Book Reviews

Book Blurb

It’s nine o’clock the morning after his father’s funeral, and Ezra Jones already knows it’s going to be a bad day. He wakes up hungover, sore, and covered in blood. Then it gets worse: the handsome and compelling Callum Dawson shows up on his doorstep claiming Ezra’s been turned into a werewolf. Ezra wants to be skeptical, but the evidence is hard to ignore.

Ezra doesn’t have a lot of time to get used to the rules Alpha Callum imposes—or the way his body responds to Callum’s dominance—as he’s busily working for the CDC to help uncover the origins of a lycan epidemic. When the sexual tension finally breaks, Ezra barely has time to enjoy it, because a new danger threatens. Someone wants Ezra for their own unscrupulous purposes and will do anything to get him.

 

Book Review

Since the authors of 'Hair of the Dog', Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James, may not be familiar with me as a reviewer, I'm going to let them in on a well known fact for anyone who reads my reviews. I freaking love shifters. Shifters of all kinds, although wolves and large cats hold a special place in my heart, but I can vouch for a bunny shifter I met and lost my heart to once. The more original the storyline, the more invested I am, though I still love the "normal" lore. With all of this said, let me be the first to tell you, I really liked this book. The writing is great, the characters are complex, unique, and interesting, and, well, the sex is intense. What more could a girl ask for who likes her men to be a little hairy and toothy?

"'You can't be serious.' Could he? 'I was bitten by an escaped convict werewolf? That's the line you're going with? Really?'
'No. He was a psychiatric patient. Sort of. And we prefer lycanthrope, or lycan.'
Oh, so it was a crazy escaped were - sorry lycanthrope. That...really didn't make Ezra feel better. 'Listen, buddy,' he began, 'you need to lay off the HBO.'"

Thanks guys, I was happily reading along and then I snorted water out of my nose. People always have varying responses to discovering they've been turned into a lycan, and I never get tired of hearing them. The authors have built a very interesting world with some factions of the government and the CDC being aware of lycans. The CDC Center for Lupine Research is where Ezra ends up with Callum Dawson, PhD, and alpha lycan, for Callum to test Ezra's blood. It appears that the escaped lycan who bit Ezra carries a disease they've named ARD which messes with hormone levels and causes infected lycans to go violently crazy. This means that Ezra has to return to Callum's pack to stay for the next three weeks until Ezra changes again so he can be monitored. Good for Ezra since he'll be around other lycans and can learn. Bad for Callum as he's responding in ways he doesn't want to, because Ezra is his fantasy come to life and apparently Callum's wolf thinks so too.

The next few days have Ezra trying to settle into pack life while dealing with some changes his body is undergoing. Ezra is also not too thrilled to discover he is one of the many beta members of the pack and is, apparently, a very natural submissive. Ezra volunteers to help Callum at the lab as his unofficial research assistant, mainly to give Ezra something to do as he's going stir crazy. Callum needs someone to research missing persons and Jane/John Does to see if any of them might be ARD victims not known about yet. This also gives Callum the opportunity to help train Ezra in things most born lycans learn during puberty, i.e., to control his responses to scents and to learn to not always immediately follow every suggestion from a lycan with alpha strength. Luckily for Ezra he also gets "Myth Debunking 101" and it was interesting to see the lore these authors built this world upon.

This was a fascinating shifter book. The intrigue and mystery, so to speak, surrounding the "disease" ARD was well done and kept me interested mainly due to not being predictable and there was good action adventure. The world building was very unique within this genre and definitely held my attention. Last, but not least, the love story was extremely satisfying. So, in a nutshell, I really enjoyed it and was significantly impressed with both authors.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 250 pages/83848 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	23-January-2012
Price	$6.99 ebook, $16.99 paperback, $16.99 bundle
Buy Link	https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/hair-of-the-dog-by-ashlyn-kane-and-morgan-james-3323-b