Wolf Hunts

The Stoneridge Pack, Book 1

De: CJ Cooke

Narrado por: Connor Brown, Sienna Frances

How can you escape the hunt when everybody is hunting you?

Calli was born an impossibility. With the dual soul of a shifter and the natural magic of a witch, she was the first known shifter/witch hybrid. But in a world where witches hunt wolves to siphon their magic, and wolves kill witches, no questions asked, could she ever hope to find a place where she belonged?

When Calli's parents, a shifter and a witch, met and realized their mating would never be accepted, they went into hiding from both the Coven and the Pack. Despite living this way, Calli and her brother had grown up in a happy and loving home. After her parents are killed in a car crash one night, Calli's world spirals out of control. Now the guardian of her five-year-old brother, Jacob, they flee to America to hide. In Arbington, Calli and Jacob settle into the safe house their parents had set up. Even in death, they were watching out for them, but they soon discover a small wolf pack lives in the same town. Battling her confusing emotions towards the shifters only complicates things forcing Calli to make a decision. Trust her parents and stay? Or was it time to run again?

Contains mature themes.

©2021 CJ Cooke (P)2022 Tantor

Love this story

Omg this story was so so good I was just so excited every time every sec perfect story.

Loved it

I can't wait to read book two. I'm already emotionally connected. Give me more please.

A great story! But not the norm werewolf kind.

This new version was easy to follow and held a nice story! I enjoyed this book and will be listening to the next 3!

I enjoyed it

This is a reverse harem, which I didn't realize going in but I still enjoyed the book. Typically with reverse harems I'm rolling my eyes, but they did a good job setting it up in a way that isn't so unbelievable I suppose, I guess it made more sense in this story then a lot of the ones I've listened to. I found the world intriguing and the characters interesting. It deals with grief, and the female lead was likeable and just trying her best to deal with this work she'd been thrown into. She wasn't a damsel or at all helpless, but it wasn't like she wrote up one day and was over powered either; it was really refreshing. I also thought both narrators did a great job. I quickly got through both books in the series, and I'm looking forward to the next.

Emotional

there were parts I just wanted to cry can't wait wait to read book two

Took a min to get use to the narration

After getting use to both narrators it was a pretty good listen.
Not much spice but good drama.

Great story.

Love the story, just the right amount of spice. I can't wait to listen to the next book. Has me emotionally invested.

Above and beyond what I expected

Content Warnings: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, depression, talk of rape and Death of parent

A fun, action packed, fast moving, why choose. Witches, Werewolves, Vampires, humans, corruption, Fated mate and loss of one family to find another. This book is up and down. There are laugh out loud moments, sad moments and "how the hell are you gonna get out of this mess" moments. The MFC does deal with depression throughout the book and there is some talk of rape (if that's a trigger be warned). The spice is there but it isn't every other chapter, considering it's a why choose/reverse Harem it's actually pretty tame. There is also child kidnapping and attempted murder of a pregnant woman and this her unborn child. Again, if that's triggering keep that in mind. It's not a dark romance, even with the trigger warnings, it's a romance novel with a plot. If you took out the spice it would still be a great read. This book doesn't exactly end on a cliffhanger but it's also not a stand alone as everything isn't wrapped up all nice and neat at the end. If you like books that have some spice, have characters you can connect with, paranormal, books with a plot and aren't predictable, characters who tend to jump head first and don't always think things through, underdogs fighting for themselves and others, found families and fated mates, I would highly recommend this book. If you have read Dannika Dark's Seven series, this reminds me of that. Small pack fighting against everyone. (Not the same but similar and if you haven't read that series and world also highly recommend if you like this series).

An interesting hybrid/shifter book!!

The narrators were really good and the plot was interesting. The characters and world building was intriguing and it was a twist on other shifts books I’ve read. Steam it’s in the low to medium a few scenes nothing overwhelming and the drama keeps you invested. I don’t want to say too much because am sure I will spoil the story but worth a credit.

Grief and sorrow. Boring.

I finally came around to finishing this story months after I first started it. I am effectively cutting my rating in half today.

-----

Original review:

I still have 5 hours left to go. At this point I need to take a break because the level of grief that is infused into this story is starting to be too much for me. I too have lost a parent. If you are looking for an upbeat, exciting story, this isn't it.

This is one of the better romantic fantasy stories I have come across lately. There is a surprising amount of depth to it. The female character (Calli) is likeable and resourceful, and a truly nice and caring person. If you are sick and tired of the callous, entitled and/or stupid female characters you can frequently find in "modern" romantic fantasies, this is a truly refreshing read. Calli is "special", but she isn't overpowered or invincible. She is able to lean on others to help her.

The pacing of this story feels a bit slow. There is plenty going on, but it also kinda feels like we are treading water. Solving problems doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere closer to a "solution" or "ending". I suppose that's because there is no "goal" besides "keep people safe". It is very clear that there will always be more problems. I don't know what needs to happen for the story to be "done". (Oh, I've just realized that this is part of a series, not a standalone book. Now things make more sense. I am hoping the grief won't be quite as present later on, or else I will struggle to get through the series.)

As another reviewer has mentioned, this is a reverse harem story (3 males). I wish it weren't. But there is enough other stuff going on that it's possible to look past that. In some ways it is a slow burn (mostly when it comes to physical intimacy). But in other ways the relationships form very quickly and they become a wholesome, caring family almost overnight.

The narration could be better. The accents / voices are a bit cringe-worthy at times. But 99% of the time I know who is speaking. The narration is rarely immersion-breaking. I've stopped thinking about British English vs American English. Calli and her brother are from the UK. The way Calli has been adapting to a US lifestyle has been adorable to watch.

-----

Update, months later:

I am slogging my way through the rest of book #1. For some reason, it didn't sit well with me that I never finished it. I am curious about the ending.

When I realized that the total runtime of this book was just shy of 15 hours, I was surprised. So far, this book has felt like 28 hours - and not in a good way.

This author excels at destroying the story's momentum.

Example: The reader was told what the next critical plot point was - an important action the protagonists need to take. But for some reason that important task was delayed to the following day. First, there needed to be dinner. And we needed to indulge Jacob's "cuteness", and 2-4 different POVs had to dwell endlessly on a bunch of random things they could be worried about - with lots of redundancy / repetition between the POVs. Then we had to go to bed, and we had to eat breakfast the next morning. Oh, and some other stuff needed to be worried about at great length by at least 2 people. And then some other stupid task seemed more important. And then, finally, we got around to the life changing, pivotal event I had been looking forward to. Which turned out to be a boring, anticlimactic, physically painful 5min ceremony that could have easily been squeezed in the previous day no problem.

I am listening to the story's climax now, and the author is killing the momentum in every conceivable way. The action is happening off screen. I suffered through many minutes of one character being angsty and angry at a side character who showed up in this story very recently. When it was time for that POV to take action, we cut away from him and switched to Calli - who had just awoken from a nap and is now having a calm conversation with 2 other people - including a little girl who needs nonstop reassurance and coddling. There is no action in this room. Just waiting for stuff to happen. The reader knows that exciting stuff is happening. But the reader has effectively been locked inside a waiting room with Calli. No fun and action for you, reader! No, you are only granted access to the heads of people who have time to worry about all sorts of random crap nobody cares about.

I am relieved that this book is finally over. Do I regret having started it? Maybe a little. There were some interesting concepts in here. A lot of missed opportunity.