wolf here:
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