Author: Carrie Pulkinen
Genre/Age: Paranormal Romance/Adult
Series: Crescent City Wolf Pack (Book One)
Publisher: Self-published
Format: ebook via The Romance Reviews
Rating: ✺✺✺✺
Links: Goodreads
Synopsis: When the alpha's love for his fated mate is forbidden, he'll risk everything to hold her.
Detective Macey Carpenter has been on the trail of a vicious attacker for weeks, with nothing more than a vague description of a red-eyed man to go on. She has no clue she’s hunting demons, and if the evidence doesn’t stop disappearing, she’ll never solve the case.
Before Luke Mason becomes alpha of the Crescent City Wolf Pack, he has to end the French Quarter’s demon infestation and keep the police from discovering the truth. But when he falls head over tail for the feisty detective investigating the crimes, supernatural secrets aren’t the only things at stake.
Luke has to mate with another werewolf or he’ll sacrifice his position as alpha. But as heat builds between the pair, he discovers Macey has a few secrets of her own. She may hold the key to ridding New Orleans of its demons, but his feelings for her could tear the pack apart.
Macey fell for... the leader of the pack...
When Macey's current case leads her to a handsome and mysterious man, she isn't sure if she should follow her heart or her head. Luke seems to live a complicated life and Macey has her own hands full with her detective work. To make matters worse, she is starting to wonder if her mystical gift isn't the only supernatural occurrence happening in the city. But does she really believe that werewolves are real? Or demons?
Luke knows werewolves are real because he is one. And he knows this pull he feels to Macey is because she's supposed to be his mate. It's unfortunate that he can't be with her due to the rule that alphas can only mate with other werewolves. While he tries to figure out how to handle his growing affection for the feisty human detective that he can't have, he has to deal with the multiplying demons threatening the city. And time is running out.
This is the first book of the series and we're immediately tossed into the middle of an ongoing investigation into rapes of women by demons. The bad guys are pretty vicious, though we don't see a lot of the graphic details, at least until the brief action sequence near the end. There isn't a lot of gore, but the tone of the story was sort of dark, so don't expect a light and fluffy paranormal romance. This has more grit than that.
I think the one thing that I didn't love about the story was how stubborn and overly-feminist the heroine was. I can handle a strong woman, but it seemed like Macey tried a little too hard to be independent. I was in the military, so I understand that it's hard to be a woman in a mostly male profession. However, she insinuated early in the story that there is something wrong with a woman choosing to take care of the home and family, instead of working. There isn't.
But that was really my only complaint and it's not a very big one. Macey's stubbornness does get in the way of her happy ending a few times, but that's only one of the conflicts in the story. There is also an ambitious pack member who wants to take Luke's job as alpha. And you can't forget about the fact that Luke can't even mate with a human to begin with. Oh, and there might be a demon running around and raping women to impregnate them with demon babies. So yeah, there's a lot going on here.
The pacing is steady and the story never lulled for me. It did take me a while to read it, but only because work and family obligations always seemed to get in the way. Yet, it was easy enough to pick up and continue, no matter where I had left off. I'm curious to see who in the pack will find their mate next and whether a certain rogue werewolf will end up joining the pack. I liked her character quite a bit.
In closing...
A paranormal romance with demons, witches, werewolves, and more. Four suns!
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