I’ll start by saying I’ve never read any of Rhyannon Byrd’s books until now. I found Dark Wolf Rising (Harlequin Nocturne) for FREE and thought I’d better snag it up because I just happen to love paranormal romances, but only if the element of darkness–be it vampires, werewolves, demons, or something else–is dark enough.
This story follows a 26 year old woman named Chelsea Smart as she searches for her missing, flighty, younger sister, Perry Smart. Her search takes her straight into a world she could have never imagined in her wildest dreams…a town full of werewolves. Here is the description Amazon gives:
Eric Drake, a powerful Dark Wolf, has never trusted himself around human females—preferring to mate only within his pack. That is, until he encounters Chelsea Smart snooping around Silvercrest pack land in search of her missing sister.
Secretly, Chelsea thinks Eric is the sexiest man she’s ever seen, though she is wary of his potent Alpha energy. Then it’s discovered that Chelsea’s sister is being held by a pack of vicious Lycans, and Eric heroically leaps into action. Now, Chelsea will risk everything—her body and soul—to surrender to the passion that will mark her as Eric’s woman for all eternity…if they survive.
The plot is great. The characters are somewhat different, also, which I see as a good thing. Eric may be an alpha male, but he’s also tender. Chelsea is a woman with real gall and I like that. The story met a satisfying end, too.
There are a few gripes I have, though.
Grip 1- Every single time things begin to heat up between the Eric and Chelsea, there is a knock at the door, a phone call, or somebody just magically shows up to disturb them and then they don’t get to have their big love scene. Until, of course, they do have their love scene, though I half expected the roof to cave in on them or something disastrous to happen before she could even undo her jeans. THREE times, there were disturbances. To be honest, after I read the third disturbed would-be love scene, I nearly stopped reading. I’m glad that I didn’t, though 😀
Gripe 2- I finished the book a few days ago, but there is a scene that sticks out. Eric swoops her into his arms, seemingly out of nowhere, in a tender scene between the two, but the way it was written, I half expected Fabio to pop out of the fridge and shout, “I can’t believe it’s not butter!” STILL not enough to make me stop reading, though, but I did get a good laugh from it.
Gripe 3- This book just wasn’t dark enough for me. Maybe I’ve been reading romance novels too long and need to switch to horror for a while. Maybe not. I can’t pinpoint any certain thing that makes the book too light for me, but even though there were strippers and sex trafficking, it still wasn’t as dark as I would have liked. I wanted more danger between Eric’s inner wolf and Chelsea. There wasn’t one little bit of me that thought he might just kill her if pushed too far and I really wanted to feel that way.
All together, this is a great read! I love Harlequin Nocturne books and will continue to read Rhyannon Byrd’s books as well. As a matter of fact, I’m sooper sekritly stalking her Amazon Author Profile as we speak.
Dark Wolf Rising is available for Kindle and also paperback.
I’ll give this book 3 stars. I really did like it, but it wasn’t a book I LOOOOOVED. Although, I do like the author and am looking for other titles by her to snag tonight. Also, remember that just because I didn’t fall madly in love with the book doesn’t mean you won’t and it doesn’t mean I would stop reading books by this author. I just told you–I’m sooper sekritly stalking her Amazon profile to find more books lol.
G’night, ya’ll!
Rhiannon Writes On 