Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Book Review: LONGING FOR SHELTER by Alex Jane (Alpha's Homestead #3)


 LONGING FOR SHELTER
by Alex Jane

Alpha's Homestead #3
Word Count: ~98,000
Genre: M/M shifter romance


Blurb

Seth Mason arrives at the Alphas’ Homestead under duress. The Council have made it clear that if his cousins, Caleb and Jacob, can’t tame Seth’s wild ways his very last chance will be used up and he’ll have nowhere left to go.

Seth is horrified to find that he’s going to have to spend a year living in the backwaters of Nebraska. He hates the Alphas. He hates the dirt and the horses. He hates the nearby town and everyone in it.

In fact, the only thing he doesn’t hate is Malcolm, the deputy sheriff. Unfortunately, Malcolm doesn’t seem to feel the same, especially when Seth uses his bad behavior to try to get the deputy’s attention.

Jacob feels for Seth—knowing what it’s like to lose family—but when his cousin’s bad behavior turns the town, not only against Seth but against all the werewolves at the homestead, he has to put his sympathies aside and fight to save his family and the place he’s called home for the last five years.

Sometimes the only shelter we can find from ourselves is in the hearts of others.



Carra's Review

I really have been enjoying this series, the characters are ones that have become like family me and I've become quite invested in their happiness.  The introduction of Seth to the homestead serves as a great injection of angst with his painful past, and of tension thanks to his holier-than-thou attitude.  But stories where characters like this get taken down a peg or two, and where they experience plenty of growth...those are some of my favorites to read.

Yes, Seth has had tragedy in his life.  The loss of his family, his pack, and how it happened is enough to have you feeling for him.  But his snooty, let-someone-else-do-the-work attitude played a big part in negating a lot of those sympathetic feelings his past evoked for me.  This is where the character growth and development comes into play, and the author did a fantastic job of turning Seth around so that as a reader I was loving him again by the end of the book.

I think it would be impossible not to love Mal's character.  He knows discrimination and hatred just like Seth and his family, though for a different yet similar reason.  Things between the two of them develop slowly, and the story was not only concentrated on them which for me did split my attention a bit.

Revisiting all of the characters from the first two books was definitely a pleasure, and a lot of the plot revolved around them as well (the split I just referred to).  That said, I would definitely recommend reading the first two books before starting this one to get the background; while you could probably read on its own, you'll enjoy it much more by reading the stories of this series in order.  

Overall Longing for Shelter was a 4-star read for me.  I think if it had devoted a higher concentration of the story to Seth and Mal, with the rest of the characters' lives being a continuing sideline that would go on in future books in the series, I probably would have bumped that rating up.  Regardless, this series is still really good, and if you're a fan of historical M/M shifter romance (and even if you're not but want a change of pace) then you're going to want to get started on this if you haven't already.  While tamer than the first two books of this series, I'd still put this as a 18+ read.


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