Teddy Pig’s review of Cascadia Wolves: Wolf Unbound by Lauren Dane
Paranormal Erotica Romance published in ebook by Samhain 1 Jan 08

That’s it. I do not know how you guys find time during the holidays to actually sit down and focus on an eBook. You people are not human you must be alien super readers with abilities I obviously do not have. I suck! No, I do not just suck, I suck mighty BIG TIME! So anyway, sorry it took so long but I was trapped in a line at Best Buy during the half-off-all-DVDs-sale and they just sent in the police to break it up. It’s sad to see people beating each other bloody over box sets of The Best of Jerry Springer.

I am happy to report while I was waiting in line and ducking the occasional thrown punch I was finally able to crack open this little Christmas goody Angela, the eGoddess of Samhain and ruler of all things eClassy and eTasteful whom I eWorship, sent to me like an ePiphany from the heavens. So on with our reView.

	For those of you joining us late in the game here Wolf Unbound is actually the fourth book in the killer Cascadia Wolves series. The first was the glorious eBook Enforcer which introduced us to this world of werewolves and Nina, the sharp tongued human hacker girl, and Lex, her mate with the fur and the mega badass guns & ammo collection. I loved this world immediately and I liked the story and I liked Lauren’s writing but sad to say Nina’s jokes got just a tad bit repetitive which is not good for the main heroine character. It got a Grade: B for being a fun read but a little annoying
	Then along came Reluctant which I tried to like but felt the heroine Layla was just too TSTL for words especially with the complex world Lauren had built and the fact a full blooded werewolf vixen like Layla (you’ve got me on my knees, Layla, I’m begging, darlin’ please) should have worked out all those known werewolf-like issues supposedly suddenly thrust upon her pure blood werewolf ass. It was a short story, thank god, so I just ignored it, like much of Eric Clapton’s career, with a Grade: D.
	Then came Tri Mates and that was one JUICY book. It’s about Cade and Lex’s sister, Tracy, and her mates, Nick and Gabe, and the ever darkening world around them. Really good stuff in that one (Read it!) and a solid Grade: A.

So right off the bat in Wolf Unbound here we get to see our old friends the wild widow Tegan Warden (our heroine for this book and the Enforcer’s right hand chick in charge), Cade (the pack Alpha), Lex (his brother the Enforcer), and the ever sharp tongued Nina (the pain in their collective butts). Nina let fly some pretty good zingers this book, Go Lauren. I really enjoyed Nina in this book. In fact I really enjoyed Nina, Lex and Cade in this book because they honestly felt like a real family and that is one of Lauren’s strengths as a writer. It’s also the reason I liked the Chase Brothers books because Lauren has a great feel for working class families and the interactions between them.

In this story Lauren really leverages that approach and the werewolves as a whole do not come across as this bunch of overly privileged suck faces. They fight, they argue, they duck out when grandma comes around, and you get the feeling they have money problems amongst other private issues and have to work for a living. That so rocks! I think werewolves would have trouble in society and they would end up having to work together to get by. Which is why despite a couple of missteps (Tracy, Nick and Gabe getting all in the way for no reason at Tegan’s house) I really enjoyed having the old crew come back to provide that family feeling that permeates Tegan’s world. It’s Werewolves LLC!

The WTF parts… Um, there were a few moments right at the beginning where I thought Joey W. Hill was guest writing. I mean, what was the whole Ryan “the Gay Vampire” and his boy Elroy? There have been vampires in this world before? Did I miss the memo? The whole BDSM club deal. Is everyone hanging out at these places now? I mean, I am into BDSM and all but I do not hang out at BDSM clubs. The secret is most BDSM clubs suck ass because the only people who bother to go need help and boy the last time I went I kept repeating to myself under my breath what my momma always told me, “Do not flaunt what you do not got!”

The GREAT parts… The world building went into high gear for this book and boy did it keep things interesting. Warren Pellini and his Werewolf Mafia are back on crack and baby he ain’t taking no prisoners this time. Well he does, but that’s just giving way too much information. Let’s just say if you have been following the series you have got to read this book ASAP. Things are getting wild and woolly. Hell, I would have read these books to follow this back-story alone because it is so good. Lycanthorpy Viruseses and all.

My conscience is nagging me though. I do not think this book stands very well on its own and that is what it comes down to in my grade here. We get told far too much about what happened to the young, vivacious Tegan and not shown enough. Why not show us the day Lucas died? Why recount it to us constantly? That would have so fixed most of the problems at the beginning of the book and some of the repetition later on because there would have been no need for that extra stuff. I really kept wanting to see internally how Tegan grew and got to this point of a second chance at love and I personally felt the lack of that showcasing a main character seriously left this a book you should only read after you have read all the others and are invested in this world and these great characters.

On that note, I highly recommend, for a good time, reading all the Cascadia Wolves series which gets a solid Grade: B from me on the whole. This book by itself gets a…

Grade: C

Blurb:

     Blurb: 

     Overshadowed by the rising threat of the werewolf mafia, Ben and Tegan struggle to stand united.

     A Cascadia Wolves story

     Werewolf Enforcer Tegan Warden has been alone since the death of her mate four years ago. Until she meets Ben Stoner at a local club and she feels something she thought died inside her. Things move very quickly and she finds herself mated to a human man who’s not altogether sure he wants a forever kind of love with a woman he’s just met.

     Ben realizes in short order Tegan is not only worth forever love, but a woman who’ll stand at his side without tolerating anything other than a full partnership.

     In the bedroom it’s another story, as Ben has finally found a sexual submissive with a spark, and Tegan a man worthy of her submission. Together they work toward building a permanent relationship even as the specter of danger from the Pellini Group grows in the world of wolves.

     All around them, the rising violence threatens the Packs and the only thing they know for certain is one another.

     Warning: Naughty language that might get your mouth washed out with soap, domineering alpha males knocked down a few pegs by their women, smoking hot bedroom action including always consensual BDSM type action, werewolf mafia and the violence that loves them.

     Read an excerpt.