Do you have one of those books that you can pick up, open it to any page, and start reading, knowing exactly what is going on? And you find this comforting, familiar, the book equivalent of an old friend.
THE SILVER WOLF by Alice Borchardt is such a book for me. It’s one of those books that I have in hardback and on my Kindle so I can read it whenever.
I originally picked it up at a local bookstore that doesn’t exist anymore. I was lured in because of a small sign recommending it to fans of Anne Rice. (At that time in my life AR was an automatic purchase.) It turns out that the author was Rice’s sister. I’m so glad I took a chance on it. I haven’t read Rice in years, but this one continues to be a favorite.
The Silver Wolf tells the story of Regeane. She is the daughter of Gisela, a daughter of the Frankish Royal House, and Wolfstan, a chieftain of a British tribe. Regeane inherited her father’s shifter gifts, much to her mother’s dismay.
The story takes place in the Rome of the Dark Ages. The Empire has fallen, and the Catholic Church is on the rise, although it is not yet the power it will become. I’m not really going to talk about the plot because I want you to read it for yourself, but I will tell you that the plotting is intricate and detailed, weaving in obscure and forgotten bits of history and mythology. The characterizations are detailed and you feel like you know these people. I also love that the author does not patronize her readers, but trusts them to have good vocabularies and the ability to understand wordy sentences.
I hope you’ll give it a try and let me know what you think.
