How to Run with a Naked Werewolf (Naked Werewolf, #3)

by Molly Harper

Down, Boy

Anna Moder has just witnessed a shooting, seen her car pulverized, and rescued a wounded stranger only to discover he’s really a werewolf. And by her recent standards, things are actually looking up. Lycanthropes don’t faze Anna. Doctoring a wolf pack outside Grundy, Alaska, is the closest thing to home life she’s known in years. But hitching a ride to Anchorage with long-absent pack member Caleb Graham—that’s a risk. Part of her itches to whack his nose with a newspaper. The rest is trying unsuccessfully to keep her own paws off every delicious inch of him.

The problem is—Caleb employs his lupine tracking abilities as a notquite- legal bounty hunter, and Anna is suspicious of both him and his profession. On the run from her past, with old problems closing in, she’d like to stay far, far away from anybody with connections to the law. Caleb, however, seems determined to keep her close. Are his intentions noble, or is he working a more predatory angle?

Anna’s been dreaming of returning to a semi-normal life, but now she’s experiencing a strange new urge . . . to join Caleb in running with the wolves.

• ISBN10: 1476706026
• ISBN13: 9781476706023
• Publish Date: 31 December 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Pocket Books
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Melanie]

Review originally posted at RabidReads.com.

Part of a series review

In the last book in this series (or at least the last one that has been published at this time), the heroine is Anna. She was the doctor for the wolfpack, but she has now left the pack and is out on her own. She’s on the run from her abusive husband that she’s been hiding from for years. Caleb is a werewolf that has gone lone wolf. He works as a bounty hunter and brings in guys either because there is a warrant out for their arrest or because someone in the private sector is paying for them to be brought in, usually because that person owns someone of power money.

“Please don’t mix Marvel and DC references. You’re better than that,” he said, shaking his head disdainfully.

I shook off the Norman Bates flashbacks and told myself it was just like any of the other crappy indigent motels I’d stayed at in any number of cities, and I hadn’t been stabbed in the shower yet. There was that one time a crazy lady kicked down my door and accused me of sleeping with her husband, but it turned out she’d meant to break into the room across the hall.

“What are you running from?”
That put a damper on the fluttering lashes. “Columbia House Music Club,” I said, recovering my snarkiness quickly. “Oh, sure, they say they’ll sell you six CDs for a penny, but they’ll hunt you down like the hounds of hell if you miss the payments.”

This is a really fun series and revisit for me. There is an individual storyline for each book, so you can read them in whatever order you want. However, new characters are introduced in each book, so you won’t know the nuances with each of them, but you will still get the story. This is a great series for people who love werewolves and especially humor. If you’ve read the Jane Jameson series or the Half Moon Hollow series by Molly Harper, this takes place in the same world and there are a few little Easter eggs for those readers. If you haven’t read those series, you will not be lost with this one. This was my first series with Molly Harper.

As you can see from the quotes that I picked from each book, the dialogue is the best part of this series (and all of Molly Harper’s books, in my opinion). She is a go-to author for me when I need a pick-me-up. She is always able to make me laugh.

Narration
Anything by Molly Harper is a must listen for me. I love Amanda Ronconi’s narration of Harper’s work. She really brings out the snark of all the characters. I love her use of different types of Southern voices and the Alaskan voices.

[Berls]

My Initial Reaction...

I launched into How to Run with a Naked Werewolf immediately after finishing The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf, eager to continue watching the lives of my favorite Alaskan community. And once again, I was shocked and disappointed. Someday I will learn to read the synopsis for this series (assuming it's not over), since had I read it, I would have known that How to Run with a Naked Werewolf did NOT actually take place in Grundy, Alaska with the Colombian Basin Pack.  And yet somehow, it's my favorite book in the Naked Werewolf series so far. 

The Narration...

I know you have to be sick of me praising Amanda Ronconi - I'm almost tired of it. And yet, she continues to deliver fantastic performances. She just GETS the characters and makes them come to life, complete with appropriate differentiation between characters and of course, her trademark snark. I recommend any book read by her.

The Characters...

How to Run with a Naked Werewolf is told from the point of view of Anna, whose connected to the Columbian Basin Pack we love by being their former doctor. Their former doctor on the run. Anna was hiding out with the pack (though they didn't know it) because she was running from her husband. He got controlling and abusive and she finally had enough. But he's the type that won't let her go - and now he's caught her scent again, so she's on the run again. As you can imagine, her experiences have made Anna a bit skiddish, particularly around men. She doesn't trust them (or anyone, really). But at the same time, she's a strong chic, even if she's not fully aware of it. I mean, it takes a lot to run away from that life, not to mention to become a doctor to werewolves!

And it's lucky for Caleb that she's been a werewolf doctor, because when she first meets him it's saving his butt. He's injured in a shoot out and she helps him escape and then tends to his wounds. It takes her only minutes to realize that he's healing way too fast and that he must be a werewolf too. In fact, she figures out quickly EXACTLY who he is. He's also connected to the Columbian Basin Pack - he grew up there, but with his father's death, he doesn't spend much time there. Instead, he's a bounty hunter, putting his wolfy skills to money making use. He's sort of what you'd expect in a bounty hunter - he's got a job to do and he's doing it - pushing emotions aside. But he's got a softer side, which Anna totally brings out in him.

The Story...

So the story for How to Run with a Naked Werewolf revolves around this massive road trip basically. Anna has to get to her new papers and life, Caleb has jobs to do on the way, so he takes her along with him. What makes it really fun is that Anna doesn't tell Caleb that she knows who he is - so he thinks he has to hide that he's a werewolf from her. Waiting to see that shoe drop was entertaining - I kept thinking it was going to happen and then it wouldn't!

The other really fun part of this plot was seeing their relationship grow, despite Anna's lies. They fall into this comfortable friendship. She gradually opens up to him and he gradually relaxes around her. She starts helping him with his work - doing all his paperwork and organizing his jobs - of course she's doing it to push him along towards her destination more quickly, but it turns into this perfect relationship. And all the while they're flirting, but never crossing that line. And you're waiting for that shoe to drop too - when will they realize that they're falling in love?

Concluding Sentiments...

As always with these books, there was tons of humor of the sassy and snarky kind. You've got a snarky heroine and an overprotective wolf, which Molly has proven time and again makes for a fanastic combo. Loved every minute!

[EBookObsessed]

Anna Moder is on the run again. Actually, Anna Moder isn’t even her real name. That’s the name she took on when she made it up to Alaska and went to work as the doctor for a werewolf pack in a little village in the valley outside of Grundy. Now she had to leave her sweet little house and her new friends, because he has found her once again.

Anna has been on the run from her husband for over three years now. Since her husband is a psychotic, controlling, computer genius, it has been impossible to make him her ex-husband and to get him out of her life. She tried to move to Florida to get away from him, but it seems stealing all her money and destroying her credit rating wasn’t enough fun for him, and he showed up at her front door to break her jaw and drag her back. With no way to protect herself from a man determined to control her or kill her, she has been running as far and as fast as she can.

With the help of an underground organization to help women like her, she has been able to change her identity and stay under her husband’s radar, but now she needs to get to Anchorage to pick up a new identity and get a new place to run. She didn’t expect to walk into the middle of a gun fight or feel the need to protect the stranger being attacked. Nor did she expect the stranger to be a werewolf.

Caleb Graham (former citizen of the valley) is on the road working as a not-quite-legitimate bounty hunter. He is willing to take Anna to Anchorage as a thanks for her saving him, but he just has to do a few errands on their way. Neither Anna or Caleb seem to mind that that his errands are keeping her from getting to Anchorage too fast as they team up to track down their wayward prey.

But Caleb and Anna are both hiding secrets which will destroy their budding relationship. Once those secrets come to light, will they be able to forgive or will they need to walk away?

THOUGHTS:
I really love the lighthearted fun to be found in every Molly Harper book. This was the best way to pass a snow day. After a storm closed my office, I wanted to make good use of my bonus day and chose a book I didn’t get to read during the chaotic holidays. I was enjoying Caleb and Anna’s story so much I had it done in an afternoon.

Caleb and Anna spent their time running around Alaska, never really getting anywhere, and mostly getting to know each other which just made for an entertaining story. Some paranormal series are intense, but I just love the carefree fun and great one-liners which make up a Molly Harper book.

This is definitely an amusing story with fun characters, and although we do have a get together at the end with Mo, Cooper, Maggie and Nick, the story is mostly the new characters of Caleb and Anna.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.