Inti Flynn is the scientist in charge of rewilding the Scottish highlands with wolves. The small, nearby village is afraid for their lives and livelihood. Even though Inti, and the other scientists, try to assuage their fears they still want them and the wolves to go. With Inti is her twin sister, Aggie, someone marred with tragedy and unable to communicate.

At first everything goes well. While there are skirmishes with the townspeople, the wolves seem to be staying away, until someone ends up dead. And not just anyone, a man who Inti has had words with and is not afraid to say she is glad he's dead (he does beat his wife, so fair). To make sure her wolves aren't blamed, Inti does the unthinkable: she buries the body. Soon the cop who Inti starts falling in love with his trying to find a missing person and the tensions between the town and the scientists are not going away anytime soon.

I was just as blown away by the breathtaking imagery of this book as I was with McConaghy's Migrations novel. The way she's able to transport the reader into the world she is describing is a wonderful talent. I also loved how she created Inti's character. A woman who grew up split between her mom's world in Australia and her dad's wilderness of Canada, trying to find a place where she fit. It didn't help that she had a rare condition called mirror-touch synesthesia that causes her to physically feel the hurt she sees others, humans and animals alike. An interesting condition to give a character who then works with one of the best predators in the wild.

The relationship between Inti and Aggie was beautiful and heartbreaking to see. They love each other so much and want the other to be happy, yet no matter what one of them will always have to be unhappy. Not to give anything away, but the ending was unexpected for me. I totally bought into the idea that it was either the wolves or Duncan (Inti's love interest). My only real complaint in this whole book was the relationship between Inti and Duncan wasn't as believable as I wanted it to be. This may have to do with Inti's personality more than anything else.

I was appreciative that in the end Inti realized that she needed to work with others, that creating a life for herself that was completely isolating wasn't going to get anything done. Realizing that to fully rewild Scotland she would need the help of the townspeople was a great ending to the book.

Similar to McConaghy's debut, Migrations, Once There Were Wolves explores mental health and healing in the most beautiful way. I was captivated by this story and think many readers will find something to connect to as well. Could not recommend more!

I was a huge fan of McConaghy's debut Migrations. In Once There Were Wolves, this book felt a little slower because it had so much scientific information regarding the wolves. I would have liked it more with less of this information. I enjoyed the characters and how the interacted. However I questioned some of their motives and actions (these would be good discussions for a book club). McConaghy kept the action going and the ending was very satisfying. I will continue to recommend McConaghy to fellow readers.

I really enjoyed "Migrations" and when I heard the author was coming out with "Once There Were Wolves" I was super excited to read it.
And it definitely didn't disappoint.

I was SO excited to receive an advanced copy of McConaghy’s second novel, as I was absolutely obsessed with her debut, MIGRATIONS. Luckily, her second novel definitely lives up to my love for her first novel, and continues exploring the themes that made MIGRATIONS so great.

McConaghy once again dives into the wilderness—plumbing the depths of nature and of our own minds. This story follows a young woman, Inti, as she travels to the Scottish Highlands to reintroduce wolves to the habitat, much to the distaste of the local community. Tensions run high, especially after a farmer goes missing. McConaghy once again ramped up the tension as the story wound on, balancing multiple timelines that go back and forth in Inti’s life. This book is especially dark , so please look on @the.storygraph for full trigger warnings, or DM me if you’re curious.

While the plot is punchy and fast, McConaghy balances that nicely with a strong focus on character throughout. I really enjoyed seeing Inti become a part of this small community and stretch herself across ideological differences to meet people where they were.

I do wish there had been more development in one of the main relationships. It wasn’t quite insta-love, but I felt that the bond between the two characters could have been shown in moth depth. I also felt that the ending had been given a bit more narration. It all happened really fast, and I think it could have been fleshed out. But I did cry, so I guess it got to me anyways.

Highly recommend this one if you were a fan of MIGRATIONS, or if you’re into intense books about nature, with a wily and somewhat unstable narrator.

I had enjoyed this author's book, Migrations, and was happy that she had written another book. She brings us back to nature with the setting in the wilds of the Scottish Highlands. There's a sense of urgency in saving the environment by bringing back the wolves to improve the ecosystem. While the main character's intent was admirable, learning to work with the community needed to be improved to possibly have some success. Tension, anxiety, and violence is felt throughout. The environment that the main character and her sister experienced in their childhood and young adult had a lot to do with how they dealt with things in their lives. I was engaged from start to finish and really enjoyed reading about the wolves and how they can help with improving the land. Thank you, NetGalley, and the publisher for the ARC.

Her first book-MIGRATIONS-was very good but I thought this one better.Twins, raised by divorce parents, the father a Thoreau like figure in British Columbia and a mother in Australia with a “ Hobbesian” outlook on life and humanity.Touches on multiple topics-environment/ nature and our use and destruction of it,sisterhood, love, a sadistic toxic relationship and the damage it causes, spousal abuse, murder, and finally the life cycle and nature/ habits of wolves-who knew?As in MIGRATIONS the finale is a shocker , dramatic and unexpected. McConaghy is passionate about the environment/ global warming but weaves it through a beautifully written novel and thus less didactic and “ preachy”.A good read- a very good read with something for everyone(crime/ thriller readers, nature lovers, etc

Absolutely and totally wonderful! I love Charlotte McConaghy; Migrations was my favorite novel of 2020. I was so looking forward to this, and it did not disappoint. Beautiful, moving, haunting. I adored it.

“Not long ago, not in the grand scheme of things, this forest was not small and sparse but strong and bursting with life. Lush with rowan trees, aspen, birch, juniper and oak, it stretched itself across a vast swathe of land, coloring Scotland’s now-bare hills, providing food and shelter to all manner of untamed thing.
And within these roots and trunks and canopies, there ran wolves.”

As part of the Cairngorms wolf project, Inti Flynn is tasked with reintroducing wolves to the Scottish Highlands. It has been centuries since the last wolf was killed in Scotland, and the landscape has suffered as a result. In a conservation effort, wolves are being reintroduced to the area. Many people, including Inti’s team of scientists, are excited about the project. But many of the locals, in particular the farmers, are resistant to the change. When a local man is murdered, all signs point to one of the wolves. Inti refuses to believe that a wolf is responsible. But if not a wolf, then who? And how far is Inti willing to go to keep the wolves safe?

Told in the first person from Inti’s perspective, Once There Were Wolves is a propulsive tale. It’s told in present, but frequently features flashbacks to Inti’s childhood and her life in Alaska with her twin sister, Aggie. Aggie has not spoken since the twins left Alaska, alluding to a traumatic event. She communicates solely in a sign language she invented when the sisters were children, and lives a secluded, quiet life. In contrast, Inti is a force to be reckoned with. She is fiercely protective of her wolves and lacks the proper tact to have successful interactions with the local farmers. I was fascinated by the dynamic between the two sisters. Having spent their entire lives together, Aggie followed Inti to Scotland. A large part of the story revolves around the mystery of the girl's past, in particular, what happened to Aggie.

Overall, I didn’t love the plot as much as McConaghy’s last book, Migrations, but I loved the gorgeous imagery and I was absolutely fascinated by the wolves. Each of the wolves is assigned a number instead of a name to keep the scientists from getting attached. But naturally, as the reader, I became very attached to the different wolves. I loved watching them form packs and have pups, and cried for them when things inevitably took a turn for the worse.

Conservation is such a big part of this story. I was fascinated by the concept of “rewilding”. In this context, it meant controlling the deer population by introducing a keystone predator, the wolf. The intended result was to increase woodland growth.

“When you open your heart to rewilding a landscape, the truth is, you’re opening your heart to rewilding yourself”

This isn’t a book for the faint of heart. It is an emotional page-turner. Without giving too much away, the story contains violence against both humans and animals, as well as sexual assault. But despite that, this is a gorgeous narrative. I learned so much about rewilding efforts and the nature of wolves. It made me want to lose myself in the forest of the Scottish Highlands.

Thank you to Flatiron Books and Netgalley for the review copy! All opinions are my own.

Inti Flynn has never been ordinary. She feels everything and she feels it in a way that most people could never fathom. Growing up, she and her twin sister split their time between two worlds - their mother’s in the deafening city of Sydney and their father’s in the lush green forests of British Columbia.

The trees always called to her in the same way that they did her father. They made her feel whole and alive. It’s that very feeling that was to determine the trajectory of her life. She just has to be careful not to let it drive her to that same kind of madness that eventually stole him away.

“I am unlike most people. I move through life in a different way, with an entirely unique understanding of touch. Before I knew its name I knew this. To make sense of it, it is called a neurological condition. Mirror-touch synesthesia. My brain re-creates the sensory experiences of living creatures, of all people and even sometimes animals; if I see it I feel it, and for just a moment I am them, we are one and their pain or pleasure is my own. It can seem like magic and for a long time I thought it was, but really it’s not so far removed from how other brains behave: the physiological response to witnessing someone’s pain is a cringe, a recoil, a wince. We are hardwired for empathy. Once upon a time I took delight in feeling what others felt. Now the constant stream of sensory information exhausts me. Now I’d give anything to be cut free.”

She’s come to Scotland in search of healing – both for her sister and for the Highlands. Her goal as a biologist with the Cairngorms Wolf Project is to reintroduce the wolves back into the surrounding area in hopes of slowing the effects of climate change and to breathe life into it once more. But some of the residents only see wolves as mindless killers and they are willing to back up that belief with bullets.

So every single day, Inti must navigate the perilous lines between scientific truth, idealism, and the dark heart of man. And she soon come face to face with the terrible knowledge that there is a predator lurking inside us all.

“Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can predict a wolf. That’s dangerous. She will always surprise you.”

Once There Were Wolves will literally change the way that you perceive all the living world. Charlotte McConaghy has somehow managed to capture the very essence of what it means to co-exist alongside nature in a way that I’ve never experienced before.

Every aspect of the story is perfect in its synchronicity - from her broken characters in all their visceral anger, to the verdant landscapes, and the fearlessness of the wolves themselves. It sparked with an intensity that left me feeling an unexpected combination of fury and hope. And I know now, that deep down, we are all capable of being a little monstrous…

Charlotte McConaghy is an amazing storyteller. The way she describes the environment, makes you feel like you are there. Once There Were Wolves is set in the Scottish Highlands, where Inti Flynn is attempting to reintroduce wolves back in their natural habitat. As you can imagine the local farmers are definitely not happy.

The novel flips back and forth between present day, where Inti tries to convince the locals that the wolves are a good thing, and her earlier life. Her earlier life, with her sister is filled with trauma and loss.

McConaghy manages to beautifully fuse suspense, climate change and a little bit of historical fiction (introducing wolves back to Yellowstone). While I loved her previous novel, Migrations, more, this was still a great book.

4 1/2 stars

Thank You NetGalley and Flatiron books for the gifted e-galley

A mystical view of a sideways present. An environment just slightly different from ours. Much like MIGRATIONS, the author’s other book, this novel follows a world on the edge of mass animal extinctions. Is it so far away? It might be? I don’t know. But this book was truly lovely.

Charlotte McConaghy is one of those authors that could write in any genre, and I'd read her at this point. I wouldn't say my particular interests lie in reading environmental fiction, but her books transcend the eco-message, spending more time analyzing the human condition.

In "Once There Were Wolves", Inti, Aggie (her twin sister), and Inti's team of scientists travel to Scotland to reintroduce wolves into the wild with the intent to return the land to its natural state. But with a community whose livelihood is based entirely on agriculture, this experiment doesn't sit well with the locals. When one of the townsfolk winds up dead, the obvious culprit is the wolves that Inti has brought into their world. As Inti investigates the community she is now intricately tied to and navigates her past trauma, she realizes that even the most civilized can have a little wild in them.

I can't recommend this book enough. While the beginning was slow to start, I found the pacing enjoyable rather than dull. I enjoyed watching the experiment unfold, and Inti start to enmesh herself into this new human community. This start sets up the deliciously twisty second half after a man is murdered. With a handful of plausible human culprits and the wild ones in the forest, I could not have predicted who-dun-it (and trust me I tried). McConaghy has definitely grown from the first book I read of hers last year, "Migrations" which was more predictable than this. I found this one more unique and engaging, but with similarly important messages about humanity and the world in which we live.

Do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

"Never assume anything with a wolf, she will always surprise you."

If you have read the author’s previous book, Migrations, you know that her books focus on the environment and our impact on the environment. Her writing is eloquent, beautiful and awe inspiring.

Inti Flynn is a wolf biologist who has arrived in Scotland with her team of biologists and fourteen grey wolves they are introducing to the Scottish Highlands. In doing so, she hopes to heal the dying landscape. Along with her team and the wolves, she has also brought her twin sisters, Aggie. They have left Alaska after something terrible happened which resulted in Aggie not speaking or caring for herself properly.

Inti is an interesting character as she has Mirror-touch synesthesia. Her brain re-creates the sensory experiences of living creatures – people and sometimes animals. If she can see it, she can feel it. She can feel their pain, their pleasure and everything in between.

"You don't hunt wolves. You hunt their prey."

Inti knows what she will be up against, and she is right. The locals do not take kindly to wolves being introduced. They have made it abundantly clear where they stand. They will shoot to kill any wolves that threaten their livestock. Inti hopes that she and her wolves can change their minds. Wolves have been shown to save environments. She informs them that predators are critical for healthy ecosystems. They keep other species in check thus guaranteeing that a great variety of species survive.

"The world is hard on wolves; if they don't die by illness or starvation, if they are not killed in fights with other packs or in some disastrous accident, they are shot by humans."


Inti meets the local sheriff; Duncan MacTavish and they begin to spend time together. Their attraction is palpable. As the wolves begin to flourish, mate and bear young, Inti makes a rash decision after she makes a startling discovery – a dead body. Could the wolves be responsible? She knows the farmers will jump to this conclusion. If the wolves did not kill the man, then who and why? Could the murderer be someone she has growing feelings for?

"You must know monsters well, wolf girl."

This book has a lot going on and yet, it is never confusing and the subp0lots do not bog down this amazing book. The book takes place in the present time and gives glimpses into the past. In the past, we see Inti and Aggie being raised quite differently by their mother and father. Their mother is a dedicated police officer in Australia and their father lives in the forest in Canada. He engrains in them to take care of the environment, to take only what you need, not to make waste, and to care for the land. Their mother teaches them about hard work, how to survive in the world and tells Inti she needs to be tough. We are witness to the close bond of the sisters, their childhood and what occurred which resulted in them leaving Alaska.

"All creatures know love."

The descriptions in this book are lush and vivid. There are some difficult scenes including both humans and wolves. There are also some very beautiful scenes. The forest and wolf scenes have an atmospheric feel to them. I loved reading about the beauty of the land and the wolves flourishing, mating, and forming packs. The humans were a little bit of a mess. The humans were flawed, tough, endearing, some likeable, some very unlikeable. But it took all of them to make this truly beautiful book.

I thoroughly enjoyed Migrations, but this book knocked my socks off! I was blown away by the McConaghy’s beautiful writing, vivid descriptions and her chosen setting. As I mentioned at the beginning of my review, her books focus on the environment, but I never feel as if she is beating me over the head with her viewpoints.

This book is so many things – it’s a mystery, it’s a romance, its about survival, it’s about the environment and resiliency. It's moving, thought provoking and such a rewarding read!

If you have not read Charlotte McConaghy before, I highly recommend her books especially this one!

Beautifully written, atmospheric and thought provoking!

A MUST READ!

This story, that begins with a group of biologists transporting fourteen gray wolves to Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands from British Columbia, appears at first to be about rewilding. That is, as one of the group explains at a town meeting for fearful and hostile residents of the area, an attempt to repair the damaged ecosystem of the area by extending the woodland over, reducing CO2 emissions, and providing habitats for native species. The best way to do this, Evan - the only Scot in the group - tells them, is to control the herbivore population by reintroducing a keystone predator species that has been missing in that land for hundreds of years, since wolves were hunted to extinction.

The residents counter that agriculture - specifically raising of sheep and cattle - the third-largest source of employment in rural Scotland - will be threatened by the wolves. Evan tries to assure them that there are effective ways of deterring wolf depredation, but they aren’t convinced.

Inti Flynn, self-described (accurately) as a “bad-tempered Australian” leads the rewilding effort, and is prepared to see humans as the main enemy. Inti has the neurological condition of mirror-touch synesthesia. Her brain re-creates the sensory experiences of living creatures, of all people and even sometimes animals; if she sees it, she feels it, and for just a moment, she is them, and their pain or pleasure is her own. The condition has made Inti more compassionate toward animals and nature, but oddly blinded to the nuances of her fellow humans.

A bad experience some years earlier that irreparably damaged her and her sister Aggie, albeit in different ways, has made her particularly apt to think the worst of human males. She suspects all of them as having only bad motives, no matter how ill-concealed, as she sees it, by kindness. Her caring for the wolves is in sharp juxtaposition to her behavior towards the species she really considers to be the apex predator.

When a murder takes place nearby, Inti is terrified the natives will think the wolves did it, and use that excuse to destroy them. The actions she takes both reflect and intensity her own obsessions, and lead to further tragedies.

Evaluation: This is a haunting story, with an interesting dual plot-line. Readers will learn a lot about wolves and their behaviors, which include love, loyalty and violence. But the species with the most love, loyalty, and violence, is the human one. The pain these can bring doesn’t require mirror-touch synesthesia to pervade one’s life.

Inti, like Fran in McConaghy's debut novel Migrations, is a complicated, seemingly damaged character and her backstory--which includes her twin sister and a set of rather eccentric parents--unfolds in flashes between present day and her childhood as the novel progresses. I found myself utterly engrossed in the author's description of both Inti's unusual upbringing and the haunting, brutal beauty of the endangered wolves and the Scottish landscape. Highly recommended if you like climate fiction and complicated characters with even more complicated relationships!

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy is a very highly recommended unforgettable story which is a beautifully written, atmospheric, and emotionally charged novel about reintroducing wolves to Scotland and so much more.

Inti Flynn is leading a team of biologists who are going to reintroduce fourteen wolves into the Cairngorms National Park located in the Scottish Highlands. The goal is introduce a top predator to assist in rewilding the land, which has been successful in Yellowstone National Park. When the wolves are introduced, there is resistance from the local farmers who fear their livestock will be hunted by the wolves. Inti and her team try to answer their concerns, but the locals remain skeptical. When Inti finds a body of a local man, who was suspected of abusing his wife, she makes the decision to bury him to protect the wolves and begins to look into the murder. This is complicated by her relationship with the local police chief.

Inti has brought her twin sister, Aggie, with her. Aggie requires care and support from her sister due to a traumatic event that has left her wounded mentally and physically, as well as mute. Inti is hoping the change of location will help heal her, but the two sisters are actually very codependent. They grew up traveling between living with their naturalist father in the wilderness of British Columbia and their police officer mother in Australia. Complicating her life is the fact that Inti has a neurological condition called mirror-touch synesthesia, which means she feels what she sees happening to others. This can be with people or animals.

Once There Were Wolves is an elegantly written novel that uses expressive, beautiful language along with heartbreaking descriptions to describe both the natural world and the cruelty that can be inflicted on man and animal. The plot involves relationships, brutality, isolation, personal sacrifice, and fighting for a cause, while also trying to solve a murder mystery. It is both complicated and compelling, but presented in an authentic way rather than sensationalized. The novel moves at a quick pace and is impossible to put down. Between the release of the wolves, the question of what trauma happened to the sisters, and the murder mystery, the intricate plot will hold your attention throughout.

All of the characters are wonderfully rendered and portrayed as complex individuals. Even the supporting characters feel like real people. Inti is a strong woman but is also damaged and has been changed by some events in her past. She tends to keep to herself and keeps her own counsel. She clearly feels humans are more dangerous than wolves. The source of the trauma inflicted on Aggie and Inti's knowledge of the details are not revealed until late in the book, but there are indications in the narrative and it is horrific when finally revealed. It is clear that Inti as a child is quite different from the woman today.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Macmillan Publishers.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and submitted to Amazon.

As a logger-turned-forest-dwelling-naturalist, Inti and Aggie Flynn's father taught his twin daughters to hunt only what was needed for subsistence living, to grow their own food, to use every part of an animal after paying their respects and the importance of giving back to the ecosystem. He taught them the signs animals left; their prints and behavior patterns. Such excitement! Inti saw her first wolf! "You can't track wolves. You leave them be. They are cleverer than we are. So instead you track its prey." Such was life with father in British Columbia.

Mum was "a city-bound-gritty-crime-detective in Sidney. Mum took the girls to her court cases "to witness the absolute worst in people...that people were for the most part, irredeemable." According to Mum, worrying about trees was not a good way to spend one's energy. Mum didn't know the whole truth about what happened in Alaska...why Aggie had bouts of silence...had turned inward. "[Inti] had become brash, defiant, fierce...Aggie and [Inti] must have switched places and forgotten to switch back...[Aggie] was always meant to be the stronger of us."

Inti Flynn was now a biologist leading a team set to re-introduce wolves to the remote Scottish Highlands. To Inti, "the forest has a beating heart we can't see...trees speak with and care for each other...They whisper to each other through their roots. They warn of danger and they share sustenance." Wolves roamed the Scottish Highlands centuries ago. It was hoped that the re-introduction of these predators could cull the deer population and allow for the natural growth of plants and vegetation.

Cairngorms National Park became home to fourteen gray wolves housed in three acclimation pens. Yellowstone National Park had launched a seemingly successful experimental project. "If there is any one thing I know best about wolves...it's that they adapt." "The chance of a person getting attacked by a wolf is almost nonexistent...This is a shy, family-oriented, gentle creature." Rewilding presented a threat to the local farmers and landowners who determined that their livelihood would be impacted and their way of life would change. "If one of those wolves takes a bite out of a single one of my sheep...I won't stop until I have hunted down every last one of them." Duncan McTavish, police chief, was treated to an audio file of an ecosystem in balance...the sounds of wolves whispering-two separate packs speaking to each other...something shifted in the space between [Duncan and Inti]".

Inti felt deeply. "I am unlike most people...with an entirely unique understanding of touch-a neurological condition-mirror-touch synthesis...if I see it, I feel it...". I inhabit the body of the wolf or the human, feel what they are feeling. Mysteries abound....a dead body...a dead wolf...what caused Inti's sister to be silent and homebound?

"Once There Were Wolves" by Charlotte McConaghy is a work of historical fiction that addresses a multitude of issues which include reforestation, emotional and physical abuse and the plight of endangered species. Seen through Inti's eyes, perhaps acts of kindness like that of the white wolf's pack will create a gentler world. Highly recommended.

Thank you Flatiron Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“𝙽𝚘𝚝 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚐𝚘, 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚖𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚜𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚜𝚎 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎.“

Charlotte McConaghy did it again and is officially my favorite, auto buy, will read every word she writes, author.

Similar to Migrations, Once There Were Wolves takes you into the wilderness. And with McConaghy’s incredible use of language and imagery, you’ll begin to believe you’re crouched behind a rock, peering down a cliff, spotting your first wolf in the wild with protagonist Inti Flynn. Also similar to Migrations: the eerie, suspenseful, dark underbelly of the beast that is McConaghy’s storytelling.

I think this type of work is not only paralyzingly beautiful, but incredibly important in today’s world climate (pun intended). Once There Were Wolves is enjoyable and accessible to a diverse group of readers, with the thriller storyline woven neatly into the larger message: preserve and protect our planet and all of its creatures.

As a human race, we tend to create this idea of monsters, sculpted to the form of other species. We epitomize wolves to evil, rather than looking at our own.

“I’m not minimizing. It’s just that if you paint a picture of him as a monster then you make him mythical, but men who hurt women are just men. They’re all of us. Too fucking many of us and all too human. And the women they hurt aren’t passive victims, or Freud’s masochists who like to be punished either. They’re all women, and all they’re doing, minute by minute, is strategizing how best to survive the man they loved, and that’s not a thing anyone should have to do.”

A very special thank you to @flatiron_books and @charlottemcconaghy for allowing me to enjoy this tale early in exchange for my honest review. Now stop reading my review and go get a copy!!

Wow! This blew me away.
Inti is a biologist introducing wolves back into the Scottish Highlands to restore the ecosystem and balance. She's also taking care of her mute, traumatized twin sister Aggie. The locals aren't happy with this new threat to their livestock and way of life. Inti is determined to make the project a success but when a local goes missing she knows the wolves will be blamed.
This begins this beautifully written novel I couldn't put down (even with the Olympics on!) With themes of conservation, trauma, spousal abuse, hope and forgiveness to name a few this one had me in awe of the author's storytelling. There is so much to absorb from this one that I'm at a loss for the words to do it justice. Read the synopsis and know it only scratches the surface of what this book is about. I loved the author's previous book MIGRATIONS and found this one to be equally, if not more, compelling. This is one of my favorite books of the year and cannot recommend it highly enough..