Book 38, 2022

[chez_jae]

Dance Of The Wolf by Karen Whiddon

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



At work yesterday I finished reading Dance of the Wolf by Karen Whiddon. It's a Silhouette 'Nocturne' paranormal romance within "The Pack" series. Main characters were nightclub owner Elena Cabrera and disgraced doctor Jared Gies.

When one of Jared's only friends goes missing and was last known to be running a clinic out of the nightclub Fantasies, Jared shows up at the club to investigate. There he finds lovely Elena, the owner of the club and Jared's mate. He has little to offer her, however. After a horrific car accident, Jared still walks with a limp, and he's only recently come out of rehab after becoming addicted to pain medication. He's on enforced hiatus from the hospital where he worked, but taking over Watkins' clinic seems like a good in to the nightclub. Elena hasn't seen Dr Watkins since he shifted in front of her. She was left horrified and reeling. While she finds Dr Gies attractive, a part of her fears he may be just like Watkins. Elena vows to steer clear, but when two of her dancers end up dying of drug overdoses, she and Jared must work together to find out who's targeting shifters in Fantasies.

In a word, awful. There was nothing about this book that wasn't awful. Characters were two-dimensional and self-absorbed. There was no romance to speak of. While Elena and Jared were attracted to one another, she actually wanted nothing to do with him and he was convinced he wasn't good enough for her. The deaths of the dancers were horrific and the reason behind the deaths even more so (when we learned what was truly going on). On top of that, you had drug use, drug addiction, statutory rape (off-screen), a teenage pregnancy, an attempted forced abortion, bad cops, and an inferno. Oh, what fun!

It just got worse.
- Why is it that so many humans connected to Fantasies knew about Shifters? They were meant to be keeping things on the down low.
- I honestly never got the impression that Jared or Elena particularly liked one another; they were simply drawn to one another because of the whole 'mate' thing. I enjoy that trope when it works, but it did not work here. At all.
- When Jared and Elena had their one nookie session, it was in a car. Had I realized our main characters were hormone-crazed teenagers, I wouldn't have read the book. Yes, that sound you heard was my eyes rolling.
- Jared ambushing Elena with a surprise proposal IN FRONT OF HER ENTIRE FUCKING FAMILY was...I don't have words. Awful. Horrible. Talk about putting someone in an awkward position. Elena, bless her stupid heart, told him no, but it was too late. Her entire fucking family came pouring out of the house to congratulate them. As if that wasn't bad enough, Elena didn't have the backbone to admit she'd turned him down.
- Not helping matters was Jared's mother welcoming Elena to the family as soon as they first met.
- How is it that someone as prestigious as a doctor can get arrested, yet not be allowed a phone call?
- Valerie needed to be punched in the face. Repeatedly. Until she died.
- Just because someone found a book of spells doesn't mean she can successfully work a spell. The author had shifters and vampires in the book, so why not actual witches? You know, who can actually work spells?
- Of course, at the end of this melodrama, after our intrepid main characters narrowly escape a fiery death, they declare their undying love for one another. Um, they met, like, two weeks ago. Whatever. Moving on.

Favorite line: There was already way too much weirdness going on around here without adding to it.

In the immortal words of Blaine and Antoine, "Hated it!" One star.