Review--Hungry Like a Wolf by Christine Warren

When her father died, Honor Tate inherited the alpha position for a pack of werewolves based in New England. But why her? Honor would have rather just lived a “normal” life, with the occasional run through the woods in her furry suit. Still, Honor was raised to put the welfare of the pack first…and now it’s time to make a formal request that the alpha of the Silverback clan—the pack to which all locals owe fealty—recognize her as alpha of the White Paw. But instead of sending his support, the Silverbacks send Logan Hunter.

Logan Hunter would do anything to protect the Silverbacks—but his devotion comes with a price. For years he has been fighting his alpha instincts and the need for his own pack. But all that changes when Logan is sent on a mission to find out whether the new White Paw alpha really has what it takes to carry on her father’s legacy. Powerful, spirited, and downright gorgeous Honor exceeds his expectations…and leaves him howling for more. Could it be that he’s finally found his alpha mate? Or will old enemies, dueling loyalties, and an appetite for destruction stop him dead in his tracks?

It's been awhile since I visited the world of The Others, but I was excited to read Christine Warren's Hungry Like a Wolf because WEREWOLVES! Yes, I love vampires fiercely, they were my first love and will always be my favorites, but I have to admit, I love werewolves too!

In this one, we get to see Graham and Missy again, though it's been sooo long since I saw them, I vaguely remembered Logan Hunter being a possible "problem" for the Graham-Missy connection, but now it's his turn for a happy ending. Graham sends him to Connecticut to visit the White Paw Clan who recently lost their alpha to natural death and Graham wants him to see who should be the next alpha, as there's a sort of process or rule set to who turns into the next alpha.

At the moment, Honor is taking on the job after her father died. The last thing she wants is some beta from another pack coming to decide if she should be the alpha of her own pack. She had been training to be the alpha after her father's passing ever since she was a teenager and earned her right to be his beta.

But when Logan meets Honor, he feels an immediate attraction to her and soon realizes she's his mate. The woman he's destined to be with...but convincing her of the same will be a lot harder than he thought.

And here my friends is where I began to have many, many problems with this book. It wasn't that it was bad, I just had strong personal feelings about what was going on in the story and I did not like it at all. I recognize that this is a paranormal romance novel, it's not urban fantasy, and a LOT of emphasis is put on the romance. But what I was not expecting was for this romance to come in a very domineering borderline rape like stance. Logan lets his animal side do all the thinking when it comes to Honor it seems and he just tackles her and tries to have his way with her. She fights him, this right here...if this is happening, the man that is Logan needs to recognize this and back off. He needs to come at this idea of being with his mate in another way...but he doesn't. He keeps trying to have his way with her and eventually, Honor does give in to him having been fighting her own desires. But the fact of the matter was, she didn't want to be with him at first and Logan decided not to care.

To add further to my distaste of Logan, he decides to call Honor, "honey" during their intimate moments, because shouting Honor during intercourse, just doesn't sound right to him, or some such BS. Honor is even offended by this and vocalizes why he would not be doing that. Yet again, the next time this actually happens, she rolls with being called "honey."

I don't want this to sound like Honor was a weak-minded woman, because she wasn't. She knew what she wanted, yet she seems to debate with herself about what she really wants and what she thinks she deserves. She's not conceded or anything, she has a lot on her plate as her pack isn't really willing to accept her as alpha because she's a woman.

We get hints of a mini mystery going on in the background. Mostly it's trying to figure out who's trying to start an uprising to dethrone Honor from her alpha position. While the obvious whodunit was a bit...obvious, there was another reveal that seemed to be thrown in more for shock effect. I kind of saw it coming from a brief flash of something seen, though the reasoning behind that was the real shocker.

I had a great theory building up as to how this one would end. It seemed truly perfect for the story and especially the characters and yet, the author decided to end it in the left field in a decidedly uninspiring sort of way. One that just sucked out every shred of admiration I had left for our hero and heroine.

In the end, I guess you could say I was kind of disappointed with this one. I had expected better of these characters, Honor started out as such a strong-willed heroine that I was loving, but then she just kind of let go of the morals she held for herself and decided to do the exact opposite of everything she stood for in the beginning. I mean, I get some of what she was doing was out of obligation versus what she actually wanted to do, that's why I thought it HAD to end the way I was thinking...but when it ended the way it did...I was left a little crushed.

I have to say I was pretty disappointed with Hungry Like a Wolf in the end. It did have its strong points, don't get me wrong. And the characters were still well-written, even if they were actual people I would never ever like because of their actions, animal instincts or no. When you're a werewolf, you're half-human, half-animal, you should be able to know which part of you, you need to act like in the given situation. These animal instinct actions while in a human body were a little too disgusting. Again, maybe this is just the way some paranormal romance books go, but this isn't what I enjoy when I read these novels on occasion. 

Despite my dislike of this one, I will not be turning away from the author. But I truly hope this is not the way any of her future shifter characters will act.



Overall Rating 2/5 stars