Wild Country is the second installment in author Anne Bishop's The World of the Others series. This series takes place in an alternative North America called Thaisia. The series is a direct spin-off from the authors The Others series. In the world of the Others called Namid, humans are not the dominant predator, and must live—sometimes uneasily—alongside vampires, shape-shifters, and other beings even more deadly.

If you've read the Others series, you know that thanks to Namid's teeth and claws (Elders), humans were literally wiped out from towns that were singled out for being responsible for attacks on the Terra Indigene, especially the Wolfgard. (I've read that timeline wise, this parallels what happens in Etched in Bone). Now, the author moves to one of those places. A place called Bennett where the entire population was wiped out. For readers, this means mostly an entirely new cast of characters.

Jana Paniccia is a human police officer who recently graduated from the police academy. Jana is a rarity in this world. A female cop. After receiving a mysterious call, Jana travels to Lakeside to interview for a job in Bennett, and is soon traveling to the town where things are still unstable. She has to learn how to deal with her new boss, the towns mayor, the Others, and especially the other humans in town such as Barbara Debany, sister to Lakeside Police Officer Michael, who is now the town's de facto animal wrangler.

Tolya Sanguinati is a familiar face. He once lived in Toland, but is now responsible for the new residents who are being chosen to pick up the pieces in Bennett. Tolya is trying to deal with a community of both Others and Humans like they have in Lakeside. He knows that one wrong move on the humans part, and Bennett may never again be allowed to host humans. The Elders are watching closely to see how many more humans they need to exterminate from their lands.

Jesse Walker and her son Tobias are human Intuits who live in a place called Prairie Gold. Intuit literally means intuition. They can tell when things are going to happen. Thanks to Jesse's insistence that more help is needed, Tolya puts a call out to Lakeside for help. Jesse is one of the few to understand the sweet bloods whose prophecies have led to saving lives. I was surprised by the relationship between Jesse and Tolya.

Virgil Wolfsgard is the town's law enforcer along with his brother Kane. Virgil is not a happy cat. He lost everything when the Huma First psychos decided to target his kind. It will take a lot for any human to break through his stone cold persona. Scythe is probably the most dangerous Terra Indigene living inside the boundary of Bennett. She is a literal nightmare who comes to town to open up a western style bar. Readers have met a similar character in Lakeside and should expect about the same level of suspense at what she is capable of doing.

There are others as well. Abigail Butch is the daughter of a man named Parlan Blackstone who gambles his way across Thaisia, and now wants to settle down in Bennett. Abigail has been on the run for several years, and it's just her rotten luck that Parlan and his gang decide to choose Bennett to go up against the Terra Indigene and Namid's Teeth and Claws. It is fair to say that this story takes a bit to warm up.

The author literally uses every chapter to introduce the key characters before then introducing the human villain elements into the story. I liked Jana and Jessie for different reasons. Jana is a new cub joining a pack that has no use for humans. Yet, she persists in doing what she needs to do in order to become a member of Virgil's pack, and making friends with Barb who has experience dealing with Others. Jessie is perhaps the strongest human character since she really has a gift that is hard to ignore. I would say that there is a minor hint of a romance between Jana and Tobias but I wouldn't get too giddy. This is likely to be another standalone like Lake Silence was. Whatever the author decides next, I can only hope we see these characters again in the future.

Anne Bishop continues her World of the Others in Wild Country in which the Others control the town of Bennett which is set in Wild Country where the large predators of the Others roam. All humans were killed in Bennett after humans had killed wolf clans and Others in the area. Select humans were invited back to help with the stray animals, policing and other tasks. This is their story. Wonderfully realized alternate world.

Anne Bishop returns to the fascinating world of the Others in Wild Country, a largely standalone outing set within the confines of her popular urban fantasy series, which rests upon a profound alternate history.

Human beings in the world of the Others have never been the top-level predators; those several spaces have been occupied by the terra indigene: vampires, shape-shifters, fae and other assorted creatures of legend, and Elementals and the Elders—beings so terrifying even magical predators speak of them in hushed tones. Humanity has existed at the largess of the Others. Land and, more importantly, water have long been rationed by the Others for use by humanity. Stepping beyond the bounds of the status quo would result in nothing good.

Unfortunately, through the five-novel plot arc that began with Written in Red and culminated in Etched in Bone, humanity did exactly that: pushed the hard boundaries of their existence alongside the Others, to fairly disastrous results. By the fourth installment, Marked in Flesh, the Elders had stepped in, decimating the populations of Thaisia (our North America) and Cel-Romano (Europe). In some places, entire towns ceased to be. That’s not to say the series is all death and destruction. The spine of the series concerns a single person, the blood prophet Meg Corbyn, who comes to live with the Others in the town of Lakeside, The series explores how she forges a web of connections between the humans and the Others, and how those connections help create a path forward, out of and away from the misunderstandings and inevitable violence that have heretofore been the norm whenever humans and the terra indigene cross paths.

Wild Country is part of a sequence of standalone novels (following Lake Silence) that expand the universe of the original series, but can also be read independently of them. It takes place concurrently with Etched in Bone, and some of the characters have connections with Lakeside, the town detailed in the first five books. But Wild Country takes place, instead, in Bennett, a town that saw its entire population destroyed—men, women and children—in the war with the terra indigene. Bennett is just down the road from Prairie Gold in NE Thaisia, which is largely peopled with Intuits, those humans who have some manner of second sight (a weather sense, prognostication, maybe an affinity with animals). Intuits tend to make humans nervous, and they get along better with the Others, so generally, their towns fared better in the culling.

Bennett is logistically important—a hub for the ranches, rail lines, and commerce in the region—so a group of Others decide to repopulate it. This presents several obstacles. There is a whole town’s worth of homes standing empty of humans, and filled with the food, pets, and personal items of the dead. Cleaning the houses out will take time, but more importantly, it is emotionally draining work. Communication between regions has been heavily curtailed by the Elders, making it hard to put out a call for workers. And given the disruption of the culling, there’s no real way to vet newcomers to the town, short of gut instinct and the shaky prognostications of the Intuits. The wolf sheriff and vampire mayor start with people they know they can trust: the sister of a cop in Lakeside; a new deputy just out of the academy; and Intuit woman from the Prairie Gold. They, in turn, will have to vet newcomers.

Not everyone that survived the culling is a good person. Thanos-like, the Elders struck out at humanity using their own inscrutable code; they are not moral agents, but forces of nature. The repopulating of Bennett then becomes an exercise in how to build a working community of terra indigene, humans, Intuits, Simple Life folk, cassandra sangue, and all of the rich panoply who inhabit this sometimes cruel world. The first half of Wild Country is a little diffuse: It’s hard to see who exactly are the main characters, given the wide scope and large cast, and the repopulation of Bennett takes place in fits and starts. This is calculated, I believe, because once the real conflict emerges, the hurtle to the end is tense and terrifying. Not everyone is going to fit in, even if they lack malice; the ones that are malicious, well. The process of building a town on the bones of a dead one is interesting stuff in its own right: there’s the excitement of building something new, layered with the funeral discomfort of living in the space previously occupied by a vanished community, and sorting their clothes, and eating their food.

The Old West is invoked in the rebuilding of Bennett many times, its people deliberately relying on the symbols and trappings of the frontier. (Honestly, I have some questions about how exactly our timeline meets up with the world of the Others, but the Western tropes seem to align.) The card sharp, the green deputy, the girl on the run, the stalwart rancher, the cattle rustlers, the flinty madam: these recognizable and familiar characters orbit the town of Bennett, pulled in by the prospect of a new life, but they are rendered strange and new in this not quite human place.

Wild Country is available now.

4.5

Thaisia is trying to move on after the Elders wiped out the humans who were slaughtering various terre indigene Others. Some places, like Bennett, have turned into veritable ghost towns. But life has to move forward and the Inuits that survived the massacre know that reviving Bennett's economy is essential for the survival of some of the smaller settlements. Once again Others and humans will have to learn to work together in order for this new frontier to thrive. However, there are still those who are adrift in this altered Thaisia that haven't learned from the mistakes of the past and only look for opportunities for themselves. Outlaws circling around Bennett. They aren't prepared for what lurking in the Wild Country.

Wild Country definitely is more aligned with the original series than Lake Silence, and while I enjoyed the previous entry in this spin-off series, Wild Country just hit all the right spots that I was accustomed to when originally reading The Others.

I think the connection to the characters was quicker to develop because there are a few characters that we've already been introduced to from the parent series such as Jesse Walker (an Intuit woman living in Prairie Gold, she runs the general store) and Tolya Sanguinati. It also helps that we, briefly, get to revisit Lakeside as they are responsible for holding a "job fair" and sending candidates along to work in Bennett.

Mostly, it's the fact that Anne Bishop has built such an interesting world. I could read about the day-to-day interactions of these characters in this place forever. Especially the often delicate dynamic between Others and humans. There's not a lot of difference between what we've seen in the original series, but Anne Bishop continues to write characters that are interesting and situations that don't always have an easy solution. There's a lot more about perspective in Wild Country than I feel like we've seen before. Jana, the new human deputy assigned to Bennett, is a big proponent of this. She's 1) new to the police force having just graduated, 2) never worked with Others before, 3) Used to being undervalued because of her sex. Whereas the Others are quick to identity "bad" people, Jana knows the law, and she knows it's not always as simple as "good" and "bad" and her trying to get this point across to her boss Virgil Wolfgard makes for some very interesting exchanges between the two.

There's a specific moment that almost directly connects with events that occur in Etched in Bone, but I felt like it took too much away from what was actually happening in Bennett. There was a certain extent where hearkening back to the previous series was appreciated but past that, it just dragged a bit in those places. The characters that Anne Bishop established in this book stand well on their own.

Like Virgil Wolfgard, I viewed this new book and these new characters as the building of a new pack. Both humans and the various Others that live in Bennett are embarking on a new way of life. There were a lot of mirrors to Lakeside but Anne Bishop keeps things from feeling too repetitive by the simple fact that she writes these characters so well. Imbues them each with such different personalities that even though we've been here before with tensions between Others and humans, there's always another facet that has yet to be explored.

It was interesting this time to see the Outlaws are part of an Intuit family of grifters. That instead of using their gifts for something that benefits many people in a good way, they're looking out for themselves. It's something we haven't seen in the series before, and it was interesting to see how those gifts that are closely related to / an off-shoot of the cassandra sangue could be used in a bad way.

I don't know why Anne Bishop decided that this second spin-off book would go back, in a way, to the previous series more, but I really enjoyed it. I hope this isn't the last we see of the residents of Bennett.

The Others series is one that I was not expecting but was thrilled with what it turned out to be. Thus far, I have read every book in this series and can say that Lake Silence does not disappoint. At times, I feel like I would love to have Meg and Simon back; however, their story ended but it opened up so many more. I enjoyed this title and was happy to see characters from the past novels. Overall, this book is another great addition to the Others world.

The wait between last year’s Lake Silence and Wild Country was a long one but it was so worth it. This return to the world of The Others was everything I wanted. Unlike Lake Silence, where everything felt new from the location to the cast of characters, in Wild Country we return to the town of Bennett and plenty of familiar faces.

It’s only a matter of weeks after a war between humans and the terra indigene (beings that occupied the earth long before humans) and the town of Bennett is being resettled. This draws not only people looking to make a fresh start but also con artists and criminals. The town quickly becomes a mix of both humans and Others (shape shifting wolves, ravens, panthers and more) with vampire Tolya serving as the town leader. With feelings ranging from uneasy acceptance to outright hostility (from both sides) it’s only a matter of time before things reach a boiling point in Bennett. Some humans and Others have forged a tenuous alliance to avoid further bloodshed and loss of life (courtesy of the Elders who remain largely unseen). But there are those who seem determined to repeat the mistakes of the past and are on a collision course with another clash between humans and Others.

As always, one of my favorite aspects in this series is the interaction between the terra indigene and humans. It’s always interesting watching as they adapt to one another and it never fails to lead to some laugh out loud moments (and yes, some dangerous ones, too). In this case, Jana, a human police officer and her boss Virgil Wolfgard, the sheriff, have to learn to work side by side and trust one another. Jana wants a chance to prove herself as female police officer and Virgil has to remember not to bite her when she yaps at him. While I enjoyed almost all the new characters introduced in Wild Country, it was these two that had me invested and they provided not only real character growth but also some comic relief and a few genuinely sweet moments.

It never fails to surprise me that in this amazing urban fantasy series so many humans remain convinced of their superiority and invincibility. Newsflash: in this stunningly original world that Bishop has created, humans are not at the top of the food chain. But there are always those whose hubris will be their downfall. The cruelty and senseless violence from some of the humans begs the question: who is actually the more humane – the humans who lie and cheat and kill? Or the Others, who put Pack above all, take care of their own, and have their own swift form of justice?

The timeline of Wild Country overlaps somewhat with Etched in Bone (the fifth and final book in the original series) so readers of the original series will recall certain events that took place, now seen from a different perspective. But even those new to the world of the Others will be able to fall right into this fast-paced story and enjoy the ride.

Bennett is one of the towns where the humans were obliterated by the Elders (the scariest of Others) since the Humans First and Last Group slaughtered many Others, and humans alike. The Elders took out a bunch of towns, and so they sit deserted, but Bennett is a place that Others claimed, a town along an important train route. They feel they must claim the town, so other nefarious human groups won’t come in, take advantage and settle. Unfortunately, Bennett’s still an attractive prospect to a human outlaw group, the Blackstone Clan; a group that hasn’t learned the importance of respecting the power of the Elders, or Others.

Tolya Sanguinati is the new mayor in charge, but Jesse Walker, an Intuit from Prairie Gold is an informal confidant and advisor to him. As an Intuit she has uncanny powers of intuition, providing Tolya helpful guidance in any decisions made about the town. I enjoyed their relationship, the trust between them even though she’s a human and he’s an Other. It’s decided that they need to start recruiting humans and Others to revive the town and fill various positions needed for a small town to function.

Jana just graduated from the Police Academy, but prejudices against women has made it hard for her to get a job. She’s recruited to work for the Bennett Police Department, and even though she knows there’s bound to be difficulties working with a Wolfgard police chief, she welcomes the opportunity. There’s no love lost between Virgil Wolfgard, the police chief, and humans. After all, his wolf-pack was slaughtered by the Humans First Last, so when Jana comes aboard it’s a bumpy road adjusting. It’s entertaining as they feel each other out, find out what to expect. There are difficulties, but Jana is up to the challenge. I was hoping <spoiler> there would be a romance between Jana and Virgil, there’s some definite chemistry there, IMO, but that was not to be in this installment. I still think there’s potential there, but as for now, it’s Jana and Tobias. </spoiler>.

The Blackstone’s are a nasty group, trying to bully their way into town and take over, their presence and threat had me on the edge of my seat. To be honest, I don’t know why the Tolya and the rest of the major players didn’t recognize them as more of a threat, especially with some of the warnings they got from Hope Wolfsong. There were a lot of losses, and I’m wondering how it’ll affect the relationships that had started to form before everything came to a head.

I’ve loved The Others since the beginning, and I’m delighted to get more from this world, even if it’s not Meg and Simon. I liked Lake Silence, the first spin-off book, but I enjoyed Wild Country even more. I think part of the reason is that there were several characters here that I’d already met and wanted more of in the previous books: Tolya Sanguinati, Jesse Walker, Tobias Walker, Rachel Wolfgard, and Barbara Ellen Debany, but I have to say two new characters: Jana and Virgil were my favorites in this installment. Watching the humans and Others of Bennett working together and forming bonds, learning to trust, and yes, start a romance (or three, yay!) is what I love most about this series. I can’t wait for the next one!

There are ghost towns in the world—places where the humans were annihilated in retaliation for the slaughter of the shape-shifting Others.

One of those places is Bennett, a town at the northern end of the Elder Hills—a town surrounded by the wild country. Now efforts are being made to resettle Bennett as a community where humans and Others live and work together. A young female police officer has been hired as the deputy to a Wolfgard sheriff. A deadly type of Other wants to run a human-style saloon. And a couple with four foster children—one of whom is a blood prophet—hope to find acceptance.

But as they reopen the stores and the professional offices and start to make lives for themselves, the town of Bennett attracts the attention of other humans looking for profit. And the arrival of the outlaw Blackstone Clan will either unite Others and humans...or bury them all.

“Wild Country” is the second book in Anne Bishop's series The World of the Others. While I hadn’t read the first book, I decided to try this based on the description of the world and having read some of the author's other books. It sounded original, a post-apocalyptic story with a paranormal setting. I was satisfied with the story and liked the well-developed characters.

The story is set in and around the town of Bennett, a town whose human population was wiped out as a warning by The Elders (in charge of the Others) due to the annihilation of the Others. Now Bennett must rebuild with Tolya Sanguinati in charge and Virgil Wolfgard as Sheriff. Tolya, as counseled by Jesse Walker, an Intuit living in nearby Prairie Gold, opens the town to both humans and Others to repopulate the town, also allowing both to begin a new life. But as people arrive, so too do strangers who have their own motives that are far from harmless. If they get their way, the town will be destroyed once again. Will the Others and humans unite to prevent it or will their divisions help destroy them all?

One of the elements I liked the best is the world. Anne Bishop has created a realistic and believable world, one which is set in the future or an alternate version of our world. That flavor of the past woven into the threads of this world lends it an air of both mystery and familiarity, like a song that you almost remember. I like the mystery of puzzling out what parts of the world are familiar and which have been changed. I also appreciate the decision making, what elements she has kept, like guns and vehicles and which are in short supply, like gasoline and the use of trains to transport people when resources are in short supply. These kind of details are what make an intriguing world and one that keeps readers engaged.
She has also created diverse and interesting characters. Jana, a human recruited as a deputy became the focal point of the story for me. She’s smart, driven and willing to take risks for a better life in Bennett. It’s easy to empathize with her character. Beyond her, though, Anne Bishop does a great job of ensuring all the characters are relatable, even the antagonists. Every character has a motive and a background. Virgil Wolfgard and Tolya Sanguinati, two of the main Other characters, don’t behave like humans. They behave like people but not humans. They behave like Others and have different motivations than humans. They want the town safe but the past experiences with humans have colored how they treat humans. I like that we see part of the story from their point of view and I also like that they don’t act human in any way. It makes for a much richer story. As part of that, I like her unique take on the paranormal and the names she's chosen for the characters. It makes it clear what type of shifter they are and makes the story easier to read.

The story manages the unusual. Even without having read the first novel, I was able to completely enjoy the plot. While occasionally I felt like some of the references should be ones I knew, it didn't detract from the overall story and the ending left me wanting more.

If there's anything that detracts from the enjoyment, it is that some of the characters aren't fully developed. While they might be minor characters, I felt like they are important to the story and should be better detailed. Instead, they feel like the author might be planning to use them in future novels. The main characters are wonderfully written, though, and overall the novel is well written.

I really enjoyed the writing and look forward to more in the series. I especially want to go back and check out the first novel in this universe. If you like paranormal or post-apocalyptic, I highly recommend this series.

Bishop masterfully writes a twisting tale that utterly ensnared me. White knuckle, riveting reading at its finest! Pulling the reader through the gambit of emotions, Wild Country and The Others Series truly delivers what I strive to find in every book I read.

I see a re-read of The Others series starting now!

I received this ARC copy of Wild Country from Berkley Publishing Group - Ace. This is my honest and voluntary review. Wild Country is set for publication March 5, 2019.

My Rating: 5 stars
Written by: Anne Bishop
Series: World of the Others, The (Book 2)
Hardcover: 496 pages
Publisher: Ace (March 5, 2019)
ISBN-10: 0399587276
ISBN-13: 978-0399587276
Genre: Fantasy | Dystopian

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Country-W...
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wild...
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With any long-running series, a worry can set in that the next book is finally going to be the one where the author misses their mark. Excellence is hard to sustain and sometimes the warm familiar hallmarks of the series become less reassuring and more rote. Thankfully, that is not the case in WILD COUNTRY, the seventh book written by Anne Bishop set in the world of THE OTHERS and the second standalone entry in the series. Although it’s a little slow-going in the beginning, Bishop manages to infuse a fresh tension by removing the safety net that usually protected characters in the past.

For those unfamiliar with THE OTHERS, it is a series set in an alternate Earth known as Namid, where supernatural creatures known as terra indigene are the dominant predators and rulers of most of the world. Some of these creatures are vampire-like, others shift between human and a specific animal form at will. But the most feared of all are the Elders, beings that rarely interact with humans, and when they do, it is usually to inflict a deadly consequence. Such was the case during the recent Great Predation, when a human terrorist group slaughtered a pack of wolf shape shifters, causing a retaliatory massacre by the Elders that wiped out entire towns regardless of age or innocence.

The town of Bennett, which was the site of the wolf slaughter, is now at a crossroads. With the inhabitants of the town dead, the terra indigene decide, for various reasons, to allow a small, select group of humans to repopulate the area. The humans allowed into Bennett come to live in houses still eerily full of the previous residents belongings, trying to figure out how to reclaim what little space the Elders have allowed. As they excavate houses and re-establish essential services, they also have to be wary of the new humans arriving in town daily. Most just want a place to survive now that the terra indigene have “thinned the herd” and are willing to live by the rules established by the town’s ruling body. Those who thwart the rules, however, are a danger to everyone, as the Elders have made it clear: if humans step out of line again, the entire town of Bennett will be erased from the map.

Unlike previous standalone LAKE SILENCE, which stood almost entirely apart from the original OTHERS series, WILD COUNTRY is more of a companion novel, with most of it taking place at the same time as events in book five, ETCHED IN BONE. Bennett is a location that was often a fulcrum point in previous books, visited for a few chapters to provide key information or help to the mixed community at Lakeside. Now we see for the first time what Bennett is up to in between all those moments, and it’s clear they live in a much more precarious situation. Whereas the humans of the Lakeside Courtyard have allies among the terra indigene who will intercede on their behalf with beings like the Elders, the humans of Bennett don’t have that luxury. With the wounds of the Wolfgard slaughter still fresh, most of the Others don’t trust the newcomers, and are more than willing to stand aside to let the Elders deal with troublemakers. This indifference to the survival of the humans adds a layer of tension that I greatly enjoyed, because the humans couldn’t count on the terra indigene to bail them out. If there was a misunderstanding, or a human tried to skirt the ground rules that had been established, they were on their own when it came to dealing with the (often lethal) punishment that followed.

I also really liked new character Jana Paniccia, a human female cop who is sent to be the deputy to the wolf-shifter sheriff of Bennett. Jana, frustrated with constantly being overlooked and derided for being a woman in her profession, is at odds with Sheriff Virgil from the get-go. Virgil has a disdain for humans in general and expects the town to be run like a pack. Jana has to learn that for the first time, the dismissive treatment from her coworker doesn’t have anything to do with her being a woman and everything to do with her being a human who isn’t understanding her place in the pack hierarchy. Watching Jana struggle to figure out how to best deal with her new boss was one of the highlights of the book, and it’s her entry onto the scene that really engaged me into the story.

Which leads to my one real complaint, and that is that the story took a while to get going. I was honestly afraid for the first 20% of the book that this was just going to be another churned out Others tale, one that I would enjoy but not love. There’s a lot of setup as characters are introduced and the stakes are established for Bennett and the surrounding area, and it’s a good ways into the book before Jana becomes part of the main story. Once that happened, however, the narrative kicked into gear and I found myself actually a little nervous for the characters.

All in all, WILD COUNTRY is a rousing success. Fans of the series will find a lot of references and crossover to earlier book, and some of the tension that comes from knowing that a critical event from ETCHED IN BONE is happening causes a great layer of uncertainty in the atmosphere. The references aren’t enough to stop a newcomer from enjoying this book, but this perhaps isn’t the best entry point to the series. For the rest of you, welcome back to a world full of danger, but also found family, as bands of humans and supernatural creatures alike warily pull together to avert cataclysmic disaster.

Fans of The Others series may admit that not much has changed in the last 3 books or so, and generally that isn't an issue. The simple, day to day scenes of earnest humans living with their powerful neighbors are sweet and funny. These moments are the cream floating atop whatever greedy plot some other group of humans are building behind the Others' backs.

The key to this formula working, again and again, is not going to be the element of surprise. Rather, it is getting invested in these characters and communities. WILD COUNTRY focuses so broadly on the community, none of the characters really took control of the story. Learning new names for familiar archetypes, watching all the pins line up so they can get knocked down, even with the addition of evil Intuits, felt a little scattered and boring. The policewoman, Jana, was the character I most wanted to follow, but her story didn't built momentum until the very end.

WILD COUNTRY has the familiar elements that make an Others story fun, but also a bit more of the shortcomings that can drag the story down. A bit slower to get moving than the rest of the series, WILD COUNTRY is still worth reading. But take your time, this one isn't going to rush.

Sexual Content: A non-explicit sex scene, references to sex and rape, a non explicit rape scene.

Wild Country is book 2 in The World of the Others series. I love this series and knew I had to grab it when I saw it for review. I've followed along with Meg Corbyn's journey in Lakeside and was so excited when the series got a spin off last year since I was eager to see that world in other eyes and because it's just that good. We've moved on from the Lakeside Courtyard to Lake Silence and now to Bennett. And the books just seem to be getting better and better as we go.

In this novel we're following multiple people, but mainly Jana Paniccia. Bennett is one of the towns that the Elders went through and wiped out everyone due to the Humans First and Last movement. They're now trying to rebuild the town and have it run by the terra indigene with some humans living there as well. People are still hesitant but trying to move on with their lives and find a way to coexist with the terra indigene. Jana winds up being picked to be a deputy, she's human and working for Virgil, one of the Wolfguard. More and more humans are coming to Bennett when they hear the town is filling some working roles, not all of those people are good or invited to be there. Jana is in charge of most of the human interactions since Virgil is more prone to bite first and ask questions later. There are quite a few Intuits living among the town, and they can sense that something bad is coming. When some outlaws decide to come to town, I knew there was going to be a battle, and was just hoping events wouldn't repeat itself with the Humans First and Last movement.

Wild Country is an enchanting novel you won't want to put down. While this world is brutal at times, you see how good (and bad) people can be and the consequences of their actions. I wound up loving all the main and secondary characters and kind of hope we get more books with Bennett as the focus. There was a good mix of beings in this installment ranging from the Wolfguard, Sanguinati, Intuits and of course humans. Heck we even got our own Harvester/Plague Rider making Bennett her home. I'm so intrigued by that terra indigene, and hope we get more details about that race soon. All in all, you need to try this series, you won't regret it.

Bennett’s human citizens were wiped out by the terre indigene’s Elders in the purge after the Humans First and Last movement failed. It is being allowed to rebuild with a mix of humans, Intuits, and Terre Indigene who will run the town. When word gets out that it is being re-settled with people who will work a trade and run businesses, there is an influx of people who wish to live there. Will humanity rear it’s ugly head again? Well, this is an Others book, so yes, but the story is fascinating and our group of townspeople band together to eliminate the threat that may live among them.

Wild Country was one of my most anticipated books this year and it did not disappoint! A few characters were familiar from Lakeside, but their world that was shook up from the purge changed things dramatically. Humans are required to prove themselves with hard work and an unselfishness that does not come naturally to some of humanity. Our main characters are the exception and the way they rebuild trust is proof again that not all of humanity is corrupt.

There were so many sub plots running through Wild Country that it’s hard to choose a favorite. I loved human Deputy Jana’s need for approval from her Sheriff Virgil Wolfgard, who does not trust humans after his pack was slaughtered at their hands. When he starts to treat her as pack, and she allows and understands it, my favorite moment of this book is created. Another great sub plot is between Jesse, an older intuit woman who is treated with some honor by the terre indigene, and Tolya Sanguinati mayor of Bennett. Tolya, just like Vlad in the Lakeside Others series, is intrigued by some of the more basic emotions in humans and with Jesse there is a trust that has been developed by working together on this project. I’m not sure where their relationship will lead, but I’ll admit that I too am intrigued and can’t wait to find out. If there’s another book in this series that is!

All of the sub plots in this book eventually intertwine and lead to a final conflict that will again leave the question of how and will the terre indigene allow humanity to exist. Will the good folk in Bennett outweigh the bad? I really liked Lake Silence, the first novel in this new Others series, but Wild Country takes us back to why we love this world so much. Yes, humanity can be just awful, but these novels also shine a light on what makes humanity wonderful too. It’s those moments and contradictions that keep me coming back to this intriguing world. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this free ARC through NetGalley for my honest review and it was honest.

The Others series is definitely one of my favorites, and this installment was amazing. I wasn't sure what to expect, since I love Meg and Simon so much, but both Lake Silence and Wild County have blown me away. I am continually amazed by Anne Bishop's ability to tell a truly ensnaring story. I LOVED everything about the characters in Wild Country. The town, the people, the pack, I was enthralled from start to finish.

I gave it 3.5 stars

Although WILD COUNTRY wasn't my favorite installment of the Others series, I enjoyed meeting the new characters and reading about their struggles finding balance in their new world.

Bennett is rebuilding after the humans were wiped out. It was great to see more of the world that I fell in love with in WRITTEN IN RED. The relationships between the others and humans continue to evolve and grow. They are both willing to live with the other, but it takes a lot of patience and understanding.

There were a few things that made it hard to completely fall in love WILD COUNTRY. There were a few points in the setup of the story that I was just bored. It didn't totally grab me and drag me along for the ride. I also didn't love that the timeline didn't follow at the end of the previous book, LAKE SILENCE, but was on the same timeline as ETCHED IN BONE. It totally threw me off jumping back in time.

I have really enjoyed the whole Others world. The world building and the characters continue to be my favorite parts of the series. I really miss Meg and the other Lakeside residents, but the branching out and meeting others in the world has been enjoyable as well. I do hope the timeline gets back to the current time of the series though with the next book and look forward to seeing what Bishop brings us next.

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

5 Hearts, RECOMMENDED READ!
SJ, Romance Junkies

For outstanding urban fantasy that is never predictable and always entertaining, look no further than Anne Bishop. In WILD COUNTRY, the next addition to the bestselling World of the Others series, the incomparable Bishop has done it again.

This story takes place in Bennett, which has been reclaimed by the terra indigene--the Others. Humans are allowed to live there on the sufferance of those who don't and won't tolerate the ugly pettiness that got so many humans annihilated in the previous books. 

Note: this book is a standalone, though for maximum enjoyment, I highly recommend starting with LAKE SILENCE, and her Others series, which began with WRITTEN IN RED.

WILD COUNTRY follows the relationships between the newest human deputy, Jana Paniccia, her Wolfgard boss (the sheriff,) several Intuits (human psychics), and an intriguing mesh of Others and humans. Trouble's coming in the form of the Blackstone Clan, and it will take all the efforts of Jana and the Others to keep the town safe, and to keep the dangerous Elders from coming in and taking over.

Anne Bishop's creativity knows no bounds, and she deftly explores ideas of coexistence through relationships, weaving the paranormal with the normal. Good and bad are never black and white, and her world of gray gets more intriguing book by book.

I sincerely hope she keeps writing in this world, because each Others and World of the Others book she produces just gets better. For an urban fantasy different from all the rest that will leave you turning the pages until it's done, try WILD COUNTRY. 

Recommended Read!

I was really looking forward to discovering this new novel. If I had really had a great time with the previous volume, it’s true that I didn’t loved it as much as the Meg Corbyn’s volumes. However, I must say that I was completely delighted with this one, and I am more than happy to have discovered this story!

I was all the more delighted as we fall, this time, to Bennett where we find some characters we had already met! On top of that, we hear a little more about Meg, Simon, or Hope and I was really happy to know what was happening to them!

As I said, we find the town of Bennett, which is beginning to be repopulated by as many people as terra indigena. But that’s also a problem, because while some people are really looking for a job and a place to live, others are only looking for profit and see in Bennett another opportunity to get rich. It is in this context that we discover different characters to whom it is very easy to get attached to. How can we resist Jana, this new detective, who came to enforce the law. Or Virgil, Jesse, Tobias, and all the others! And what about all these touching little dogs? We can’t resist them!

Yes, Anne Bishop has a lot of ideas for this series and I was really carried away from the beginning without being able to let go! It was a great novel and I’m conquered! So I’m even more curious to read more now! I was kept in suspense throughout the story, especially towards the end which was really full of suspense! I highly recommend it!!!!!!!

I received an eARC of this book via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion of this book or the content of my review.

Wild Country by Anne Bishop is everything I wanted Lake Silence to be and more! While I enjoyed Lake Silence, it wasn’t what I had come to expect from The Others series. Wild Country however is everything I wanted in a spinoff series with some Wild West flare thrown in. Following the people and Others sent to resettle the town of Bennett, the book is a thrill ride from start to finish.

The Bennett Humans and Others
So in the Lakeside Courtyard, humans and Others have been working together for a while. The addition of Meg Corbyn helps with any tension, because Meg isn’t all human but she isn’t Other either. I say all this because there is no Meg in Bennett.

Tensions remain high. The sheriff and his deputy are Wolfguard, the only surviving members of their pack. The mayor is Sanguinati. The saloon owner is a Harvester (like Tess, except she’s never been around humans before). I could keep going, but I think you get the picture. These are not like the Others from Lakeside. These Others are not used to humans. Humans are prey to them, and at best only minimally tolerated.

The humans of Bennett are endearing though. I loved Barb Debany and Jana Paniccia! Barb is Michael’s little sister, the would-be vet. She is in charge of the pets and animals left behind after the Elders wiped out Bennett. Her duty is to find feed, care and find new homes for them.

Jana is the unfortunate young deputy assigned to the Sheriff’s department. I love her encounters with Virgil, the Wolfguard sheriff. It reminds me so much of Meg and Simon without the romance. Their relationship is great, and I found myself laughing out loud through most of their interactions.

In addition to Jana and Barb, there are Jessie and Tobias Walker, a mother and son Intuit family from a small town just below Bennett. Jessie is older and the only human the Others seem to trust, specifically Tolya the Sanguinati mayor. Tobias unlike other Intuits has an affinity for animals which seems to extend to the Others. This comes in handy as they can tell when to approach and how to approach them.

The Blackstone Clan
The story revolves around two things: the resettling of Bennett and the Blackstone Clan. Resettling Bennett comes with challenges of its own. The Elders are watching closely. The Others who live in Bennett are in just as much risk as the humans. The Elders won’t hesitate to wipe them both out if need be, creating an edge-of-your-seat read.

The Blackstone Clan though is a problem. They are a family of Intuits that use their gifts to gamble and swindle away money and jewels from others. I knew from the moment this family was introduced that they would cause trouble, and that they do! I found myself amazed at their stupidity. Obviously they’d never dealt with Others before. As a reader, I almost felt sorry for them….almost.

Final Thoughts
Wild Country is a fantastic, high stakes read. I could not sit it down. I read it in under two days. Seriously, y’all it is that good. What I enjoyed most is that it took place concurrently with the final book in The Others series that featured Meg. So if you’ve read it, you may recognize some events in this book. I loved finding those easter eggs, but I also loved all the new. I really hope the author continues with stories from Bennett. I’m not ready to say good bye to these characters just yet.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Stars above, I absolutely love this series. While I will admit to loving the ones with Meg the most, I still completely enjoy these books. Every time I read one of these books it puts me into a book hangover and I only want to read more of the series. I am so, so very close to forgetting about all the other books I have to read and re-reading the entire series over again.

I suppose I should speak of this book in particular. Now, this book takes place during the same time as the 5th book in the series (Etched in Bone), so in order to not spoil the rest of the series, I recommend reading the other books before this one.

I was looking forward to reading about Jana, the new deputy and her interactions with her Wolfgard boss. I liked her scenes the most of the humans and Virgil's (the sheriff) too since they were both so out of the element. The Me Time cell is hilarious because it hits the point again of how The Others don't completely understand humans. Honestly, I loved all the main characters. I wasn't a fan of any of the Blackstone POVs, not because of the writing but mostly because I really wished I could stop the bad things from coming. I swear I'm so emotionally invested and when you are rooting for the humans to not be wiped out, for humans and the terra indigene to get along, and you can see the conflict coming and can't stop it.... wow, it really ups the tension.

I 100% love this series and I am slowly buying all the books. I do so hope more will be published. I can't recommend this series enough to people who like Urban Fantasy!!

I love the world of the Others and have been really invested in both the world and the characters. I found that I was just not as invested in the characters in Wild Country. I enjoyed the story, liked when it ran parallel with a previous story set in Lakeside Courtyard, but I just did not identify with the characters until the very last pages. Bennett showed up in previous books as did some of the characters features in Wild Country. What happened in Bennett could have been prevented and I kept thinking that the choices the characters made did not really make that much sense. Still it was great to visit the World of the Others again and I look forward to the next book in the series.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.