A Pack of Blood and Lies
Olivia Wildenstein
Length: 362 Pages
Published: April 18, 2019 (Twig Publishing)
Rating:
Goodreads Synopsis: The primal rule of winning: don’t fall in love with the contender. Three months shy of her eighteenth birthday, Ness is forced to return to Colorado. Even though it’s been six years, and the wolves of her all-male pack don’t recognize her, she recognizes them. People who shun others because of their gender are hard to forget. Especially Liam Kolane—son of Heath, the crudest and cruelest Alpha to have ruled the Boulder Pack. Liam is as handsome as he is infuriating, as kind as he is punishing, and he makes Ness’s traitorous heart race, which isn’t good. After all, he’s a Kolane. Like father like son, right? When Heath dies, Liam vies to become the new Alpha and no one dares challenge him.
I requested A Pack of Blood and Lies by Olivia Wildenstein on a whim after being sucked in by that gorgeous cover. I haven’t read any of her other work but I was enchanted by the idea of a female challenging a male for alpha status. I am so glad I was sent an eARC of this book. I had such a tough time putting it down and even pushed off some of my other projects because I had to know how everything worked out.
I enjoyed Ness for the most part. Her character, exhibiting gumption laced with the recklessness of youth, had me cheering and scolding in equal measure. We meet her after her mother has passed from cancer where she is working as a housekeeper alongside Evelyn, a grandmotherly type that essentially took over parenting Ness. Suddenly, her estranged uncle and his family show up and force Ness to move back to Colorado, back to a pack that didn’t want anything to do with her because she was the only female wolf to be born to the pack in generations. One thing leads to another and Ness challenges Liam’s ascension to Alpha, motivated by her hatred for his late-father. While I admired Ness’s decision to participate in the challenges, she truly did have a couple of moments where I wondered aloud if she was too stupid to live. The challenge of reading YA as I get older is it’s easy to forget how a seventeen year old can make such risky decisions only to realize that she is probably taking her life into her hands when there is no turning back.
Liam is intense and passionate. I love how the author wrote him as an alpha male type without sacrificing respect for Ness’s boundaries. It made the tension between the two of them increase tenfold and made the mechanics and growth of their relationship seem more realistic.
The only complaint I truly have is regarding my confusion with the timeline of events. Did Ness visit Heath before or after the family showed up to take her back to Colorado? I don’t know if I missed it but I wish it had been hashed out a little more.
I am really looking forward to reading more about the Boulder Pack. If Lucas and Sarah don’t get thrown together I will be so upset. Also, I need to know what on earth is August’s problem and the poor man needs to find his own love muffin or at least a hobby that he loves. I definitely plan on stalking the release dates for Wildenstein’s future work!
The primal rule of winning: don’t fall in love with the contender. Three months shy of her eighteenth birthday, Ness is forced to return to Colorado. Even though it’s been six years, and the wolves of her all-male pack don’t recognize her, she recognizes them. People who shun others because of their gender are hard to forget. Especially Liam Kolane—son of Heath, the crudest and cruelest Alpha to have ruled the Boulder Pack. Liam is as handsome as he is infuriating, as kind as he is punishing, and he makes Ness’s traitorous heart race, which isn’t good. After all, he’s a Kolane. Like father like son, right? When Heath dies, Liam vies to become the new Alpha and no one dares challenge him.