Title: Cry Wolf
Series: Big Bad Wolf: Book Five
Author: Charlie Adhara
Publisher: Carina Press
Length: 269 Pages
Category: Paranormal, Romantic Suspense
Rating: 5 Stars
At a Glance: It’s the little things that comprise the whole that make a book great, and once again in Cry Wolf they are skillfully pieced together. The relationships, the backstories, the AMAZING supporting characters, the villains, a bit of mystical wolf lore…all woven together into this fabulous novel.
Reviewed By: Jules
Blurb: Agent Cooper Dayton never thought anything could be harder than solving murders. Until he had to plan a wedding.
After taking down an old adversary, Agent Cooper Dayton of the Bureau of Special Investigations has earned a break. Not that planning a wedding to his sexy shifter partner, Oliver Park, is necessarily stress free, but it’s better than worrying about the ominous warning, delivered months ago, that Cooper’s life is in danger.
When he’s dragged to an event by his family, Cooper braces for an awkward evening, but instead finds himself in the middle of an ugly feud between Park’s ex and a rebel pack leader. What was supposed to be a quick outing turns into a full-blown murder investigation after the pack leader ends up dead, Park’s ex goes missing, and Cooper and Park are sent a series of disturbing wedding gifts that are somehow connected to it all.
The list of potential suspects is long, and with the bodies piling up, Cooper must turn to the one person he trusts the least: the villain he’s already put behind bars once and who has nothing to lose by lying and everything to gain if Cooper is out of the picture—for good.
Review: It’s been just shy of a year since the last book in the Big Bad Wolf series was released. A year unlike any other, it goes without saying. So, to simply tell you that I was excited for this book would be a huge understatement. It would be the absolute truth, however, to say that Cry Wolf was the book that got me out of my reading slump and brought back the joy in my ability to get lost in the beauty of words. That’s not hyperbole. I needed this book. And Charlie Adhara delivered. I love these characters, I love her writing, and it’s such a comfort to know that when I open one of her books, I’m going to be transported.
Ok—now that the gushing is out of the way…the brass tacks…
Once again, Adhara brilliantly and perfectly mixes the romance and the suspense, seamlessly moving from the grisly discovery of a dead body, complete with terrifying wolf fight, to possibly the hottest scene in the entire series. Let me just say that Park in a blindfold is pure fire. I don’t typically spend much time discussing sex scenes in my reviews because, to be honest, they are rarely my focus in a book, but it must be said that Adhara can write the hell out of one. She constantly wins me over with moments like this bit of swoony perfection, right in the middle of a scorching hot scene:
Cooper had the sudden sensation of being on the edge of another exhilarating fall. You’ll have this forever, he thought suddenly. This moment. This memory. No matter what happened in the future, no one could take away the fact that imperfect Cooper Dayton had found his own perfect love. He’d never felt more stupidly lucky in his whole life.
I also have to say that although I adoooore Park, I am still pretty solidly on Team Cooper. I love this man. I love his dry wit, his love for Park, and his desire to make things better for all wolves, which is showcased to a greater extent in this book. We also learn that Cooper is now in therapy, both dealing with the PTSD from his attack, and trying to become a better person, a person he feels is worthy of Park. But, despite having grown immeasurably closer in the past eighteen months, and feeling very secure in their love, most of the time Cooper still can’t imagine what in the world Oliver sees in him. I absolutely looooved this passage:
It had been Cooper’s joy and privilege to see Park open to him slowly, softly. To catch more and more frequent glimpses of the sweet, vulnerable man behind the blank mask, and call him his.
In turn, Cooper was trying too. God, was he trying. With the therapy and the communicating and the thinking before he spoke and the apologizing after he did…But that didn’t change the fact that one of them was shedding walls to reveal literal, fluffy goodness and the other was shedding walls to reveal…well, the person Cooper had always been, he supposed.
For his part, in between buying ostentatious knick-knacks for the house, and overseeing his and Cooper’s purchase of the Maudit Falls mountain retreat so it could remain a sanctuary for rebel pack runaways, Park spends much of the book trying to get some alone time with Cooper. But it seems like every time they try to go on a date, they stumble across a dead body (much to the annoyance of their boss, since they aren’t even supposed to be working the case). As is typical for these two, murder and mayhem do tend to follow and encapsulate them wherever they go, forcing them into crazy scenarios—often with unexpected blasts from their pasts—and wildly dangerous situations.
While I obviously loved the book overall, if there was a weak link, per se, for me it was the mystery this time. It simply didn’t feel as tight and well put together as in previous installments. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was predictable—Adhara did surprise me a couple of times—but I felt like it meandered off course here and there, and I had to work to find the thread again. Once it did come together, though, it built up to a climax, complete with a couple of those twists I mentioned, that definitely got my heart going a bit!
It’s the little things that comprise the whole that make a book great, and once again in Cry Wolf they are skillfully pieced together. The relationships, the backstories, the AMAZING supporting characters, the villains, a bit of mystical wolf lore…all woven together into this fabulous novel. When all is said and done, it’s the solid storytelling, the ease with which Adhara captivates her readers, and the absolute gift that is the pairing of Cooper Dayton and Oliver Park, that all continue to make this a must-read series.
You can buy Cry Wolf here:
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