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molls's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
2.25
I stopped a quarter of the way in, found the Alpha & Omega novella in an anthology, and read it because I was desperate for some context and having a hard time caring about Anna. The novella helped, but I don't think this book would make much sense to a reader who hadn't read the Mercy books first. I vastly prefer Mercy, she seems like a much more dynamic character, but am hoping that this series grows on me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Toxic relationship
sidhewitch's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Audiobook Review.
Don't read this if you haven't first read Alpha & Omega, the novella that introduces Charles and Anna. Every list says Cry Wolf is the first of the series, but it's really not - that novella is. It also may be helpful to know this ties into the Mercy Thompson series, but for this book at least it is unnecessary to read Moon Called before you read this.
I really enjoyed this book, though it moved a little slowly and the audiobook at times made perspective changes a little difficult to pick up on right away. You might see the "Alpha and Omega" title and think this is going to be Omegaverse, but while it shares some conventions with that trope, this isn't erotica even in the slightest. This is Urban Fantasy. Anna is an Omega, a rare type of werewolf who exists between and outside the werewolf hierarchy of Dominant Alpha's and Submissive Beta's. As a long-time victim of abuse, she doesn't have any faith in her strength or her power, and a lot of this book is about her learning how to trust both others and herself.
It's also about a weird left-field villain who shows up at the midpoint of the book with little to no preamble. You just find out about a Thing which has happened, and that leads down the path to said Villain, and then the rest of the book is about defeating them. I'm hopeful this isn't going to be a pattern, that it was simply a consequence of this being the first novel in the series and thus had to introduce and explain a lot, especially for folks who haven't read Moon Called and thus are meeting many of the Montana wolves for the first time. There also needed to be time to develop Anna and Charles' relationship. Still, that plus the constant POV switching and backtracking narrative to fill you in on the bits you missed while in the wrong POV made parts of the book drag. Overall though, if you're okay with the content warnings (see below) I give this one a hearty recommend.
The audiobook is narrated by Holter Graham, who also did the novella audiobook, and continues to do a fantastic job. I'm not usually a fan of male narrators for female POVs, but Holter avoids a lot of the really off-putting vocal styles many of his peers employ, and creates really distinct voices for every character that make it fairly easy to always tell who is speaking. This is a DENSE book though, so it was definitely a 1.25x or less listen, as opposed to my usual 1.5x. So beware you might not speed through this one like other books.
Don't read this if you haven't first read Alpha & Omega, the novella that introduces Charles and Anna. Every list says Cry Wolf is the first of the series, but it's really not - that novella is. It also may be helpful to know this ties into the Mercy Thompson series, but for this book at least it is unnecessary to read Moon Called before you read this.
I really enjoyed this book, though it moved a little slowly and the audiobook at times made perspective changes a little difficult to pick up on right away. You might see the "Alpha and Omega" title and think this is going to be Omegaverse, but while it shares some conventions with that trope, this isn't erotica even in the slightest. This is Urban Fantasy. Anna is an Omega, a rare type of werewolf who exists between and outside the werewolf hierarchy of Dominant Alpha's and Submissive Beta's. As a long-time victim of abuse, she doesn't have any faith in her strength or her power, and a lot of this book is about her learning how to trust both others and herself.
It's also about a weird left-field villain who shows up at the midpoint of the book with little to no preamble. You just find out about a Thing which has happened, and that leads down the path to said Villain, and then the rest of the book is about defeating them. I'm hopeful this isn't going to be a pattern, that it was simply a consequence of this being the first novel in the series and thus had to introduce and explain a lot, especially for folks who haven't read Moon Called and thus are meeting many of the Montana wolves for the first time. There also needed to be time to develop Anna and Charles' relationship. Still, that plus the constant POV switching and backtracking narrative to fill you in on the bits you missed while in the wrong POV made parts of the book drag. Overall though, if you're okay with the content warnings (see below) I give this one a hearty recommend.
The audiobook is narrated by Holter Graham, who also did the novella audiobook, and continues to do a fantastic job. I'm not usually a fan of male narrators for female POVs, but Holter avoids a lot of the really off-putting vocal styles many of his peers employ, and creates really distinct voices for every character that make it fairly easy to always tell who is speaking. This is a DENSE book though, so it was definitely a 1.25x or less listen, as opposed to my usual 1.5x. So beware you might not speed through this one like other books.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Violence
Minor: Rape, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Physical abuse
CW Context:Animal Cruelty: I strongly disagree with folks classifying this as graphic. It's a couple sentences through the book, nothing is graphically described, but it IS disturbing to know it happened.
Violence: There is a fair bit of fighting, rarely described in any detail.
Minor CW's are all to do with Anna's backstory, and referring to what happened to her without actually describing any of it.
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