Motor City Wolf (Urban Arcana #3) by Cindy Spencer Pape

Released: August 29, 2011
Format: e-book
Publisher: Carina

Source: netGalley / Carina

Less than a year ago, Fianna Meadows was a pampered noble in the Faerie court. Then she was exiled, turned mortal and forced to work for a living—in a werewolf bar in Detroit, no less! Still, Fianna has to admit her new life isn’t so bad…particularly when it comes to Greg Novak, the bar’s sexy owner.

For Greg, keeping his hands off Fianna has been a challenge. But his sense of honor won’t let him get involved with a woman put in his care, even if Fianna is eager to explore her new feelings of lust. Resisting the temptation to claim her gets even harder when Greg’s grandfather, the region’s Alpha, orders him to marry and Fianna agrees to pretend to be his chosen mate.

Fighting his attraction to Fianna isn’t Greg’s only problem. Someone is killing werewolves and attacking other paranormal beings in Detroit. He vows to do whatever it takes protect both his pack and Fianna—even if that means giving her up…

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Once again, I’m grateful to netGalley and Carina Press for an advance copy of this book.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I enjoy Cindy Spencer Pape‘s books quite a lot. They’re great happily-ever-after paranormal romances with nicely developed characters and well-paced plots. As before, I feel compelled to mention that these are definitely adult books, as the author has put in a lot of sexual content, about on par with what you’d find in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Merry Gentry series (or some of her later Anita Blake books). Even if you start skimming over the scenes (which happens to me after the second or third many-pages encounter), you’ll still find a great story at the heart of the book. In Motor City Wolf, that story’s all about figuring out who’s trying to kill werewolves. It’s a great plot that builds on the events of the two previous novels, but not in a way that means you have to have read Motor City Fae and Motor City Witch to understand what’s going on in Motor City Wolf. Instead, there are references to prior events but they’re well written and flow seamlessly with the narrative.

Fee and Greg are great characters. If you’ve read the other Urban Arcana stories, you knew that their romance was inevitable but I’m so glad that we get to read it now instead of further along in the series. Fee’s grown so much since Motor City Fae and it’s great to see her embracing her human life with the pack. And by having Greg as the main man, we get to learn more about werewolf society in Cindy Spencer Pape’s world, which is great. Much like other novels with werewolves, there are smaller packs overseen by a more powerful wolf, in this case Greg’s grandfather Ivan, who is Prime to all the packs, much like Bran in Patricia Briggs‘ Mercy Thompson series. Greg and Ivan have a fractious relationship and it was a lot of fun to see how their relationship has influenced Greg’s decisions.

The one thing I didn’t like about Motor City Wolf is the cover. The previous two novels had really nice ones and this one is in keeping with the style of the first two but there’s something about the guy, who’s presumably Greg, that didn’t work for me. He just doesn’t look as tough as Greg is in my mind. And he seems too lanky. But it’s a minor quibble. I just had to mention it. (Longtime readers will know that covers are a big deal to me.)

Next book: Lana and Des? It seems like sparks were flying between these two in Motor City Witch. Time will tell if my guess is right. I sure hope so!