First off, if you are considering a place to start with Cate C. Wells, this is not the book. Ravaged Wolf is the book you read when you know the world and trust the author. I read it backwards before I could read it front to back. For want of a better way to explain:
Izzy
In my pack, I’m a cautionary tale, the female who made her mate wait too long and drove him into rut.
After that terrible night, Trevor was exiled, and I became a lesson to others that Fate always wins. Fight, and you’ll lose.
But maybe I don’t want my life to be a lesson to others. Or a tragedy.
Some wounds can’t be healed, but what if I tried?
Would Trevor try, too?
Or would he run again from the female who turned him into a monster?
Trevor
The night I attacked my mate destroyed me. Until then, I had believed that I was a good male.
In the end, I was an animal.
If not for Izzy—and the bond aching in my chest that tells me she’s still alive, still fighting—I would’ve given up years ago, but I can’t abandon her.
I can’t face her, either.
But then, by a twist of Fate, our paths cross, and I don’t have a choice. She’s standing in front of me, scared and shaking, but she’s not running away.
And I have no idea what to do—or how to even begin fixing the unfixable.
Fated Mates is one of my very least favorite tropes in romance. There are a few romances that I like despite being fated mates romance and even fewer that I like because they are fated mates romances. I hate the whole concept of fate or predestination, especially when it comes to the person you love. To me, the most romantic thing in the world is being chosen for everything that you are – when you are seen for your complete self and loved. Despite this, I am 6 books in Cate C. Wells’ The Five Packs series, centered on interconnected wolf shifter packs that co-exist with the human world. The mates are fated, but these wolf shifters are still exercising choice, because they start out with one mate rejecting the other for various reasons. She takes everything I hate about fated mates and turns the trope into an exploration of class hierarchies, patriarchy, trauma, and the choices that make us who we are.
Ravaged Wolf works in the context of the series. We already know The Heir Apparent’s Rejected Mate that Moon Lake pack is a mess of classism and human style hierarchies. We already have examples of shifters rejecting their mates for reasons of power, or making children with their mates, but leaving them to live in poverty. Trevor and Izzy don’t reject each other, they are forced apart by Izzy’s power obsessed family. The first chunk shows that left to their own devices, Izzy and Trevor would have been fine, and the high cost of Izzy’s family trying to thwart fate. The rest of the book is about healing and is quite lovely.
Wells has always used language beautifully, and in Ravaged Wolf, she gives her characters poetry. Trevor is tuned in to moments of beauty around him and uses that connection to keep himself tethered to life and to Izzy. Izzy hasn’t been allowed to be strong, but once she decides to be brave, she holds her own against some strong characters we’ve met in other books.
I can’t wait to see where Wells goes next with this series.
I received this as an advance reader copy from the author. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.