Rating: 5 STARS!! Genre: Paranormal Romance/LGBT Standalone/Series: Green Creek #1 How I got this book: Bought Ox was twelve when his daddy taught him a very valuable lesson. He said that Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then he left. Ox was sixteen when he met the boy on the road, the boy who talked and talked and talked. Ox found out later the boy hadn’t spoken in almost two years before that day, and that the boy belonged to a family who had moved into the house at the end of the lane. Ox was seventeen when he found out the boy’s secret, and it painted the world around him in colors of red and orange and violet, of Alpha and Beta and Omega. Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his head and heart. The boy chased after the monster with revenge in his bloodred eyes, leaving Ox behind to pick up the pieces. It’s been three years since that fateful day—and the boy is back. Except now he’s a man, and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them. Trigger warnings: Mental/physical/child abuse.
If you've been reading my blog for a while or you're following me on Twitter, you'll know that TJ Klune has quickly become one of my favourite writers. I can't get enough of his immersive writing style and I absolutely love how diverse his characters and the genres he writes in are. I've only read two other books of his so far, one being a SCI-Fi whilst the other is a more epic fantasy. So far, I've loved everything I've read by this author and Wolfsong is no exception. It all starts with Ox. Sweet, beautiful Ox who's unlike anyone else. He's plagued by the words of his father. Telling him he's too stupid, too dumb, too slow. He's kind. He's strong. He's brave. He's so loving. He's the cornerstone of this whole book and I am in awe of who he is and who he becomes. TJ writes characters that are vivid and diverse. His dialogue is so real that you can just hear it in your head without any effort. Each character is unique and I love the development arcs for each and every one. What's great is that even though Ox is the narrator of this book, you still see so much growth from the others that they all feel like main characters. The romance in this book is a scorching slow burn, friends-to-lovers relationship that builds steadily throughout the book until it consumes you. The plot line is seriously epic, the action is fantastic, the creatures and backstory are so detailed and full of pain, love and ALL THE FEELS that I'm so not over it. Not even a little bit. I love that, whilst there are a lot of darker, tense moments, there's still plenty of humour and there are so many fantastic, complex relationships to explore; friends, brothers, parents, family, pack. I mixed things up a little on this read, sometimes reading the eBook, other times listening to the audio-book and the narration by Kirt Graves was brilliant and so very immersive. Wolfsong draws you in, grabs hold of your heart, tears it apart, repairs the fragments and leaves you not quite whole but wanting more. This is a paranormal shifter novel done absolutely right! If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that the past two weeks have been insane for me. My daughter has changed schools and work has been so busy that I've had almost no time at all to read and I even fell asleep several times trying to listen to an audio book.
Thankfully, I have a little time today so I'm planning on reading as much as possible this evening but thought I'd try to sneak in this post which I've been meaning to do for months since I was first nominated back in July by Noly @ The Artsy Reader Girl and then again in October by Sam @ The Pen in My Pocket. Thank you both so much for the nomination and sorry it's taken me so long to do this! Anyway, here are the rules:
Okay, so I've done 1 and 4 already and since I was tagged twice, I'm going to mix and match some of the questions from both bloggers. Here goes: 1. What’s the last book or film that made you cry? The last book that made me cry was The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune. This book tore my heart out. Seriously, ALL THE FEELS! I have no idea what the last film that made me cry was....the last TV show that made me cry was Teen Wolf (although I'm ashamed to admit that lol) 2. Where do you hope/dream to be 5 years from now (especially with your blog)? I don't really have any specific goals for my blog. I started it because I love to read and I love to talk about the books that I read so it's entirely a labour of love and I'll just keep blogging if it works for me. Right now, I'm really happy with it and so glad that people seem to enjoy reading what I have to say. Personally, I'd really really love to finish some of the books I've started to write. I hit a bit of a block a few months back and I'm struggling with the editing process but I think I'll be really disappointed with myself if I don't finish at least one soon. 3. Do you own any pets? Tell us a bit about them. I have two cats and a dog. My dog is a 5 year old German Shepherd. Her name is Raven (after Mystique in X-Men) and we've had her since she was 8 weeks old. My oldest cat is 6 and his name is Jacob (I was in Twilight phase back then). He's a tuxedo cat. He's handsome and cuddly and the perfect reading companion. My youngest cat is around 16 weeks old. We got him 2 weeks ago from the adoption centre. No one wanted him or his three brothers because they're all black cats (stupid superstitions!!). We fell in love with him and named him Mr. Kindly (see Nevernight by Jay Kristoff) but we also call him Nero. Fun fact, Nero in Italian means black. If you spell Nero backwards, it's Oren which means Ash in Hebrew, so he's a cat of many names. He's the laziest little kitten I've ever known. 4. How did you come up with your blog’s name? The day I decided to create my blog, I was trying to think of a name and was drawn to the word 'shelf', probably because I was staring at my bookcases. Then all of a sudden, the song, 'My Endless Love' came into my head and I decided that My Endless Shelf worked really well because my love for books and stories is endless (as is my TBR!). 5. What helps you get out of a reading slump/any type of slump? Romance novels - the shorter, the better. Re-reading also works particularly well for me so I generally re-read some of my favourites romances which could be anything by R.L. Mathewson, Tara Sivec, Anyta Sunday and Sophie Jordan. 6. Aside from reading and blogging, what do you do on your spare time? Spare time? What's that? lol, I run a business full time, I have a 4 year old, and as mentioned above I have 2 cats and a dog. This leaves almost no time for anything else and so my main hobbies are reading and blogging/writing. Other than that, I'm currently binge-watching a few shows on Netflix including: Teen Wolf, Heartland and Jane the Virgin and I love watching movies when I get the chance. 7. You’ve won the lottery! What’s the first thing you buy? A holiday! I haven't been on holiday in over 10 years so I think I'm overdue. 8. If you could travel back in time, which time period would you choose, and why? This is a fun one. For me it would be either the 80's - awesome rock music and big hair or Jane Austen era for the tranquillity and lack of technology. 9. What character from a book/movie do you best relate to? Iris from The Holiday. She reminds me so much of myself. 10. Who was your first celebrity crush? I can't remember exactly. I think it might have been either Orlando Bloom, Leonardo DiCaprio or Christina Aguilera....some 90's celeb anyway lol 11. What’s your favourite blog post you wrote and why? Link it! At the moment, this is probably my article about romance novels. I was so sick and tired of hearing and of being told that romance novels, 'aren't real books' that I wrote a big article about why they are! Feel free to check it out. Phew! That was a lot of questions. I hope you enjoyed reading my answers. Here are my 11 questions:
Here are my nominations (sorry if you've already done this one):
And that's it! I hope you've enjoyed this post! Fingers crossed I'll be back with a book review sometime soon! Rating: 3.5 STARS Genre: Dark Romance Standalone/Series: Tales of Love & Woe #1 How I got this book: ARC from the author Put away your magic wands and pumpkins. These are not sweet, tender fairy tales. Four flawed heroines. Four classic tales of love and woe retold for modern times... Because there’s never been an easy road to happily ever after. The Lonely Crow—Surrounded by coyotes and unexpected magic, a heartbroken ornithologist becomes the target of a park ranger's aggressive affection. To survive, she must trust the instincts that failed her so completely once already. Goose—After a one-night-stand leaves her belly swollen and reputation in tatters, an unemployed gas-station clerk finds herself at the mercy of her lover’s mother. But if her own troubled childhood taught her anything, it’s that she’ll fight to the death to protect her baby, and that love never comes the way we expect. Rosie Waking—Following her father’s disappearance, a small-town waitress lives wedged under her boss’s thumb until a stranger forces her to view her life through a different lens. Can she decide, once and for all, where loyalty stops and subservience begins? De Rege’s Laundry—When a mob boss’s desperate daughter makes a deal with the devil, she doesn’t expect a handsome ex-soldier to muck it all up. Suddenly, the woman who'd sworn to sacrifice anything for freedom must choose between escape and losing the one person who cares about her happiness. Beautiful and atmospheric, Tales of Love & Woe is 110k word collection exploring modern womanhood through twisted retellings of The Little Mermaid, The Golden Goose and The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, Snow White & Rose Red, and The Twelve Dancing Princesses. While love and kindness are major themes in these stories, the darker sides of human nature are, too. As such, this collection is intended only for a mature audience. After all ... fairy tales were meant to be grim. I decided to read this collection of dark fairy tales over Halloween and 'dark' is almost the wrong word, these stories are heavy and come with a ton of trigger warnings i.e sexual, physical and mental abuse.
I haven't yet read anything else by this author but I really enjoyed her writing style and found myself hooked within just a few pages of the first story. I actually hadn't read the full synopsis before reading the book, and so I wasn't sure which story was connected to which particular fairytale. It turns out that the only story I was already really familiar with was The Little Mermaid and so I picked up on that one immediately whilst reading The Lonely Crow. The heroines in these stories are almost impossibly strong in spite of the suffering, pain and misery they've experienced, and the villains are truly horrifying. Goose was probably my least favourite story from this collection and that's only because the theme of the book resonated too much with me. We all have our fears and I've had more than enough nightmares surrounding someone or something taking my child from me, so whilst I can appreciate the story, it was almost too painful to read at times. I think my favourite story was Rosie Waking, which I actually thought was a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but I guess that wasn't the case. For me, this story was the strongest, and also the most magical. I loved Rosie's story, painful and sinister as it was. The romance in these novels are almost a sub-plot in comparison to the trials and tribulations faced by the heroines, and a lot of the romances were surprising and definitely not what I expected. So, if you're looking for a collection of modern-day fairy tales that are sure to give you chills, make your skin crawl and have you gripping your book in terror, The Tales of Love and Woe novella collection is the one for you! |
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About Kay (She/Her)
Book addict, film mad, music lover, business owner, writer and mum (not necessarily in that order), living in the UK. About Sophie (She/Her)
Sophie loves books (obviously). She has a passion for photography and spotting wildlife, and is interested in anything made with passion and creativity. THIS BLOG IS SPOILER FREE!
Rating system: 5 Stars - AMAZING!! 4.5 Stars - Almost perfect! 4 Stars - I really loved it 3.5 Stars - I liked it alot 3 Stars - I liked it (I don't typically review books that I rate below 3 stars)
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