cover image Hunger

Hunger

Eve Langlais, Kate Douglas, and A.C. Arthur. Griffin, $16.99 trade paper (544p) ISBN 978-1-250-07860-5

Langlais, Douglas, and Arthur deliver a weak and disappointing collection of steamy shape-shifter romances. Langlais’s “Alpha’s Mate” introduces a protagonist who inexplicably develops amnesia during an attempt on her life, then falls for a stereotypical pack alpha after he rescues her. The sex scenes are plentiful, but the plot is incoherent and the characters are uninteresting. Douglas’s much stronger contribution, “Dangerous Passions,” is also the only reprint in the collection. It follows the end of summer romances as the two unmated members of the Trinity Alps pack find their match and face the peril it brings. The story is bolstered by a thoughtful exploration of the tension between innate abilities and natural temperament in leadership roles, and featuring an engaging cast of characters, but it isn’t strong enough to save the collection from Arthur’s “Bound to the Wolf,” a fumbling mess in which the villain attempts to rape the heroine and then the hero molests her in her sleep. Fans of the genre can look elsewhere to get their fix. (May)