Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
Six years ago Latrans found his mate—and had to let him go. Now York has returned pleading for Latrans’ help. His daughter has been kidnapped and Latrans is the only person York trusts to get her back. But a simple matter of rescue proves to be far more complicated than anticipated, and even having his mate at his side may not be enough to win the day.
I dive right into every Mell Eight book with enthusiasm and a certain amount of expectation on what I’m going to find in her stories. Her imagination almost certainly provides me with something new to think about, great characters and a wildly entertaining story. However, The Case of the Wandering Wolves (Trickster’s Eye #1) by Mell Eight did provide some a couple of elements I liked, it mostly had me scratching my head in disappointment. Why? Because there are huge holes in the narrative here and in the thinking of the characters and plot.
It all revolves around the mate bond and what happens when that occurs. Unfortunately here, the mate bonding is between were and human, twice over. In the first pairing… Latrans and York, Latrans first pushes his attraction/need for his mate unto the human with disastrous results. It didn’t help that York is closeted, only has the slightest leanings or interest in men (he might be bisexual, a path not investigated here). But Latrans does eventually leave his mate alone, knowing that as a human, York cannot feel the same as he does. Realistic, and totally abandoned when another were/human pair appears later in the story.
That human is expected to adjust to the fact that they are a part of a bonded pair, a fact that shocked me given the factors surrounding that pair’s history. (Spoilers) . Its even more unbelievable given York’s stilted little speech about forgiving Latrans’ stalking bonding behavior etc. at the end of the tale. One, where did that language come from? A therapist? A brochure? It didn’t sound like anything the man had said previously in any of his conversations, so it was jarring. Secondly, the child and her welfare. Let’s just say, that got a little mixed up here as well. At least in my opinion.
There is a mystery. Two actually. One gets solved fairly quickly. The other? Well the villain is not really never in doubt. The ending is a HFN and this story a set up for a series that seems to revolve around the detective agency that Latrans runs with his friend called The Trickster’s Eye (Latrans is a were coyote). I will mostly likely pick up the second book to see what happens. It can only get better.
Cover art is so so. It could also be so much better.
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Book Details:
ebook
Published January 11th 2017 by Less Than Three Press
ISBN139781620049358
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesTrickster’s Eye #1
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