Angela Knight
Master of Wolves (2006)
Author: Angela Knight
Genre: Romance (Paranormal)
Plot Summary:
In this bestselling Romantic Times award winner for Best Werewolf Romance of 2006, Jim London, Direkind werewolf, goes undercover, as a K-9 police dog, to investigate the suspicious murder of his childhood best friend (werewolves like Jim can magically shift between human, dog, wolf, and Dire Wolf form). Faith Weston, recently divorced and new to this Clarkston Police Department, heads up the K-9 drug squad, with the newly donated Rambo as her furry partner. Eventually stumbling upon the true cause of the murder, a Mageverse vampire named Celestine and her pack of dark-magic created werewolves, Faith gets entangled with London's investigation, when she gets bit by a werewolf herself, who happens to be a fellow police officer.
Amidst Knight's engrossing mythology of werewolves, vampires, and even the Arthurian legend, lies the developing love story of Jim and Faith. Can she trust her life to this person (or is it animal?) that saved her from death? If she allows herself to open up, could it be true love or just pheromones brought on by the Burning Moon? SPOILER: Ultimately growing sure of her choice to allow herself to love Jim, Faith enters into a telepathic "Spirit Link" with him that bonds them, not just in mind, but in mutual life and death. This act of magic on her part saves Jim's life and allows them to defeat the horde of werewolves guarding the Black Grail that must be destroyed to defeat Celestine and safeguard life in Clarkston and beyond.
Geographical Setting: Clarkston, South Carolina, and The Mageverse
Time Period: Present Day (2006)
Series: Mageverse, Book 3
Appeal Characteristics:
For those that like the romance and fantasy, this story is set in a well constructed universe of simultaneous present-day, middle to lower-middle class reality and an alternate, magical reality. The storyline is developed from a mythology that builds throughout the series of books, with Knight bringing original details to the genre, like the fact that King Arthur and Guinivere are immortal vampires charged with guarding the balance of magic on Earth and that Merlin (actually an alien) created werewolves to keep this power in check.....Suffice to say, the storyline is highly fantastical, but done in a way that, even when bordering on the ridiculous, still makes for an enjoyable, traditionally framed, yet sexually explicit Romance read. The tone is a bit darker than the average Romance, focusing on so-called dark magic and death (and, in some scenes, torture), but the heroism of the protagonists keeps this from ever becoming more than a narrative motivation to champion good defeating evil. This is well balanced with a light, comedic banter between the protagonists that keeps the dark scenes from overpowering the novel. The pacing of the book is quick, with numerous action-oriented scenes of usually violent and bloody battle. The conversational type narrative style compliments this quick pace, allowing for a leisurely readability that does not require too much attention to the mythological detail that can be quite intricate, if one chooses to focus on it. Squeamish or innocent readers take note: this books is filled with lots of blood and sex, both of which are graphically descriptive. Faith is written as an intelligent, independently empowered character who has a "stubborn courage and a commitment to justice". She matches Jim's sometimes overpowering alpha-male/dog/werewolf characterization with ample wit and partnership in battle, though his being her guide through becoming a new werewolf (as her "Wolfmaster") does provide for some bodice-ripping type moments. Ultimately, those that wish to revel in or look past the gore and graphic sex will find a satisfying love story contained within an intriguing fantasy world that would seemingly overpower its classification as a Romance, if not for the frequent sexual trysts between Jim and Faith along the way.
Read-alikes: While each book (and several short stories) in the Mageverse series stands alone with a focus on new characters, some do re-appear as secondary characters in other installments, so going back to Angela Knight's previous book, Master of the Moon, will give you the full story of Jim London's sister, Diana (also a police officer), and her early encounters with her future husband, Llyr Galatyn, the king of Cachamwri Sidhe. The first appearance of the Mageverse comes in an anthology of short stories called Hot Blooded, which also features fellow paranormal romance authors Christine Feehan and Emma Holly. Holly's Catching Midnight would be another good erotic, paranormal romance with an intricate werewolf mythology set in 14th century Scotland. For other similarly toned contemporary paranormal romances, with an comparably high level of sensuality, try New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series. Its southern setting of New Orleans mixed with mythological background details (think Ancient Greece instead of King Arthur) primarily focuses on vampires, but opens up to werewolves in the eighth installment, Night Play, a Romantic Times Best Contemporary Paranormal nominee. For more of a literary read, with elements of historical and gothic romance, and a more aristocratic Southern atmosphere, try Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire. The relationship of the characters here; Lestat as mentor (and unrequited lover) to Louis is similar to that of the position of Wolfmaster Jim must adopt with Faith (though their mutually falling in love does make for a less dark romance than Rice). Knight's fellow Berkeley sensation imprint writer, Rebecca York, has a Romantic detective series, beginning with Killing Moon, about a male detective and female geneticist on the trail of a serial killer, that may be of interest to those looking for slightly less sensuality and more of a focus on the investigative aspect of the plot. And for those looking for a good traditional werewolf film with romance elements, as you may guess, they're aren't many....but Mike Nichols' Wolf does its best, with Michelle Pfeffier and Jack Nicholson's characters falling for each other by the light of the moon. Perhaps more similar to Knight's unique mythological universe are Underworld and its sequel Underworld: Evolution, an action-oriented film story about a strong, female protagonist vampire named Selene who falls in love with a werewolf, whose kind is involved in an ancient war with vampires.
Red Flags: Copious violence and bloodshed (human on human, human on animal, and animal on animal), Occult mythologies, and graphically descriptive sexual situations and language; As the author warns on her website: "if you find your teenaged daughter reading one of my books - take it away from her! My work is intended for adults who like their romances steamy and explicit."
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