Disclaimer! I got an ARC from NetGalley. That has in no way influenced my review.In a dystopian alternate reality, where the 2016 election led to the USA becoming a tightly regulated surveillance state, pretty much at the same time as the existence of a number of supernatural beings were revealed, several big cities, including New York, are now a Sanctuary City for supernaturals.
Joe Peluso, an ex-soldier turned werewolf through military experimentation, is in prison for murdering six bear shifters with ties to the Russian mafia. His legal team is determined to give him a proper defense, but Joe believes himself beyond redemption. He has no regrets about the murders that landed him in prison, which were in retaliation for the death of his foster brother. However, he is haunted by his years as a soldier and all the lives he ended during his long military career. He has no intention of sharing any information or revealing anything to his lawyers that might help him get a lighter sentence and fully expects to be killed in prison by Russian mobsters soon enough.
Neha Ahluwalia, one of the lawyers on his team, as well as a trained psychologist, believes that everyone deserves a chance. She can’t really explain her near-instant attraction to Peluso, which just seems to grow with each of their meetings. Falling for one of their clients, let alone a werewolf with a long history of violence is utter madness, but Neha can’t stay away. On the day of Joe’s trial, she agrees to a brief meeting alone with him, and they end up going on the run together after the Russian mob attempts to kill Joe and creates chaos at the courthouse. While he might not see himself as worthy of love or affection, Neha has caught glimpses of the wounded and vulnerable man behind the gruff facade, and she’s determined to fight for their happy ending.
I had hoped to have this review finished by the book’s release date last week, but my depression had other ideas, and quite a lot of the things I wanted to achieve have had to be postponed. My friend and fellow Cannonball reviewer Emmalita reviewed this back in December (and has already used one of my favourite lines from the book as her review title and made me very excited to get to this. I’ve only ever read Ms. Snyder’s contemporary romance novella Tikka Chance on Me, so seeing her take on urban fantasy/paranormal romance was interesting and quite different.
Full review on my blog.
You guys keep giving this great reviews but it continues to have things that usually turn me off stories (‘surveillance state’ is a no-no keyword for me, as is ‘mafia’). I don’t know what to do!!!
It’s ok, not every book has to be read. I know one person who noped out of Big Bad Wolf because she is a forensic psychologist and couldn’t deal with Neha being on Joe’s legal team. As for the surveillance state, it’s in the background at this point, though I imagine it could play a bigger role later.
“It’s ok, not every book has to be read.”
I’m sorry, my OCD needs a translator.
In all seriousness, I try to take such positive reviews seriously, because in the past even books that haven’t sounded good to me have been such good reads because I listened to something that pinged me in the review of someone I trusted.
How big is the mafia stuff? Honestly, that’s the real turn off. If it was just the dystopia stuff I could probably deal but mafia shit is so stupid and boring to me.
I think I would wait until Pretty Little Lion (the next book) comes out to see where Suleikha Snyder goes with the dystopia and the mafia. It may be that the Russian were bear mafia is a one off, or they might be a bigger antagonist. It’s not clear at the end.