Queerwolf, Rob Rosen

Not your typical werewolf story.

-Review by Cindi

Blake is having a bad day.  He wakes up on a ferry completely nude and in a pool of blood.  He has no memory of how he got there, where his clothes are or whose blood is all over him.  His last memory is of being on a date and excusing himself to go to the men's room.  After that, he is completely blank.  He makes his way back to his apartment building thanks to the loan of a coat and cab fare.  Of course, with his clothing being gone, so are his wallet, cell phone and apartment keys.  Conveniently, his hot neighbor, Ted, is about to go for a run and sees Blake sitting outside the apartment building wearing only a coat... a coat that just barely manages to cover up all the blood on Blake's body.  With a little bit of help from the hunky neighbor, Blake is able to make it inside his apartment and is shocked by what he sees.  The place is in shambles.  This is where the story begins.

Blake is a werewolf, or queerwolf as he likes to call himself.  It takes awhile for him to figure this out as his family did not feel the need to educate him on his family history for reasons that are explained in the book.  Blake finally begins to accept the fact that he is different only to be thrown into a turf war of a sort with an Alpha and his pack who do not like Blake because he is different from them.  If I explain how, I'm giving away the story.  Suffice it to say that Blake is able to do things that the members of the other pack aren't.  This causes fear among the members of the pack so they attack him.  Blake knows that his life is in danger and that if he doesn't get help, he will be history during the next full moon.  With Ted's help, Blake begins an adventure that takes him to various parts of the U.S. in hopes of finding others like him.  There is a drag queen, a werewolf that shifted but was unable to shift back to his human form, a Mormon mechanic,  and a small woman who belongs to another pack though she's not quite accepted.  This small group of people share the same unique ability that Blake has.  Add in Ted and Mitzy, a female (werewolf) bodyguard, and Blake's eccentric grandfather and a crazy adventure is born.  

This book started out well.  Blake waking up nude and in the pool of blood was the perfect way to get the ball rolling, so to speak.  I found him to be entertaining from the very first page.  Ted is wonderful.  He has had a slight crush on Blake in the two years they have been neighbors but the two had only shared a few words until Blake shows up practically naked on his doorstep. I enjoyed Ted. He is written as a very good guy who cares so much for Blake that he is willing to suspend all belief simply to be with him and to help him with his queerwolf problems.  This has a major insta-love vibe.  Ted and Blake have been neighbors for over two years but they've done nothing more than secretly lust after the other and suddenly they were in a relationship.  A real relationship.  That happened a bit too fast for my taste.  Granted, the story might not have worked otherwise so I overlooked it.  One thing I had an issue with was the fact that Blake's condition caused him to have constant erections and to want anyone with a penis, even if it wasn't Ted.  Anyone male and Blake wanted him... and they wanted him.  This wasn't an occasional thing.  This was a constant thing and it was discussed in detail... often.  I am not saying he acted on it while he was with Ted (those who know me know it would have been a DNF had the author gone there).  Luckily, I kept reading and I was able to overlook the fact that the reader is subjected to constant details about the hard-on that Blake is unable to control.

The secondary characters are fun and are important to the story as a whole.  I found myself smiling a lot as the story moved along. I even had a few laugh out loud moments.  Some of the antics of the main characters and the secondaries are hilarious.  There is a showdown toward the end with the rival Alpha and his pack.  This is the same Alpha whose pack had tried to kill Blake... more than once.  Everything is resolved in that regard.  Too well.  I felt that after everything that Blake and his pack (and Ted and Mitzy, the bodyguard) had gone through, I found that the resolution was tied up too neatly between the two packs.  There was a showdown but not exactly what I was expecting... or even hoping for.  Regardless, the story ended on a happy note.

Overall, a very good read.  This is a werewolf story unlike any other that I have read and that alone made it good to me.  I recommend this for anyone interested in a bit of humor, a bit of romance, a bit of sex and a wonderful cast of characters that you can't help but to fall in love with.   This is my first by this author.  I look forward to reading more.