Wolf by Rebecca Zanetti

When Mia Stone is asked to consult on a case in the middle of nowhere, she leaps at the chance to escape the disaster that has become her FBI career, while ignoring the threat still pursuing her. Her instincts tell her that the small mining town of Lost Lake is out of the norm, and that’s before she meets the strongest suspect, a sexy and dangerous Seth Volk who draws her in a way she can’t fight.

Seth Volk has enough on his plate without worrying about a sweet and brilliant investigator on his tail. At his heart, he’s a predator, which comes in handy as the enforcer for his family and also his pack. His secret is barely beneath the surface, and if he allows Mia too close, she’ll see the wolf he tries to hide. When an unknown threat comes out of the forest, their only path to survive is with each other, no matter how sharp his bite or how deadly her wit.

I came out of Rebecca Zanetti’s ‘Wolf’ with mixed feelings, particularly after its brilliant, brutal start. The paranormal takes a back seat until the packs are unwittingly revealed as Mia Stone dives deeper into her journey of investigating violent murders. But unlike Zanetti’s previous series, the Stope Packs one–judging from the first book–is one that’s unapologetically tinged with violence, claustrophobic environments and dodgy people who are unwilling to talk to outsiders minus the odd inserts of humour or ill-timed jokes.

That there were 2 sets of laws wolf-shifters and humans abided by had been sort of made clear from the start, but I really needed to read (and even welcomed) Mia’s insistence that Seth Volk respected her career, her standing and her identity apart from the rather misogynistic ways of the small town of shifters. But while that was good to see Mia trying to stand up for herself, it was equally frustrating to see that stalemate when Seth simply chose to use the ‘this is our way’ line of reasoning to railroad these principles that he just couldn’t or wanted to stand by.

What I honestly found revolting (speaking as a contemporary romance consumer who hardly has visceral reactions to the romance-syfy-fantasty genre) was the rather uncivilised mode of justice, barbaric alpha-female dynamics and the awful dog-sniffing patriarchal hierarchy that have been incorporated into Zanetti’s shifter culture. Maybe it’s not my cup of tea personally, but I think I’d like to see a little more respect given to women in a way that doesn’t feel like grudging concessions.

The mystery and the twists and turns were good nonetheless, but ‘Wolf’ didn’t have an ending in a way I thought I could be satisfied with. It’s a hurried HFN; there’s a sequel on the horizon presumably looking to explore Seth’s new role of the Alpha and the new mated relationship he’s got going with Mia. I wish I could be more enthused given I do like some shifters in my reading arsenal, but that I’m just that tad bit too put out at the moment to consider going on.

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