Heart of the Wolf

Author: Terry Spear
Published: April 2008 (Sourcebooks)
Category: Paranormal Romance
Rating: 8/10

Heart of the Wolf is a different kind of paranormal romance, as it is a werewolf story, but based on researched wolf behavior. The shapeshifters do not call themselves werewolves, but lupus garou, and that designation makes them more like a real species rather than a mythical beast. And rather than just a general lupus garou, there are subspecies. Spear also wrote some great descriptions of the setting for the story. I could really feel the cold and damp of the northwest, the smell of the forest, and the ground beneath my feet, or paws would be more appropriate.

Bella, our heroine, is a red lupus garou who was adopted into a gray pack (these seem to be more common and happen to be bigger than reds) as a pup. Volan, the pack leader and evil guy, has singled Bella out to be his mate and tried raping her when she was very young. Bella actually loves Devlyn, the gray who rescued her when she was a pup, but doesn't want to show him preference because then he'd have to challenge Volan for her. Bella escapes the gray pack and lives under the radar, hoping to find a human male she can bite and change, therefore creating a mate for herself.

During one of her moon runs as a wolf, she gets captured and put in a zoo, as red wolves are very rare, and arouses the attention of her old pack and single red wolves close by. If she thought escaping Volan for a mate was bad, she had it much worse after that. Devlyn rescues her after she changes back to a human, and their attraction to each other flares up again, but this time, he's ready to challenge Volan. Unfortunately, that's not the only obstacle to happiness, as a red has been committing murders on red-haired women in the area.

The one annoying thing that stood out was the italicization of lupus garou. I understand that the book is based on real wolf behavior rather than werewolf myth (except for the part of people shifting into wolf form while the moon's out) , but the term lupus garou was used so much that seeing it italicized all the time made it seem out of place in the text, and broke the smoothness of my reading.

The attraction between Bella and Devlyn is steamy hot. There's a lot of tension and anticipation because they want each other, but Bella won't give in because she doesn't want Devlyn to be killed by Volan. Because this is based on animal behavior, their lust seems more primal and pure at the same time. They were meant to be mates, and when they're together, it's right and the obstacles fade away, at least while they're in bed... or in the back of his car.

While the overview makes Heart of the Wolf seem like a shallow story (star-crossed werewolves have to kill packleader to be happy, but want to solve a murder mystery where they know a rare red wolf is the culprit), it turned out to be deeper, with rich characters and great writing. I hope this turns into a series, because I'd like to read more about the lupus garou. There are hints of another book in the making, maybe set in the red wolf pack Bella and Devlyn cleaned up. There's an alpha male who hasn't taken control of the pack, and he seems like a pretty decent fellow. He helped Bella and Devlyn against the reds and Volan. I hope there's a sequel about him!