[NetGalley]: "The Wolf Who Loved Me"

The Wolf Who Loved Me by Lydia Dare
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (April 3, 2012)
Series: ? First of a new trilogy, as I understand it...
Genre: Paranormal (Historical) Romance

Summary (Amazon.com):

Regency England Has Gone to the Wolves!

Lady Madeline Hayburn Has Money Problems...

Specifically, she has so much of it that she's dogged by fortune hunters, including her bewilderingly attractive, penniless neighbor, with his wild nature and uncouth manners...

Weston Hadley Has An Identity Crisis...

Specifically, he's just turned into a wolf while Madeline was watching. Now it's up to the regal lady to tame the wild beast...if she can...

Where to Buy*:

Amazon | Kindle | BN.com

More Info:

Author's Site | Excerpt

Other Books Related to The Wolf Who Loved Me:

My Review:

From the moment I picked up The Wolf Who Loved Me I knew that Lydia Dare was going to take me on a wonderful journey. And let me tell you: I was right!

Wes and Maddie's love story was simply divine. It had all the right elements: passion, romance, wit, loveable characters, and even a dash of adventure and paranormal to bind it all together. In other words, it was practically perfect in every way!

I quiet enjoyed the paranormal element, as it is always a bit of a refreshing take to read a paranormal romance (shifters, in this case) set in a historical setting. I'm already a fan of both genres; when they are put together nicely, such as this one was, I'm even happier! I'm very anxious to read more about Dare's Lycans; as much as I loved Wes, his story only managed to wet my whistle about his pack. :)

Maddie's character was a bit hard to like, at least for a while. At the beginning of the book, she came across as strong, not wanting to be ruled by society or men, not wanting to be just married off to the highest bidder. And I respected her for that, I thought “Yeah, a heroine I can love!”. But then she gets together with Wes, and another side to her character comes out. Suddenly, she acts like any other society miss, complaining about things that she needs, even though she knows that Wes does not have the money at that point to provide her with everything she grew up with. This attitude of hers, while done in such a way to still make her character kind of “cute” and likeable, was almost enough to make me hate her on the spot. Her demands simply drove nails into Wes as he realized, again and again, that he was not good enough for her, that he should walk away from her and continue to pine from a distance rather than ruin her for good. But, in the end, she did change (again) to a heroine that I could enjoy a bit more. She wasn't my favorite heroine, but she wasn't a disaster either—I far preferred her to Lucy (the actress that shows up for most of this book), which is a wonderful compliment, really!

I loved Wes. He tried so hard to make himself stay away from Maddie, believing that he wasn't the best man for her. I personally thought that Maddie didn't deserve him—if only because I would like to snatch him up instead! He was charming, he was funny...and most importantly, sexy! Okay, so perhaps the scar on the face did it for me; who doesn't love a “tortured” hero, anyway? (Though I would love to know how he got it; he told bits and pieces of the story, but that was it. I guess I shall have to read Dare's other books to find out).

The romance was great—both sweet and spicy, just the way that I like it. There were so many great quotes and passages along the way that I loved, but here are the ones I settled on to prove this point:

^Favorite “Sweet” Quote:

“When I close my eyes, I dream about you. When I open my eyes, I see you beside me. When I reach out, I can touch you. It's all I've ever dreamed of.” ~ Wes

^Favorite “Spicy” Quote:

“Can we do it like this?” she whispered against his mouth.

He nodded, his lips brushing hers as he did so. “Ride me,” he said softly. Then he rocked her bottom forward and slid his length into her. He groaned loudly as he did so. “It's like coming home,” he whispered, his voice broken by emotion. “God, I love you.” he said.

WOW! See, even in the “spicy” moment, we still got plenty of emotion and romance! These are only a small sample of the fire that burns between Maddie and Wes. Let me tell you—they can definitely make smoke appear while you are reading this book!

4.5 STARS! A fantastic paranormal/historical romance, The Wolf Who Loved Me will provide you with hours of fun; you'll smile, sigh, pant and even laugh a few times! My only regret is that I didn't hold out on reading this book until I picked up the previous books in this series! Although the series isn't one of those where skipping books leads to the reader being confused and lost, it is one of those series where reading all of the stories leads to an increased enjoyment of both the individual books and the series as a whole. I will definitely be putting Dare's other books, past and future, on my list and I plan on journeying back into the Westfield Wolves series as soon as I can!

^This is an ARC copy; these quotes may or may not match what is printed in the finalized copy. Quotes belong solely to the author of this book, not to me in anyway!

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I received this e-book from NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.
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Enjoy!




Until Next Time,

*TBQ's Book Palace is a member of both the Amazon and Barnes and Nobles affiliates program. By using the links provided to buy products from either website, I receive a very small percentage of the order. To read my full disclosure on the matter, please see this post!