cover image Hungry Like a Wolf

Hungry Like a Wolf

Christine Warren. St. Martin’s Paperbacks, $7.99 mass market (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-35725-2

In Warren’s flimsy eighth Others novel (after Drive Me Wild), previously digitally published as Fur Play, Honor Tate has just inherited her father’s position as alpha of the White Paw werewolf pack. Female alphas are rare, so the local werewolf leader sends his beta, Logan Hunter, to find out whether she’s fit for the job. Logan and Honor immediately antagonize each other despite sharing a passionate attraction, while Honor fights her packmates in challenge after challenge for her position. Warren’s werewolves are not simply furry humans, and she takes full advantage of their inherent drama, from violent pack hierarchy to the wild mating of werewolves in heat. However, readers expecting a feminist fable of strong female leadership and well-matched protagonists will be disappointed; Honor objects to the ritualized sexual assault of werewolf society, but that doesn’t keep Logan from “claiming” her while she repeatedly fights him off and shouts for him to stop. Even fans of quasi-consensual stories will find this bloody supernatural drama hard going. (July)