Title: A New Beginning
Series: Cascade City Pack: Book One
Author: Rebecca James
Publisher: JMS Books
Length: 310 Pages
Category: Not a winning read for me. If you are into werewolf stories, which I am, I would start with the River Wolf Pack series of books before reading this installment in the new series. Had I experienced the backstories of all these characters, I think I’d be giving a very different review.
Reviewed By: Taz
Blurb: When tragedy strikes his small band of werewolves who’d been roaming the countryside in search of a new home after River had been ousted as pack alpha of his old pack, River reluctantly concludes life in Cascade city might be safer.
However, tensions within the pack soon escalate when they’re forced to all live in the apartment rented by Jax, the human lover of David, the pack’s second in command. Knowing he needs money to buy better and bigger accommodation for his pack, River disappears for a few days and returns with a bag of gold chips he’s sniffed out from the Cascade River near his old pack grounds.
Coyote shifter Foster’s true mate has made his presence known, but when the coyote alpha finally shows himself, Foster is faced with a difficult decision. Stay with the werewolves and risk his mate’s unhappiness, or leave those he’s come to love as family?
Meanwhile, David continues to want to submit to Jax while being alpha to his beta mate, Brooks. Tension in the threesome grows as Jax’s reluctance to take the bite turns into flat-out refusal. Can their relationship survive this as well as Brooks pregnancy and David’s hyper-protectiveness of his werewolf mate?
When Josiah suggests the pack admit rogue werewolves, River’s desire to please his omega mate wars with his responsibilities to his pack as he questions past decisions and Josiah’s influence on them. Will history repeat itself, leading to the downfall of the newly-formed Cascade City Pack?
Review: A New Beginning by Rebecca James follows an established cast of characters from her River Wolf Pack series. Anyone who enjoyed those stories will be able to pick up from there and enjoy the way the journey continues.
I have not read the River Wolf Pack books, however, and I found these storylines a bit difficult to follow. The story is written from several different characters’ points of view, changing with each chapter. Several storylines take place at the same time and each is rich with history…history which would have made reading this book as a standalone much easier.
If I were to describe this author’s style, I’d say her stories resemble a soap opera where several snippets of scenes take place, are left off, and then returned to in a cyclical fashion. While the different lines intersect, there are several which must be tracked as a reader. Not knowing the history of these characters, it took me a good deal of time to grasp what was happening and who everyone was in relation to everyone else.
But that wasn’t really what struck me as the greatest challenge in reading this book. As I moved through the initial chapters I thought, this author has chosen to structure their book in such a way that it will take time for the plot to emerge. Unfortunately, this emergence never really occurred. There were one or two moments of excitement towards the end, where I thought, oh, this could be pretty cool, but they wrap up very quickly.
By the time I got to the epilogue, I could recognize how the author was setting up several storylines for the next installment. There was one particular nugget of a plot insinuation that seems quite interesting, but if the style follows the format of this particular book, I fear I will read another story that ultimately watches characters interact but lacks any significant conflict.
Not a winning read for me. If you are into werewolf stories, which I am, I would start with the River Wolf Pack series of books before reading this installment in the new series. Had I experienced the backstories of all these characters, I think I’d be giving a very different review.
You can buy A New Beginning here:
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