Wilderness by Dennis Danvers

       I am pleasantly surprised by "Wilderness." It's easy to be cliche with things like werewolves and vampires, but Dennis Danvers pulls off the werewolf story with crisp but endearing language. I love Alice, the lonely werewolf looking for love (that turns into an actual wolf by the way). She's concise and practical with a slight masculine quality. But as the book goes on you see bits and pieces of a vulnerable side and, by the end of it, you just want the girl to be happy.
        The author put Barry Lopez's "Of Wolves and Men" to good use. Instead of pulling on just folklore, Danvers pulls on the biology of the wolf and how it relates to other wolves. You get an honest feel for the creature and the confusion between the wolf and the woman.
       This is definitely a love story with very little cheese. Although there's not a lot of sex, the writing style is definitely charged and, at times, erotic. But this is not erotica. It's more a tale of being lonely and finding someone to love. Dark but sweet.
       And because great books don't always have good endings, I have to give a shout out to the author for the one he came up with. Loved, loved LOVED it. You see Alice come full circle and it makes you want to sing.
         
         Unfortunately, the new cover (below) makes me want to wretch. The publisher should have stuck with the old one (above) to avoid looking like your stereotypical paranormal romance. Don't let this cover deter you!

Book Synopsis from Goodreads: Alice White has a secret. There is no friend or family member she can confide in—and she cannot trust it to the strangers she chooses for the fevered one-night stands that are as close as she dares come to love. Then she meets Erik Summers, college professor and biologist, who draws Alice from her cage, igniting a passion within her that she can't control or deny. Though he shares her fire and a deep spiritual and emotional kinship, Erik recoils from Alice's apparent delusions and dark truths. But in the vast Canadian wilderness, he will be forced to confront a staggering reality—when the moon shines down on Alice White . . . and the change begins again.

*Author Tidbit: This book was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel

The Author