Wolf Untamed is book two of the Moon Cursed series, the first of which is called Wolf Marked. I read it as part of my Wolf Marked reading challenge.
I accepted a copy of Wolf Untamed from Amber at Lady Amber’s Reviews & PR at the same time that I requested one of the Wolf Marked books for that reading challenge from her. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the Alexis Calder Wolf Marked that I went to Amber for, as I’d already bought a copy, it was the Harper A. Brooks one (because it wasn’t released yet). But when I told her I was going to do a Wolf Marked challenge, including Calder’s Wolf Marked, she mentioned that she had book two of the Moon Cursed series coming available soon. So, I accepted, though I didn’t receive it in time to read and review it and Wolf Marked at the same time. So, they’re getting separate posts.
If you want to see my review of Book one of the Moon Cursed series, Wolf Marked, it is here:
Man, it gets really confusing to talk about several books with the same title. And probably no one else is all that interested in the minutia. But I think it’s all the round aboutness of getting books with the same name, but from different series, from the same source really ironically funny. I accept it’s probably just me,
You can only trust yourself.
They say it’s more dangerous being a lone wolf. I say having friends isn’t worth the pain. Everyone I’ve ever known has betrayed me. You’d think by now, I’d learn not to trust anyone.
My old pack wants me dead. My true mate wants to complete the bond. My inner wolf is a no-show. The decks are stacked against me and if I survive this, I have no idea where to go next.
I’m out of tricks and out of allies but there’s one path I haven’t tried: finding out about my father. My mom warned me against him but at this point, how can my life get any worse?
I’m still interested in how this series progresses and ends. I still like Lola. In fact, I probably like her more as she’s starting to strengthen up. I like her found family. And the writing is quite readable (minus a few editing mishaps). But I’m kind of losing my patience with the serial nature of it all.
I went into the series knowing the books end on cliffhangers and are not stand alone. So, I can’t complain about that. But this book is only 156 pages long. The first was only 232. One can’t imagine the next (which I think is the last, though I’m not sure why I think that, so I could be wrong) being much longer. I just don’t see any reason for this story to be broken into 3 books. And you can really feel that here in book two. It feels like the middle of a book—not the middle of a series, the middle of a book.
And while book one was about werewolves, here we suddenly have goblins, and fae, and vampires, and witches thrown at us. Though all but the last are merely mentioned, not integral to the story. So, we get hints of a bigger world. But it feels random and out of place showing up in book two, without mention of any of it in book one.
Despite having said all that, I am still curious where it’ll go. So, I’ll be on the hook to read book three.
I generally enjoyed the first 3/4 of this and then it just went completely off the rails for the last quarter. And, while I liked most of what it was well enough, it isn’t true to the blurb. The blurb says things like, “A queen bows for no one, though. Not even when she’s frail and fading away. She’ll tap into her strength, protecting the only family she has left. The king is about to learn why they call her the cruel one…” But the actual book is full of things like, “I don’t understand his power over me, but I’d gladly yield to him over and over again. I crave to be at his will.” And she starts to yield within less than an hour of meeting him. It’s not like she held out for a long time or anything. Plus, by the end a reader truly has to question if she’s protecting her family.