Painfully one-note.
A Special Wolf Alpha Team werewolf discovers that his group's latest case is linked to the teenage werewolf he's taken under his wing—and the boy's attractive mom.
Though werewolf Diego Martinez typically has his hands full with dangerous SWAT missions, newly turned werewolf Brandon becomes a pet project for the overprotective and somewhat domineering hostage negotiator. A bonus to helping Brandon learn about his new supernatural abilities is that Diego gets to spend time with Brandon's gorgeous mom, Bree, who had no clue werewolves even existed until now. However, the SWAT team's current case investigating a wave of violence perpetrated by victims of some kind of mind control appears to have connections to Bree and Brandon's family, jeopardizing their safety as well as the romance unfolding between Diego and Bree. It's a classic setup of whether to choose love over duty, though Diego's struggle between the two never materializes as a truly tough choice. As the 11th installment in the SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team series, this isn't a fair starting point for readers curious about the series or the setup, as questions about the origin and history of such an organization will frequently arise and be left unanswered. Dedicated fans of Tyler's books already know what they're getting into with this genre mashup of romantic suspense, military-inspired alpha wolf heroes, and action-oriented pacing. Those coming to the series as newcomers will have a more difficult time investing the energy in Bree and Diego's happily-ever-after. Much like a Michael Bay film, it's a lot of explosions and fanfare with missed opportunities for a satisfying and emotional romantic arc.
Painfully one-note.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0555-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Scary fun that won’t cause nightmares—or will it?
Dark horror by the renowned Norwegian crime novelist.
In the town of Ballantyne, Richard Elauved is a troubled 14-year-old outcast who bullies his classmates. He coerces Tom into a telephone booth (remember those?) and gets him to call Imu Jonasson, an apparently random person whose name he finds in the phone book. But the phone digs into the poor boy’s flesh and eats him up until all traces disappear. Richard goes to the police but cannot persuade them of the horrible truth—for one thing, they can’t find Jonasson’s name in the book—and they demand to know if Richard drowned Tom in the river. In the first third of the tale, all the main characters are teens. Fifteen years pass, and Richard attends a class reunion. Now he is the author of The Night House, the story they’re in and “the teenage horror novel that had changed my life.” He says he came to the reunion to apologize for having bullied everyone, yet all his fellow alums insist he’d been an okay kid, not the nasty bully he’d portrayed in his famous book. So who’s right? Creepy stuff continues, including death by hanging, blood drooling down a car window, transmogrification into a cockroach—you know, standard horror fare. What adds a level of interest is Richard Hansen, who had invented the surname “Elauved” for a curious reason. Perhaps he has a mental illness, given that events belie perception. What is true, and what is the detritus of his fevered brain? Is this a dream within a dream? Some of the evil comes from a surprising source, who advises young Richard, “If you really want to kill them, you have to do it twice. If you don’t, they come back.”But an ill-fated fiend named Jack has the best line: “We’d actually prefer it if you tried to escape. It’s a well-known fact that adrenaline gives meat a bit of extra flavor.”
Scary fun that won’t cause nightmares—or will it?Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780593537169
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
A fun romp in which everything feels more interesting than the romance.
In Dade’s first paranormal romance, two neighbors fight to stay alive as they hunt for answers during a zombie outbreak.
Set in a world where people have adjusted to the presence of zombies and supernatural beings, Eden Brandstrup has always assumed her neighbor Chad fell into the category of a hot space case. He’s pleasant to look at, but might not be a prime candidate for intellectual conversation. When a zombie appears in her yard, determined to make the oblivious Chad its next meal, Edie vows to save him. After having lost her parents to zombies 20 years earlier, she won’t allow another person close to her to suffer the same fate. However, the normally mild-mannered Chad drops the goofy personality and morphs into the stoic, prickly Gaston “Max” Boucher, a lethal vampire. He’s hidden his true identity from Edie, but it’s hard to keep up the ruse when threatened by a pack of zombies. As the two escape to shelter and notify the authorities, Edie barely has time to explore Max’s secrets as they discover that these zombies are only the start of a world-ending conspiracy. This is the classic romance formula in which a surly, protective hero spends most of his time intercepting the reckless heroine, who seems to have more courage than sense. For a zombie story, it’s quite light, with only a smattering of blood and guts. The couple’s banter and the slapstick scenarios sometimes border on cringe-worthy, such as when they try to defend themselves against a zombie attack with a burrito. Max and Edie’s growing contingent of allies is a bright spot—the book is filled with brilliantly quirky characters seemingly fated to star in subsequent books—and the mystery at the heart of the story keeps the momentum going. This over-the-top reading experience resembles a fever dream that works mostly if you employ the principle of “yes, and…” thinking.
A fun romp in which everything feels more interesting than the romance.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9780593818206
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
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