Review: Lying with Wolves by Cynthia Cooke

Lying with Wolves (Running with Wolves #2)
Cynthia Cooke
Published: Oct. 1, 2014 (Harlequin Nocturne)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: provided by publisher in exchange for and honest review

Reviewed by: Jannelle

Rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars

Lying with Wolves is the sequel to the first book in the series, Running with Wolves. Although I did not read Running with Wolves, I do not feel as if I missed anything—at all. Cooke did a phenomenal job at filling in any holes you may have missed without reading the first novel and I sincerely think you can go without reading it.

Celia is looking to escape the colony of shifters she was born into after a deception from her former lover, Malcolm. Fleeing from her home in the Pacific Northwest to the dry desert life in Arizona, Celia is attempting to start fresh with the help of her two cousins—Ruby and Jade—who are clueless of her life in the colony. To Celia’s dismay, Malcolm comes looking for her to take her back to the colony she is working so hard to forget and free herself from. Her mother is dead and now the only person who can restore the crystals surrounding their colony and keep the shifters safe from the infamous Gauliacho is Celia.

The tension between Celia and Malcolm is clearly evident from the first moment they reunite—Celia is hyperaware of Malcolm’s presence and has a constant inner struggle trying to tell herself that she truly hates him but her body and her heart have an entirely different opinion.

This was one of the aspects I didn’t enjoy in Lying with Wolves—Celia has gone through all this trouble of leaving the shifter colony and attempting to start this new life without Malcolm but she was quick to give into the temptation and forget about the deception and heartache.

Cooke did, however, create an extremely passionate and tension-filled romance between Celia and Malcolm that had me glued to the page. So if you’re willing to overlook a feeble attempt on Celia’s behalf to put up a strong front, you have sexy times to look forward to.

The plot in Lying with Wolves is also pretty fast-paced which was a big plus for me. On their road trip back home, Celia and Malcolm are constantly faced with Gauliacho invading the bodies of near humans. I think the constant struggle with the Gauliacho outside of the colony helped emphasize to the reader the severity of the shifters’ situation and the necessity for Celia to return safely and regenerate the crystals to help guarantee the safety of the lives of the shifters in the colony.

While I did enjoy Lying with Wolves overall, there were some aspects that felt overly dramatic and a bit cheesy. I’m happy for the fight scenes that helped depict the Gauliacho as the evil that the shifters have grown up fearing because I couldn’t understand the initial fear when the reader wasn’t even given a reason for the Gauliacho to hate shifters except they are their natural enemy—why? I continued reading to the end, hoping to find out more answers to this Gauliacho mystery but even after the climactic fight scene, I had more questions than I did answers.

I will definitely be picking up the next novel in this series, Ghost Wolf, and hope to get some answers to all the questions Lying with Wolves created. If you are a fan of paranormal romance and shifter/werewolf stories in general, Lying with Wolves is the book for you.

Sexual content: graphic sex