Lupa Garneau

A “legendary shifter race” is something that promises mystery, and two men clearly struggling with their destinies will always catch my attention. The story that unfolds in this novel was definitely fascinating, out of the ordinary, and had enough mythology to make for a very interesting shifter world. While the relationship that develops between Cole and Nexhan has enough ups and downs to make me dizzy, their motivations and backgrounds only emerge slowly, and I really liked this gradual growth of clarity about what was going on. When the reveal is done well, as is the case here, it only contributes to my feeling of being immersed in a different world, one full of old legends and potentially fascinating new discoveries.

Cole has been on the run for a while. He is mostly running from himself and the truth that he is gay – something he doesn’t think will be acceptable to his family or clan of cougar shifters. But Cole has other issues. He is clumsy, has no real skills, can’t even hunt properly, and feels like an outcast. He is filled with pain, and when he meets Nexhan, the recently returned leader of the Rune Fang, some of that goes away. Not for long though – their relationship is fraught with misunderstandings and issues. And when Cole begins to discover the truth of who and what he really is, Nexhan’s issues make things more difficult rather than mitigating the effects of Cole’s revelations. What a mess!

Nexhan is stubborn, focused on the past, and in more pain than he will admit even a hundred years after losing the man he thought of as his one true mate. He may have returned to his clan, but his head and heart are not really with them yet. Meeting Cole changes that, but the need to deny what he feels makes Nexhan behave like an idiot. But he is also curious enough to go after the truth, and once he discovers it, he realizes what he has been missing all along. Groveling is not one of his skills, but luckily he is a fast learner.

If you like shifter worlds with rich backgrounds built on old Sumerian legends, if two men who suffer from loneliness and discover they could be each other’s salvation sound interesting, and if you’re looking for a read that is intense, emotional, and contains lots of very hot man-on-man action, then you will probably like this novel. I definitely look forward to book two!


NOTE: This book was provided by Pride Publishing for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
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