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The timeline for Wild Country blends with the happenings of Book 5 of The Others series. In Etched in Bone , Simon and Vlad are interviewing possible candidates to resettled the western town of Bennett which lost all it humans citizens in retaliation of the attacks by the Humans First and Last Movement.
One of the main characters is police officer Jana Paniccia, who graduated the police academy as the first woman officer but who couldn't find a job in a men-only profession. The Lakeside Courtyard is unconcerned with the fact that she is female, they are more concerned that the Wolfguard sheriff in Bennett would eat he new human deputy. They need a human officer in Bennett because the current sheriff is wolfgard and after losing his pack, including his mate and pups to the attacks by the HFL, Virgil is still hostile to the humans arriving in Bennett. Jana simply hopes that she can find acceptance in the mixed-town of Bennett but more importantly, she wants a chance to be a real police officer.
Both are law officers, but Jana and Virgil aren't always on the same side of the line. Virgil's beliefs are usually to bite anyone who is causing trouble and even eat them if they cause too much trouble, and while still a shiny, new officer, Jana is trying to veer Virgil towards arresting and prosecuting bad guys. Jana desperately wants to be accepted into the Police pack but she first has to understand the wolves. Virgil and Jana's dominance battles can also be noted when Jana adopts a puppy and they don't agree on the proper way to raise him. It is Tobias Walker, the Intuit from Prairie Gold, who tries to make Jana understand that she is thinking like a human and Virgil thinks like a wolf; Jana needs to understand her boss, a dominant wolfguard enforcer if she is going to survive and be accepted in Bennett.
The funniest part is that while Virgil continues to have issues with humans, he is not sure how he feels about Jana. Is she, as a human, an enemy; or is she, as an officer, part to his pack? But he is convinced that, even though it is impossible for terre indigene and humans to breed, his feisty deputy must be part wolverine since she acts like she is a bigger predator than she is and while he most often wants to bite her, he respects that she isn't easily cowed.
We have met several of the characters in Bennett in Etched in Bone. There are several people from Prairie Gold (the small ranching town to the South) as well as John Wolfgard to leaves the Lakeside Courtyard to run the bookstore in Bennett and help repopulate the Wolfguard pack. Tolya Sanguinati who left Toland to run Bennett. We also find out that some of the nice people from Prairie Gold are hiding dark secrets. While the Elders (Namid's teeth and claws) purged a lot of humans after the HFL attacks, they can't tell good humans from bad, so not everyone heading for Bennett is looking for a new life...some humans are arriving looking to see what they can fleece from the abandoned houses and the naive citizens of Bennett. Some are even looking to take over the town from the terre indigene, not knowing that the only reason the town is allowed to have human citizens is because the terra indigene control it. If these new arrivals take over the town, then the Elders will simply finish where they left off. After all, humans are still only clever meat.
While we want to see harmony between the humans and terre indegine, there will still be a part of you siding with the Others and saying "someone eat that guy."
This town is portrayed as being like an old frontier town which gives this story a whole different flair than the other stories. Towns have been but off across Thaisia. Communication between cities is limited and towns like Bennett in the west, cannot contact cities like Lakeside or Ferryman's Landing in the east. The only safe way to travel is train. Horses are used within the town limits since gasoline is scarce and expensive. The saloon has everyone dressed in costumes to promote the old-time frontier theme.
We also see that while Bennett is a mixed community of terra indigene, humans, simple life and Intuits, it is not just humans who are closed minded. We still see prejudices, and not just in the outlaws coming who want to take the town from the terre indigene. We meet one of the pantherguard and his adopted brother who is part Intuit and part cassandra sangue and while they are accepted by the town, Jana has to step in to protect two human males who adopted some orphaned terre indigene children and hope to find acceptance in this new community.
It was so intriguing to watch the reemergence of this new/old frontier town and absolutely tension-filled as we watch the outlaws work their way toward Bennett and Prairie Gold and see their intentions for the town become darker and darker. It was such a great story and such a great series which is a must read for Urban Fantasy/Fantasy lovers. I enjoyed the audiobook narration but couldn't pass up the change for an ARC except now I have to wait another year to see what happens next. The pain of waiting is a direct indication of how good a series this is.
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Reading updates
- Started reading
- 25 January, 2019: Finished reading
- 25 January, 2019: Reviewed