This book was so entertaining. I was drawn into the story from the beginning and was involved until the end. The characters were complex and interesting. I found the story to be well paced and engrossing throughout the whole book. I was invested in the couple throughout the book and felt all the emotions through both the highs and lows of the story. The way th shifter world was used to show different political issues was genius. The chemistry between the couple was so amazing. The side characters were such an integral part of this story as well. This is the love story i needed to read at this time. If you want an entertaining and well written book this is it for you

So the cover is eye catching along with the title but it was the blurb that sucked me in .

What did I like? Neha and Joe start out on opposite sides of the spectrum but by the end they have gone the distance....together. The attraction is physical but Neha makes a great main character who doesn’t waiver in loyalty to Joe.

Would I recommend or buy? So this is my first by this author and it has way too much going on but since it’s the first in a series it’s allowed. My problem lies with tying everything together and I just grew bored. Besides Joe and Neha I couldn’t care less what happened to anyone else. I’m not sure I’d pick up another in this series, and I’m not sure who I’d recommend it to. Two and a half stars.

I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review.

Snyder tells us that in this world “the day-to-day for the average white human citizen was as it had been a few years before,” but for the Black and Brown citizens, the shape-shifter, the LGBTQ, the sorcerer, the vampire, and the refugees seeking asylum—their classification is instant and unchallengeable. Those who are “other than” white cis-hetero men are not even afforded second class status; they have no status. They might as well not exist. If not surveilled and contained, they disappear into camps and then just disappear.

I really admire what Suleikha has done with this book - it does not shy away from the ugliness of our world. That was refreshing in a way, and also sometimes too close to home. The world-building was true to life, aside from the shapeshifters. The central romance didn't really work for me, but I'm intrigued by several of the side characters and I hope we'll see more of them as the series goes on!

Big Bad Wolf is a great shapeshifter story. I will read the next book in the series. The story and its characters kept my interest throughout the story, but I didn’t like the ending as much as I wanted to. It wasn’t exactly what I expected and it wasn’t as happily ever after as I truly wanted for the characters. If you like paranormal romance books, I would recommend this book. If your book club reads romance, I would recommend this book for your group. Just keep in mind that this story is steamy and does describe sexy and steamy scenes.

This was a disappointment. As a South Asian person, it hurts me, even more, to rate it so low.

Let me begin with the good parts.
- Good chemistry and steam scenes between the main characters
- Great South Asian and Punjabi culture representation
- Having lived in Manhattan as a South Asian, I loved the accurate portrayal of Jackson Heights and Jersey City Indian culture
- Love that cover
- Love that every character was so diverse.

That's about it.
I had several issues with this book that not only made me sad, but also made me exasperated and depressed.

1. The author notes in her Author's note that this book is her way of dealing with the 2016 presidency and everything that followed. This is a paranormal/dystopian world where not only every problem existing in the US is acknowledged but add in shifters and vampires that have been exposed.

2. This is not a shifter book where the shifter part is valued, loved or even appreciated. These are sort of medically injected shifters/lab created shifters. Our main hero is one of them. I had major issues with the hero. He was in the army where he had killed a lot of people, as a human and as an animal. I feel like he just hated having an animal inside him. There was no bond between him and his animal. The self hatred was so strong, that the hero had an EPIC case of "You deserve better" for the herione and CONSTANTLY pushed her away. Right till over 90% of the book.

3. Multiple POVs: I understand that this is the first in a long series. There was also a parallel story of another couple going on in this book. Our main couple barely had any relationship development going on (other than sex) so I don't understand why we needed another couple's story. So, not only did we have the two POVs of our main characters, we had another 2 POVs of this other couple. We also had anther 2 POVs of a potential future gay couple. So, total of 6 POVs was not needed at all.

4. This paranormal world was depressive af. I don't remember having a moment of happiness in the entire book. Yes, the hero and heroine had this intense instaLOVE connection (which was just unbelieveable despite this being PNR), there were no characters at any point that felt any happiness. This book highlighted the problems that each and every person faced in the US who wasn't a straight white man. And I was just so over it.

5. It could have been a great novel. There were instances (in the beginnning) where I liked the concept. But then it just became a pool of problems and characters that came out of nowhere and that I was forced to read their POV.

This was an interesting story about a lawyer who has to defend this wolf shifter and things become complicated. I didn’t exactly like how the story ended, but it did wrap things up pretty well. I would continue reading the series and I would recommend it to everyone who like shifter stories.

This book was so much fun to read. It had a great cast of characters who were all dealing with a truly messed up. world (not unlike the one in which we live). Joe is a perfect anti-hero - a guy who does bad things for good reasons. I can't wait for the next installment in the series.

So excited to see a rival of Paranormal Romance! I have read some of Snyder's other books like Tikka Chance on Me and her Bollywood Confidential series, so I went into expecting some angst and a bit of edge. She did not disappoint! I would strongly recommend this for fans of Nalini Signs Guild Hunter Series, JR Wards Black Dagger Brotherhood, Jacy Conrads from Russia with Claws, or Shelly Laurenstons Call of Crow series. So glad to see some romance with serious bite!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, I want to acknowledge how political this book is. Set in a time where the president enacts more and more discriminatory orders in place, shifters and magical people are constantly being tracked, and their humanity questioned. But even Neha worried for her Indian family that the order of the land is based on white supremacy. I found this part of the world building the most compelling part of reading because of so many parallels to our own timeline (cages at the border, sanctuary cities).

This book is a departure from the contemporary romance, Tikka Chance on Me, which I read previously, and I really loved it. It’s darker and grittier (sex against a brick wall, notwithstanding), and every character is complex. Similarly to Tikka, the heroine is Indian-American and devoted to her family. The hero is a tough, but loyal guy who doesn’t think he deserves love.

The part I struggled with the most was the insta-love between Neha and Joe. I know Neha was attracted to him, but I didn’t understand her motivation for throwing everything away to be with him. She was doing a psychological profile on Joe, but I don’t think any deep feelings were shared that would have led her to make the choices she did. It could be that I’m not a fan of the trope, but when Joe is pushing her away, the “why are you with me?” kind of conversation, I didn’t really find satisfaction in her answers.

By mid-way, they run off together and their connection grows stronger, so at least we have that as a way to build up their relationship, together with the subsequent fallout that happens near the climax kind of makes for a nice balance of emotions.

(But maybe none of that matters because they have super hot sex all the time and Joe loves to pleasure women with his tongue!)

So, A+ sex scenes, action, and set in NYC makes for some pretty great reading. There are a plethora of Twilight and other pop culture references, which is fun and solidifies the setting as shifters in our current timeline. I am interested in getting to know more of the third shift folks, since it seems that’s where the series is heading. Maybe we can get some Finn/Grace drama next??

This is an intriguing PNR that I read in one sitting. It's action-packed, engaging, with a wonderful cast of supporting characters. Despite enjoying a lot of elements in this story, there are also some things that didn't work that well for me.

This a paranormal romance set firmly in the politics of present-day America. I found the political messages, which I understand and fully support, to be very heavy handed in the text, very in your face, overshadowing the paranormal and romantic aspects in the story. Quotes from the news is not is not what I am looking for in PNR.

It's the first book in what shapes to be multi-book series and I felt the world building was very sketchy and was overshadowed by the thriller aspect. I am sad to say at times it read more like a mafia book than a PNR.

I did like the diversity of the cast, the fast pace and the whole secret operations/team of super soldiers aspect worked very well for me. There was tension and intrigue and humour, a side romance that I very much liked.

I have mixed feelings about the main romance though. It was steamy and the sexual attraction was off the charts. At the same time, I was not a fan of the danger banging and felt there is not enough substance in Neha and Joe's relationship. It was a fated mates sort of situation though both Neha and Joe very much insisted in entering the relationship on their own free will. Both Joe and Neha acted on their attraction their own, not just being led by some supernatural forces.

Yet, I didn't understand fully her attraction to him and they kept having the same argument over and over again of him not being good enough/worthy of her. It was repetitive and didn't really show any growth of their relationship beyond the sexual attraction.

I was not bothered by Joe being grumpy, surly, mostly unrepentant about his past. Giant surly heroes with the softest heart are my catnip. What I was bothered by was his lack of trust in her, no growth in their relationship.

On the positive side, I absolutely loved the side characters, all of them, Neha's friends/bosses and relative, the whole third Shift crew, they were all great, full-fledged and I can't wait to read more about them.

Overall, this book was not what I expected and it had both things that worked great for me and things that I found annoying, making it very hard for me to review it. It's very much a YMMV situation, so I would suggest you give it a try if you like high-stakes, fast-paces, PNR with strong political aspect and diverse cast.

This started out slow, but I really liked the characters, which kept me going. And by midpoint I was very invested in the story. The main romance is very insta-love and with the multiple character viewpoints, it had more of a urban fantasy feel than paranormal romance. The worldbuilding was very gritty and almost dystopian. It's definitely a United States I hope we never see. But, again, it was the characters that made this book. I enjoyed all of them.

In a dystopian alternate reality, where the 2016 election led to the USA becoming a tightly regulated surveillance state, pretty much at the same time as the existence of a number of supernatural beings were revealed, several big cities, including New York, are now a Sanctuary City for supernaturals.

Joe Peluso, an ex-soldier turned werewolf through military experimentation, is in prison for murdering six bear shifters with ties to the Russian mafia. His legal team is determined to give him a proper defense, but Joe believes himself beyond redemption. He has no regrets about the murders that landed him in prison, which were in retaliation for the death of his foster brother. However, he is haunted by his years as a soldier and all the lives he ended during his long military career. He has no intention of sharing any information or revealing anything to his lawyers that might help him get a lighter sentence and fully expects to be killed in prison by Russian mobsters soon enough.

Neha Ahluwalia, one of the lawyers on his team, as well as a trained psychologist, believes that everyone deserves a chance. She can't really explain her near-instant attraction to Peluso, which just seems to grow with each of their meetings. Falling for one of their clients, let alone a werewolf with a long history of violence is utter madness, but Neha can't stay away. On the day of Joe's trial, she agrees to a brief meeting alone with him, and they end up going on the run together after the Russian mob attempts to kill Joe and creates chaos at the courthouse. While he might not see himself as worthy of love or affection, Neha has caught glimpses of the wounded and vulnerable man behind the gruff facade, and she's determined to fight for their happy ending.

I had hoped to have this review finished by the book's release date last week, but my depression had other ideas, and quite a lot of the things I wanted to achieve have had to be postponed. My friend and fellow Cannonball reviewer Emmalita reviewed this back in December (and has already used one of my favourite lines from the book as her review title and made me very excited to get to this. I've only ever read Ms. Snyder's contemporary romance novella Tikka Chance on Me, so seeing her take on urban fantasy/paranormal romance was interesting and quite different.

There's a lot to like in this book, including the two main characters. I adored pretty much everything about Neha, including how completely unapologetic she was about was about embracing her desires once she admitted to herself that she fancied the pants off Joe. I could have done with a lot less self pitying, recriminations and angst from Joe (I have never had much patience with the oh woe is me, I'm so dark and unlovable because of my past dudes), but I guess feeling constantly guilty and not worthy of a wonderful lady like Neha is better than being an unapologetic sociopath who's full of himself.

It's quite clear that as well as the central romance between Neha and Joe, this book is setting up the wider world in which the Third Watch, the secret agency staffed by both humans and paranormals who end up helping our protagonsists on the run. There's a whole host of supporting characters, including an incredibly charming and very scene-stealing vampire, as well as a no nonsense surgeon, both of whom I hope feature in future books. There's a really nice focus on friendship and community thoughout the book and while I have a few niggles about the book as a romance (everything happens VERY fast between Neha and Joe - I would have liked a bit more time for them to get to know each other before declaring eternal love), I loved this as the start of a new paranormal fantasy series full of competence porn, great world building and interesting characters.

As far as I can tell from Ms. Snyder's Twitter, this series will be at least a trilogy. I can't wait to get my hands on more.

Judging a book by its cover: I absolutely see what the cover designer was trying to do here, but I'm not sure it entirely works.While I totally get that showing that just underneath the surface of our hero lurks a big, dangerous wolf, the actual effect of having two big yellow wolf eyes basically looking out at you from the torso of the muscular and very fit cover model is more distracting than enticing.

This paranormal romance is hot, with some real interesting takes on shifters. It's intense and doesn't hold back with the dark side of humanity, but that's refreshing right now. This book can definitely bring paranormal romance back and remind people why it's such a great genre! Can't wait for the next one!

I love Suleikha Snyder's work and I was really intrigued by the description of this book because I was in the market for a good paranormal romance.

What worked for me:
The Concept - A paranormal romance with shades of urban fantasy set in an alternate America that is retreating into an isolationist, white supremacist version of itself in the way of an unnamed presidency (*cough*) which prompted the military to out the existence of superhumans such as werewolves, vampires and a host of others.
The Female Lead: Desi lawyer Neha Ahluwalia is smart, has a sense of her own worth, is resourceful, takes no shit, and mindful of her identity without being cringey or overly precious about it.

What didn't work for me:
The Concept - Times are still tough and I wasn't entirely emotionally ready to look at this Nazified America.
The Male Lead - just didn't like him. His entire deal is that he's messed up but this manifests itself in a lot of whining and sullen behavior which made me feel impatient with him after some time. While I see why he'd imprint on Neha, I literally have no idea why she'd be into him. I guess that's where the real paranormal comes in.
The Big Bad - there is an overarching story setting this up to be a series and while I cared about various characters on and off, I didn't really feel compelled to find out more.

My Rating: 3.5 stars. (but rounding it up to four for sites that don't allow fractions because it's definitely better than a 3)

Recommended for: people who're really into paranormal romance or, conversely, people who've never read paranormal romance because this is a book that embraces a large audience.

Thoughts




GAH, it’s books like these that make me feel like I have no business reviewing books because I have no words. Seriously, none. I have no words on the technicals of it all, I was so invested so caught up in Big Bad Wolf that when it ended, I had to go back and check that I hadn’t accidentally skipped a few pages, So this will probably, most likely be a ramble than an actual review.




Having read one or two Suleikha Snyder books previously - and from the synopsis/cover of Big Bad Wolf, I thought I knew what I was about to read. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Big Bad Wolf is… Heartbreaking but also heart-healing as well as being full of anguish - real and fictional - all whilst still giving the reader/holding on to hope, all at the same time.


The characters are messy and nuanced and real and honestly? There were times I wasn’t sure I liked, or could go along with Neha or Joe but I realised as I was reading that that just makes the characters and the book even better, you don’t automatically love the characters just because they’re main characters, you work towards it and I just… I loved that and I loved each and every one of the characters (especially Neha and Grace though, like YES give me ALL the kickass women of colour!) as the book went on. There are no damsels in distress in this book, in fact, thinking back the women saved the men more often than not and I was here for all of it.



Suleikha said it best herself, Big Bad Wolf is a book that combines politics and passion, Big Bad Wolf is the best example of the phrase “Never judge a book by its cover.” (like I initially did) because if you do, you’ll be missing out on one of the best reads of 2021.


I loved every minute of this book and I can’t actually believe it ended as quickly as it did (because I was reading it that fast not because the pacing was actually off or because it finished abruptly. The ending was actually spot on - if you look at how he book had gone from the start) I know I’m usually the first to ask for more standalones these days (because it seems like EVERY other book is part of a series) but I hope we get more from these characters because I don’t think I’m done with any of these characters yet. Grace and Finn (and possibly Nate?) sandwich next anyone? Jokes aside though, if Suleikha decides to add anoher book to this one, I’ll take any characters and/or storyline she gives us.

One of the strengths of the paranormal fantasy is its ability to make the metaphors manifest, and then play with them in really concrete terms. One of my favorite werewolf stories, for example, is Ginger Snaps, a turn of the millennium film about two pubescent sisters, one of whom begins turning into a werewolf. The lycanthropy in Ginger Snaps works as this really extreme metaphor for all of the dangerous becoming that happens to girls in puberty: sexually, personally, socially. One of the reasons it works so well is that the actuality of puberty is going on as well — the lycanthropy is a metaphor, yes, but the real world thing exists too. The metaphor doesn’t erase the reality, it heightens it.

There’s this really great scene where the younger sister goes to the school nurse and begins describing the changes in her werewolf sister — sexual awaking, blood, hair growth — and the nurse clucks knowingly and gives her a pamphlet about “Your Changing Body!” or somesuch. It’s a gesture to how the literature about puberty is both accurate, physiologically speaking, and absolutely misses the mark when it comes to the lived experience of the average person at that vulnerable period. I don’t remember getting a pamphlet about dealing with sketch dudes on the bus when I was 14, but unwelcomed sexual attention is, unfortunately, a very real aspect of puberty for many girls & people assigned female at birth. The way the werewolf is used in Ginger Snaps doesn’t erase or replace the experience of puberty, it heightens it.

Anyway, point being, for every story like Ginger Snaps — which flawlessly combines both the metaphorical and the actual — there’s a dozen which treat the metaphor of the paranormal other as somehow more real than actual, legitimate, real world problems, prejudices, and bigotries. This is especially true when the paranormal identity is understood to be a persecuted minority and acts as a stand in for race. I’ve seen many fictions erase systemic racism in lieu of the simplified and ahistoric “prejudice” against their made up whatsit. It’s not that I don’t think people wouldn’t be bigots about werewolves/shifters/vampires should they be revealed to be real, it’s that I think they’d be racist about them in addition to all the stuff they’re already racist about.

Which is why Suleikha Snyder’s Big Bad Wolf is such a godamn breath of fresh air. So much — so much — paranormal fantasy takes place in a magical America which isn’t riven by bone-deep, brutal, and violent disagreement about who gets to count as a person. We’ve all seen the state violence — children in cages, Black people murdered by the police with no accountability — and that’s not even getting into the stochastic terrorism that makes up the background radiation of the Trump years. If, somehow in the last four years, supernatural beings were added to the population as a category of persons who exist, they would have been subject to the exact same treatment as every other minority. Which is to say: poorly, and worse and worse for intersectional identities.

Big Bad Wolf focuses largely, though not exclusively, on the relationship between Neha Ahluwalia and Joe Peluso. He’s a white former soldier who murdered six Russian mafia dudes, and she’s a Desi lawyer who’s been tasked with defending him in court. He was part of a super secret military unit which was changed through scientific fuckery into a wolf shifter, but for unknown reasons he never used his shifting abilities when he smoked the mafia dudes. Neha has a PhD in psychology in addition to her JD, so she’s sent in to try to get him to cooperate with his legal defense. So far he’s been anything but cooperative.

Joe and Neha have an almost immediate connection, one that discombobulates them both. He’s got a healthy dose of self loathing going on, both because of his military service and because he legit murdered 6 dudes in cold blood. Her motives are a little less legible — he is, after all, a murderer — but their dialogue is snappy and I’ll allow a lot of emotional latitude setting up a world this complex. At a certain point Neha has to decide whether to follow her intense reaction to Joe, or stay on the straight and narrow. She makes the leap, and ends up on the run with Joe, dodging the cops, the Russian mafia, and possibly the military.

Because that’s the thing: this novel takes place firmly in Trump’s America (though I’m reasonably sure he’s never named). As the child of immigrants and a lawyer, Neha has a richly textured understanding of how scary it is out there for brown people, for women, for non-Christians. Early on, Joe tries to pull some economic anxiety bullshit on her — you’re just into me because I’m working class — and she’s like pffffft, that’s nothing. I’ve survived the last four years; slumming doesn’t factor. Yes, absolutely, he’s seen some shit, and what was done to him was wrong. But his experience of being hung out to dry as a shifter once the military was done with him is just one injustice. There are so many others, and there’s no rules that say you only experience the one.

As the first in a series, there are a lot of people, organizations, and lore that need explaining, and the narrative feels occasionally cluttered with their introductions. Relatedly, because there are so many people, the character sketches of anyone but the leads are pretty rudimentary. This is less a complaint and more an observation. Even though there are a lot of moving parts, Snyder has a firm hand on her exposition — I never felt like, who the hell is this person, I have no idea how they fit in. Given the size of the cast, that’s no small feat.

Yesterday, I bolted down all 6 episodes of Staged, a pandemic-produced BBC series starring David Tennent and Michael Sheen. I’ve watched a couple other shows produced during the pandemic, stuff like Host (a pretty cute found-footage horror film about a tele-séance) and Locked Down (which I turned off after 15 minutes because of its fucking awful script.) Staged was absolutely pitch perfect, the pandemic production I didn’t even know I needed, coming at just the right time. Big Bad Wolf is exactly like this for me, a corrective to the sometimes ahistorical metaphorical landscape of the paranormal, coming at a time when history demands accounting. Put less douchily: It’s so welcome to see family and friends on the pages of of a novel, living in the same conflicted and dangerous reality, but intensified by a paranormal element that gives the everyday that much more freight.

This is a complicated review. So many elements are in my wheelhouse: shifters, a dystopian future, a competent heroine and a cast of characters. The problem falls into the way it was edited and organized..

Between the self-hate repetition--some just pages earlier--and a lack of zapping chemistry made the fated mates trope fall flat. It felt like empty space between the plot points. How do I invest in a character (Joe) that is nothing but self-loathing to the point even a honest, conscientious heroine (Neha) can't make him real?

I love a strong world. One of my top catnips for any genre. Give me a spiraling world with a lot of complex systems. The problem was that the world overtook the romance as a character driver. In truth, it felt more like an urban fantasy instead of romance. Love urban fantasy. But that wasn't what was presented when reading the synopsis or marketing.

I hate leaving a not-so-positive review because I love Suleikha Snyder's writing. But the lack of emotional connection pulled away from the romance. I didn't believe in the love. Joe was too self-hating, too negative, against Neha's burgeoning optimism. Sex isn't the only form of intimacy in a perilous world.

I needed to believe in them and Joe wasn't a hero I could like in any way. Had he been the hero in the second book the concept could have worked better. A space where readers could see him previously dealing with his obvious PTSD at the Brooklyn Hilton in counter to Neha's forced PTSD from being a Sikh in a rising nationalistic white Christian United States. But there was zero focus on the commonalities of a harsh world, even though readers spend at least 45-50% of the book with his regrets and shame spirals.

Absolutely loved Neha's friends and her family network. And the outcome of being honorable in a world with not enough grey spaces for people to survive in. Auntie network thrilled me. Love a good community build up. That's something a lot of people can understand: found families in a world that isn't kind. Pretty much a base line for the current romance market. Again: catnip.

And the use of different shifters, like the Naga, which show that it's not just Western Europe that loves a good paranormal shift. Kind of hoping for some werehippos in the series, honestly. A different kind of apex predator.

I have to give the book a solid three stars. That's for concept and worldbuilding, mostly. Neha had potential but I think she was wasted on a man without layers...beyond lust. The interconnected subplots didn't necessarily hold my attention because I wasn't invested in the world. I know Snyder writes better. I'm hoping a different editing shift in the next book will let that shine through.

Thank you, Suleikha Snyder, Sourcebooks, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book.

I really enjoyed BIG BAD WOLF. I don't read much of this genre, but this novel changed my opinion. The plot was entertaining, and the characters were what I expected. I really, really enjoyed this story. I would recommend it, especially to people who love a good werewolf story.

I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Big Bad Wolf is the first book in Suleikha Snyder’s extremely steamy new science fiction/fantasy series Third Shift. I’m always going to remember reading The Stand when I was home alone and suffering from what turned out to be pneumonia, and I will always remember reading this book that takes place in a dystopian world where democracy has ended and a right-wing fascist regime has taken over the United States, when right-wing fascists attacked the Capitol building, and doom scrolling on social media seemed to echo the world in this book. When his foster brother was killed, Joe Peluso, an army veteran and wolf shifter sought revenge by taking out some of the Russian mobsters responsible. Neha Ahluwalia has degrees in both law and psychology, and her part on his legal team is to find out what makes Joe tick. A failed courtroom hit by members of the Russian underworld who are bear shifters has them on the run, and their only chance to survive may be with the help of Third Shift, a mysterious organization made up of shifters and other supernatural creatures. This is definitely a book that will keep you avidly reading long past your bedtime. Steam Level: Very Hot. Publishing Date: January 26, 2021. #BigBadWolf #SuleikhaSnyder #SourceBooksCasablanca #SteamyScienceFictionAndFantasy #WolfShifter #ScienceFictionAndFantasySeries #bookstagram #bookstagrammer