Werewolf in Alaska (Wild about You, #5)

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

[Angie]

Werewolf in Alaska follows a slightly different formula than the rest of the series, and I really liked that! It took a bit longer for the romance to begin, but it was a fun twist to start with. Rachel and Jake have been across the lake neighbors for three years, admiring each other from afar. Rachel is a wood carver who recently acquired fame, but she still enjoys spying on her sexy neighbor while he skinny dips. Jake, on the other hand, is busying building up his WARM (Weres Against Random Mating) campaign, and avoiding thoughts of his lovely neighbor. But that's hard to do when he owns her first sculpture, a wolf which looks just like him. Staying away is impossible when Jake sees a bear and her cub lingering around Rachel's workshop. He quickly shifts, saves the day, and gets injured. Not one to let a hurt animal slink away, Rachel takes him in, and now Jake is stuck with his secret crush.

I adored the first section of Werewolf in Alaska! Sure, Rachel is kind of dumb for taking in a random wolf that she knows nothing about, but lucky for her, that wolf spends most of his time as a man, so he was no threat. It was funny to watch as Jake tries to figure out how to get away so that he can shift and heal, but Rachel is determined to do things the hard way. Jake crosses the line at being shaved though! Eventually she has to let him go, but she watches as the mysterious wolf lets himself in Jake's house. From there, Rachel does some snooping which leads her to discovering Jake's secret. Now, it's time for him to hold her hostage while they figure this mess out!

There is one aspect of Werewolf in Alaska that didn't fully work for me. When Rachel is tending to Jake as a wolf, she can "sense" what he's thinking. It turns out that they have some special bond where she can hear him and he can hear her, despite her lack of being a Were. This seemed like a convenient plot device to convince Jake of them being soul mates, so he'd drop his strong anti-human stance. However, I think it would have been a nice twist if they had done some digging and discovered that maybe she's a half-breed who didn't get the ability to shift, but has the telepathy to stay connected to other wolves. It would be an interesting development in human-wolf relations.

I really enjoyed Werewolf in Alaska. The romance was a bit more slow moving, but no less steamy! Jake is a bit rough around the edges, but Rachel definitely softens him up. I also really liked how this one felt more connected to the previous book that the others have, since it directly followed the decisions made at #WereCon2012 and showed some of the progress and fall out. The books can be read in any order, but I'd still recommend reading them sequentially to get all of the little details and references.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.