Never Cry Wolf by Cynthia Eden

Publisher: Brava/Kensington

Published: 6/28/2011

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Rating: Entrée












Sarah King is well aware that Lucas Simone, pack leader for the L.A. wolves. has a weakness for victims. So when she flees the abusive alpha Raphael Santiago, she heads straight to the L.A. alpha’s front door, or in this case the front of his jail cell. After springing the alpha from his cell, Sarah counts on his weakness to keep her safe from the monster coming for her. Lucas puts trust in pack only, but although he smells deception on the lovely Sarah, he also sees her scars and believes she is afraid for her life. With a massive Shifter war brewing, and Sarah only giving Lucas part of the story, the L.A. pack is in serious jeopardy. Only with the help of some former enemies can Lucas have any chance of surviving his kindness to Sarah.





This was may first trip into Cynthia Edens' world of shifters, and I'm extremely sorry about that. This book was dark and delicious. These were not your cuddly, cute weres, they played for keeps and were hard core to the bone. With death and betrayal as an accepted part of their life, there's not a lot of lightheartedness going on. In this world it truly is survival of the fittest.

This is a dark book with damaged and guarded characters that had me in tears more than once. The emotion in this book was just overpowering at times. None of these characters chose to be cruel or distrusting (at least among the good guys) but life had just beaten and worn them down. It was build walls and defenses or die.....emotionally and physically. How could the reader help but love these people? Sarah knows what she's risking, but Lucas , even though his instincts are screaming to not trust her, still has that kernel of needing to save people, like someone should have saved him. *sigh* And I keep saying people, but these are shifters and they do have an animal at their core. They mate, they fight and do both with a ferocity that will break the reader out in a sweat and reaching for a glass of ice water. Ms. Eden's book was graphic, stark yet still filled with a fragile hope for a future free from violence and injustice.

The trust of the pack should be absolute, if the pack begins to question itself and it's bonds, chaos ensues. I won't give spoilers, but there are a couple of instances where pack loyalty and trust are major issues. Thank goodness there was enough snark and bravado from Sarah and the others to break up some of the darkness. This was just an excellent read and I most definitely want to be part of this world again.