Early Review--Wild Country by Anne Bishop

In this powerful and exciting fantasy set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Others series, humans and the shape-shifting Others will see whether they can live side by side...without destroying one another.

There are ghost towns in the world—places where the humans were annihilated in retaliation for the slaughter of the shape-shifting Others.

One of those places is Bennett, a town at the northern end of the Elder Hills—a town surrounded by the wild country. Now efforts are being made to resettle Bennett as a community where humans and Others live and work together. A young female police officer has been hired as the deputy to a Wolfgard sheriff. A deadly type of Other wants to run a human-style saloon. And a couple with four foster children—one of whom is a blood prophet—hope to find acceptance.

But as they reopen the stores and the professional offices and start to make lives for themselves, the town of Bennett attracts the attention of other humans looking for profit. And the arrival of the Blackstone Clan, outlaws and gamblers all, will uncover secrets…or bury them.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

Wild Country is Anne Bishop’s latest novel in the spinoff series to her first series, The Others. This series is called The World of the Others and explores the other neighborhoods and territories of Thasia. Some of the events in this book take place during the events of Etched in Bone, there’s a little crossover, but basically this book tells you what was happening in Bennett while we were at the Lakeside Courtyard.

I was a bit thrown when starting this book as we once again see new characters, though a few were seen once before, but for me that was too many books ago! Lol. Instead of seeing Vicki again, we’re in a new neighborhood of Bennett. This was the town that was razed to the ground by the Elders, killing everything living but have agreed to let the neighborhood be rebuilt as long as it was “ruled” by the terre indigene.

I didn’t really know who my characters were to start with either. The description only gave vague descriptions so when a character popped up I wasn’t always 100% certain that they were one of the important ones, but within a handful of pages, those answers were finally had. So it took me just a little bit longer to get into this one that I had anticipated.

Here we have humans, terre indigene, and Intuits all trying to make a life for themselves in Bennett, but there are some people who aren’t fond of the peaceful way of life. We meet one Intuit who has a terrible secret, one that will basically cause a whole lot of chaos for Bennett, but that plotline is one that is gradually built over time. Then we have Jana, who is given a job fresh out of the police academy to be a Sheriff’s deputy in Bennett and will have to learn to work with a Wolf who has quite the temper. Basically we have Jana trying to fit into her new role and adjust to her new life all the while the enemy is getting closer and closer to Bennett as well as a horde of other people looking for a place to call home, who may or may not have ulterior motives. It’s mind-boggling trying to keep up with the influx of people coming in and trying to see who is truly devious and truly innocent!

While I have always enjoyed Anne’s books, I’m reminded each and every time I pick one up, how vast her novels are! There is just so many details and characters, that my poor addled brain sometimes has a hard time catching up. Especially since I was trying to remember details of the previous book, but that ended up not being necessary. This is definitely a character driven kind of story and I do enjoy that, even if the pacing is a little touch and go.

All in all, this was yet another amazing read from Anne Bishop! I’m glad that while Meg’s story might be over that we are still exploring other courtyards/neighborhoods with the Others. While some of them are a bit scary, a few tend to be very entertaining! I’ll be eager to see if Anne continues this spinoff story with other different neighborhoods or if we’ll journey back with these previous two. Only time will tell!

If you’re looking for an amazing character driven story that blends the lines of humanity and Other-ness, then Wild Country will be the book for you! While it is a spinoff series and runs parallel to one of the previous series’ books, I feel like one could read this without prior knowledge of either and still follow along fairly well. With my poor memory, I’m pretty much that kind of reader half the time anyway! This is a fun series that I highly recommend to paranormal fans!


Overall Rating 4/5 stars


Wild Country releases March 5, 2019