Wolf’s Survival

Title: Wolf’s Survival
Author: TA Chase
Publisher: Amber Quill Press
Genre: Fantasy/Shapeshifter/M/M
Length: Novel (166 PDF pages)
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

A guest review by Tj

Summary Review: An promising premise about the attraction between a wolf shapeshifter and the government official sent to reintroduce wolves into the area, that fell a bit shy of the mark.

The Blurb: Fellow ranchers consider Jacob Tasker a lone wolf, a man who goes his own way and who stands alone. They’ll never know just how close they are to the truth. His pack slaughtered by the ancestors of those very ranchers, Jacob’s learned to trust no one and accept his solitary life.

Oliver Wingate loves and respects wolves. As a conservationist, he believes they should be re-introduced into their once-natural habitat. Yet he meets resistance from all the ranchers who feel the wolves will prey on their herds.

When Oliver runs afoul of some of the locals, it’s up to Jacob to ensure the young idealistic man doesn’t lose his life in a battle for the wolf’s survival…and all the while trying to keep from falling in love…

The Review: Let me preface this review by saying that I generally like TA Chase’s writing and look forward to her books, and Wolf’s Survival has a lot of the things that reader’s expect and love about TA’s writing: an emotionally wounded character, an alpha male, and lots of hot sex. In this story, we meet Oliver Wingate, employee of the Department of the Interior, whose current assignment is to reintroduce timber wolves to the town of Red Cliff Idaho, much to the chagrin of the residents, who are adverse to government mandates and fear that the wolves will prey on their cattle.

Jacob Tasker, last surviving wolf shapeshifter in the area, meets Oliver in the local market and the lust burns fast and hot between them. But Jacob thinks Oliver is straight and married and runs for the hills. But fate has other ideas for these guys and they meet again.

Jacob is an alpha male, a character that TA Chase uses fairly often. He is very big, and sexy physically, but rather gruff, prickly and stand-offish towards everyone. Now that’s my kind of man! If you like the alpha male character, Jacob has it in spades. Oliver, on the other hand,  is his polar opposite, both physically and in his personality. He is smaller than Jacob, although described as hot as well, and a bit of a geek. You can just imagine the fun play between these two opposites, and it was enjoyable to read. And the attraction between them is volcanic, so the sheets are burning up in this story. The characters are likable overall, but perhaps a bit underdeveloped for my tastes.

I had a few other issues with the story. Although the author describes some of what has happened to Jacob in his long life, I would have liked more insight into his psyche, his feelings. And Oliver had a rather annoying trait – he wouldn’t use profanity, due to his young nephew, so instead, used cutesy expressions that, for me, quickly became annoying and kind of hard to believe that a grown man would even think those words, let alone speak them. Just to name a few: “Fudgesicles”, “Holy schmoly”, “H-e-double hockey sticks” and “Duck farts”.

Also, and I know this in one of my pet peeves, Jacob starts calling Oliver “honey” very soon after meeting, and it just didn’t feel right so early in their relationship. Another distracting thing was Jacob’s frequent thoughts that he wanted to just bend Oliver over and do him right there, no matter where they were. Okay, I understand he’s a wolf and his wolf has needs, but it had the unfortunate side effect of making him seem rather one dimensional – just a sex machine. Now I love sex as much as the next guy, but there had to be other thoughts rolling around in his head. The man has lived a long time, seen some wonderful and not so wonderful things – where are the profound thoughts from a being that old?

So, this leads me back to where I started – I generally like TA Chase’s work. Really, I do. I liked the Home series, Freaks in Love, Out of Bounds, High Line and many more. But, I was a bit… disappointed with this offering. It has the requisite hot and sexy alpha male, the geeky and sexy love interest, and an interesting premise that just didn’t come together for me. But I would say that if you are a fan of TA Chase’s books, and the issues above don’t bother you, then you may enjoy this one as well.