I listened to the audiobook and it did not help me understand the whole shifter/wolf world. This is a new to me shifter/wolf world and I really needed to understand the whole thing. But the audio was not helpful. There is a lot of legend and telling about the world but my gripe about this book is that I had a hard time differentiating when they shift into wolf and when they shift into human. I'm not sure if it would have been better if I read it instead of listening to the audio.

I read a lot of positive reviews for this book, so I wanted to read this for myself. I'm not sure if I am reading the same book or if the audiobook contributed to my confusion.

I really wanted to like this book. It's currently in my niech. I love Elijah's POV I could have lived without Thea's story at all. I heard so much about the first book I was hoping the second one would be as good. It's not.

We are introduced to Elijah Sorrensson in Book 1 of The Legends of All Wolves series The Last Wolf. In that story, it is stated how important it is for wolves to have Pack. In this story, Elijah is introduced to Thea Villalobos who is having her own legal worries she's collected for herself. Thanks to Thea's past she has learned to see through pretense, especially the pretense that Elijah lives when he is in the city seeing to the Pack's interest. Elijah knows that he has been away from the Homelands too long and that he is slowly unraveling.
There is a reason wolves run in packs.
The Goddess of the City of Wolves is just the thing to bring him back to himself.


**ARC kindly provided by via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.**
:)

By the time the hero met the heroine, he had slept with two or three women he didn’t like, had name dropped his clothing three or four times, and had been a jerk to everyone he met. The writing was painful to work through and the main character was horrid. I made it to 17% before declaring it unreadable.

Elijah is a success in the human world, women, apartments and money. It’s all his, on a plate for him, but he hates the human world. It’s a facade he can’t continue for much longer, but he has to, his pack rely on him. But it’s killing him slowly.

We see this story through Elijah’s eyes. His loyalty and duty to the pack is evident in his sacrifice. He longs to be free, he longs for the pack life.

The levels in the pack hierarchy is very insightful. The stories are so different from what I’ve read before. These wolves live and breathe pack life. They shift into their “human skins” only when necessary.
The structure is different in these books. There are alphas for each age group(called an echelon), and they in turn answer to an alpha pair.

Thea is human, she doesn’t live like other people. She doesn’t suffer fools, she speaks her mind, so she is an ideal mate for Elijah, but wolves don’t mate humans, so if he takes her back to the pack, this could spell trouble for the couple. She makes him feel alive, as only being in his wolf form could bring him.

So, will they be allowed to stay together? Will Elijah sacrifice his happiness with Thea? Will he choose pack over his own happiness?

I guess your going to have to read the book to find out 😉




🦋

Elijah Sorensson is the Alpha of his echelon, however, rather than being able to stay with the Pack he has to live in the human world, only returning back home for the Iron Moon each month. It’s eating at his soul. Immersing himself in the trappings of human wealth in his job as a successful lawyer, he can feel the Wild in him slowly dying. Until he meets her. Thea Villalobos, a woman who chooses to life apart from others, but can she accept his Wild?

The first book in this series, The Last Wolf, has been one of my favourite reads for this year. I went into reading it with very low expectations but secretly hoping to find a good paranormal shifter romance. What I got was so much more. Vale has created a unique world in her The Legend of All Wolves series; it’s a paranormal romance with the grit of an urban fantasy. The combination of a no-frills romance and a twist on what it means to be a shifter really makes this series stand out in the genre. Which means, when I opened up A Wolf Apart I had high expectations.

Were those expectations met? Yes and no. There were some aspects that I really loved and Vale did a great job with, however, there were other aspects of the book which I found lacking. What first caught my attention with The Last Wolf was the way Vale has crafted her Wolves. They weren’t your typical shifters, they were more wolf than human and that showed in how their society was constructed and how the characters thought. At times it could make the book difficult to access, however, the pay off was worth it. Vale further expands on her world building and her characterisation of Wolves in Elijah’s character.

Elijah, although he lived in the human world, was completely removed from it. You could see he never connected with anyone around him, he had a script to use with humans and he stuck to it. Which, just made his longing to go home all the more poignant and jarring in juxtaposition to his emotional detachment from his environment. Vale really managed to capture his homesickness and fear of the Wild within him dying.

I’m an exile. A disappointment. An Alpha without a Pack. A leader no one wants to follow. A flashy vessel hiding something unspeakable sacred and undeniably fragile. I am a monster; neither one thing, nor the other, belonging nowhere.

However, this is a paranormal romance and it was noticeable lacking in romance. Although we are told that Elijah is instantly smitten with Thea their relationship lacked any depth. Which, is a shame in a series where the depth of the world and the characters is one of its strengths. In The Last Wolf although the romance between Silver and Tiberius isn’t flowers and hearts their mutual struggle for acceptance brings them close together and they fall in love. In A Wolf Apart you’re told they love each other without them ever seeming to get to know one another. And as the reader, I never really got a good sense of Thea as she wasn’t really physically present that often. This book would have benefited from some scenes from Thea’s point of view and with more scenes with Thea and Elijah together.

Although this wasn’t as good as the first book in regards to the romance, I still think this did a great job of expanding the readers understanding of the world and characters that Vale has created. I recommend you give this book a try, however, I would view this less of a romance and more like an urban fantasy.

This is the first book that I have read by this author. I didn't actually realise it was the second in a series. This book does work as a standalone though and I didn't feel as though i was missing out on anything.

The world building in this book and the character development were very good.

The lead character in this story is Elijah Sorensson, the Alpha of the Great North Pack. At first he is very closed of and standoffish. As the story progresses, so does Elijah. I found he became much more likeable as the story went on.

I definitely enjoyed this story and have now added 'The Last Wolf' to my TBR list!

4 stars!

Rating: 3.5/5

Well this is a different take on shifters! The author has created her own version of myths and legends that are developed through this story which is told from the point of view of Elijah Sorensson, the Alpha of the Great North Pack who is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain his human facade. He's a highly successful business man but craves more - and so does his wolf. When he meets Thea Villalobos he's intrigued by the rebellious, independent woman - she's so real, nothing false about her or her actions, she likes things simple and has a great respect for nature. They are both attracted to each other but will love stand a chance for these two? Can she help him recover his wild side and break through his cold, emotionless facade?

I hadn't read the first book in this series but still enjoyed this one so can honestly say it worked as a standalone. I was particularly impressed with the world building in this story, the scenarios were brought to life through these. Thea is a lovely character, easy to relate to  whilst Elijah is too standoffish to start with and it is only well into the story that he becomes more likeable. If you enjoy paranormal shifter stories you may well enjoy this different slant on the genre!

I requested and was given a copy of this book, via NetGalley. This is my honest review of the book after choosing to read it.

I did not know what to expect from this book and from the beginning I felt the potential but it felt so slow and lack of in the beginning that I lost complete interest, but I came back a few weeks later and gave it another try and continued to read where I felt off at and I was so happy that I made the decision because A Wolf Apart was exactly what I had expected and so much more. Once I was able to get in to it, I was glued to the pages!
A Wolf Apart was a page turner, it was sweet, tense and suspenseful!
I adored everything about Elijah and and Thea, I was so sad to know that their story is over, but I will continue to keep up and read the next books in this series!


Thank you to Maria Vale, the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to review!

Love the cover of this book. I didn’t read the first book and it seems like I needed to. I could not connect with Elijah at all. I really wanted to like this, but I could not see Elijah and Thea working out as a couple.

This story was not an easy to read but as you begin to understand the world that Elijah lives in it makes sense. Elijah is the bridge between the human world and the wolf world working to save his pack but the longer he is away from his pack and his land the closer to death he becomes. Elijah lives the high life expensive clothes and taking women to bed on a whim until he meets a human Thea, who makes him want to settle down but law of the land makes it impossible. When one of his employees steals something to help save someone in his pack, she ends up dead and the fingers point at Elijah. If you love reading how wolf laws and ways are this book is perfect and it makes you understand how the too worlds can never meet.

I loved this book! The world-building was so rich and interesting, the story kept me hooked from page one.

L

A Wolf Apart was, well, a hard read. Okay, maybe not hard, but it certainly was a struggle for me to get through. I was well into the book before I ever warmed up to Elijah. It’s told from Elijah’s first person POV, and since it wasn’t until the end I warmed up to him, you can see why this would be a struggle.

Quick rundown: Elijah is slowly falling apart. He’s desperate to return to Pack lands permanently, but the Alpha says no. He needs to stay Offland so he can continue to protect the Pack. The continued alienation from Pack and home is wearing him down. He’s lonely and lost. Going through the motions of keeping up the façade of being a human is killing him inside. Until he’s assigned a pro bono case. An environmental conservation office is being sued for springing traps and trespassing. Compared to the other human women Elijah has had in his life, there’s nothing remarkable about Thea. Yet there is something about her that speaks to his broken soul. Despite it being against Pack law, he’s hoping she can help heal what is broken inside him, fill the missing part of his soul.

Sigh. I really enjoyed the first book in the series because it was so different from most PNR books I have read. But this one was just so… What the story revolves around is the very thing I struggled with, namely: Elijah. I get it, he’s hurting wanting to be home but forced to stay where he is. Putting on a mask, pretending to be human is making him miserable. Labels, social dances, forced to keep going on while dying inside. This is drummed into the story so hard even if you are skimming, you would get it. So, yes; Got. It. I did finally hit a point that his constant monologue of being away got annoying to me. It had me wanting to scream you go home once a month for the Iron Moon so get over it!

The introduction of Thea to the story definitely did help perk up the story. I liked the concept of her character. We don’t get to know her very well since the story is told from Elijah. It had me wishing the story was not done in first person. Or at least, maybe give her a voice. I would have loved to know what was going through her head when the story started getting REALLY interesting.

Speaking of REALLY interesting, for me that didn’t occur until I hit well pass the half way point. When that happens, when it takes the better half of the story to finally hook me in, it makes everything tedious and difficult to empathize with the MC. And that was my problem. I just hit a point where I didn’t care about Elijah anymore. However, once things picked up, they really got good. Whoa! Now that was quite the ending. It was great to experience the characters from the previous story and I loved finding out what was going on with Silver and Ti. Inserted into the ending you can tell there will be more to the story about wolves and shifters to the point you can almost see where it may be headed. Book one in The Legend of All Wolves Series lured me in. Book two has semi-pushed me away. Since I see the potential of what is coming up next, for now I will tentatively say I will read the next.

Stars: 2 1/2

reviewed by Jac

Elijah Sorensson has spent over thirty years Offland, only returning home, to his Pack, once a month, during the Iron Moon. He's slowly losing touch with his wild and knows the only way to regain himself is by returning home. But his Alpha demands he stay among the humans, protecting the Pack's interests off Pack territory.

Almost at the end of his tether, utterly disgusted with himself and what he's become, Elijah meets his saving grace. A woman who calls to both halves of him, but mostly to his wild. A woman he can be himself with, a woman he can confide in...But not fully, since she's the biggest taboo of his Pack—she's human.


As its predecessor this story also moved rather slowly, but apart from a few slower than slow scenes, it wasn't boring. It wasn't as suspenseful as the first book in the series either, focusing more on the main character (hero), his inner struggles, and his environment, but it still worked.

At first, Elijah came across as a prick, one of those you meet on the street every day. The smooth operator with an overused pick-up line, but one the story really kicks in, the reader (and the hero himself) realizes Elijah Sorensson, the lawyer and player, is just a mask. A suit he pulls on for those days of the month he's not home, a suit that's become too tight, almost ingrown, until he hardly recognizes himself or knows who and what he really is.
It takes a woman, the right woman, a vegetarian loner with a passion for animals, someone rather similar to him, to bring him out of the thirty-year-old fugue state he's been living in. It takes the right woman to make him see what he's missing and what he's been losing. And it takes the right woman to make him see the true meaning of sacrifice, Pack, and home.

The story is once more told in first-person POV—Elijah's point of view. And once more, it didn't bother me at all. This was mostly a one-character show with the rest of the cast (Thea included) serving as backdrop, set design for Elijah and his character development and change.

I was happy to see more of Silver and Tiberius, discover just how Evie is taking on the Alpha duties...And in the end, I was more than glad to see the Pack would be fully reunited, since I didn't really appreciate how they behaved toward Elijah, almost judging him for his life in the Offland, while it was the Pack that sent him there in the first place.

The issues dealing with the suspense arc of the first story were only touched upon in this one, and since the main architect of evil is still loose, I'm looking forward to what the future might bring. The Pack is growing, and no matter what many of them think, to me having a Shifter and now a human in their midst, will only make them stronger.

Ms Vale does an amazing job of world building and creating myth and lore that captivates. I also enjoyed the story being predominantly in Elijah's POV because I just love the male POV in a story.

Elijah a werewolf but forced to live amongst humans for 30 years is bored and wants to go home. His new alpha rejects this idea he must stay in NYC. Elijah can only keep in touch with his pack by video and misses important events. Everything is dark and monotonous in Elijah life until Thea a human connects with him.
The first part of the book is quite difficult to get into as you feel the total despair of Elijah.
The tone of the book changes after Thea and we are taken along with the life changing decisions both will have to make.
I was given an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a breathtaking story with exquisite world-building. Just couldn't put it down once I started reading.

Full review on the blog

I don't know what to say about this book,
if I'm quite honest it's a guilty pleasure read that captivates you from the end to the beginning.
While Thea can get annoying at times the romance between her and her love interest is what knocked down stars for me.
The world they live in is captivating, it just didn't make a lot of sense on how they would've ended up together seeing as Elijah seemed cold and distant, in my opinion this could've been fixed by adding Thea's point of view to the story and more interactions between them.
The only ways you know that Elijah isn't really as distant as he appears to be, are the way he is scared of losing himself in his wilderness and his devotion to his pack.
Though the fantasy side of the story was AWEASOME, don't go into this book hoping a wonderful romance as it lacks in chemistry and dept.
I would recommend it, as long as you don't read it for the romance ,but rather the wonderful worldbuilding/fantasy !
-Bookarina

I haven’t read the first book in this series (I didn’t know there was one) however I don’t think it lessened my enjoyment of this story any. A Wolf Apart is a romantic fantasy that takes place in a well written world. Our hero has been out in the human world providing for his brethren of the Great North Pack but he is tired of humans and their ways and their stink. Our heroine is human but she hates the city almost as much as our hero. Falling in love with a human may save his mind but it could cost him his life. Mating a human is against all the rules. After a slow start (it probably would have gone faster if I’d read the first one) I really got into the story and read it in one sitting.

Written by Maria Vale, A Wolf Apart picks up shortly after The Last Wolf, but this time from the 9th Alpha's point of view; an alpha wolf who is stuck being a human when all he wants is to be a wolf.

This was again a well written and different style book, but I did not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed The Last Wolf. The Last Wolf gave us a great, different, unique point of view and Silver was so clearly different from the other wolves. This novel just... it didn't fit with how I thought the wolves would be off land as they played human and the beginning was just off-putting. I did enjoy the romance, but yeah. I wish we would have seen a story that wasn't a followup, but a stand alone in the novel.

What this novel did do was give us a story from the Alpha's perspective, something that was talked about so much in the last, but wasn't explored as much. 

This is a great novel to fill the need for a werewolf, but unlike the previous I just wasn't as struck by the story. As I started it, it was just a drag. I will state that I didn't realize it was in the same world, but within the first few paragraphs I was going back through my old reviews to find that one and confirm that, yup, that is the same author. But I won't talk about the style, again.

If you want some romance that strays from the typical, this is a good one (think of a very base view of sex and a cynical view point) if you are looking for something that is different. I just thought the first was better.

But, this is still a romance, at the base of it. If you don't like the typical romance, and you are an adult do to some of the language, give this a shot.

If you don't like any kind of fantasy, romance, or anything like that, just walk away.





I was given a copy in exchange for an honest review.