Ox is 12 when his dad leaves. A few years later, a new family, the Bennetts, move in next door. They hold a secret - they can turn into wolves.

I was missing the writing I enjoy from Klune here. Maybe the future ones in this series have that more!

4.5 stars

I read a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy romance, but not much paranormal. So believe it or not this is my very first werewolf romance. And it may be my last…because it has ruined me for future books.

The writing style on this one is quite different, in that it’s almost like stream of consciousness. It’s told in first person from the pov of Ox, who is described as a bit slow and simple (I’m not a fan of this term, but I’ll use it). This results in a simplified writing style. It’s mostly short sentence after short sentence, line by line, as opposed to paragraphs. Sorry, I don’t think that made a lot of sense, but you’ll get it when you read the book. This writing style is the only reason the book did not get a full 5 stars as I think it’s a bit jumpy to read and doesn’t flow well, but I definitely really enjoyed my time. I laughed, I cried, I swooned.

Thank you to NetGalley & Tor Publishing Group for this advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

4.5/5

Thanks to Tor Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

I am so here for werewolf romantasy and now I will devour this whole series in short order for sure. Loved this book and in true TJ fashion you will laugh, cry, and curse him, sometimes all in the same paragraph, but you will definitely fall in love with the Bennett pack.

Green Creek is a small town in Oregon, where Ox has grown up in a dysfunctional family and when his father walks out, he is left adrift. The house that sits at the end of the road has been empty, but one day the Bennett's return and Ox meets their young son Joe who forms an immediate attachment to Ox. Little does Ox understand how his world is about to change. The story has everything you want in a good shifter drama: found family, terrific villains, tragedy, joy and of course, fated love. This is an adult book so check content warnings, but I definitely recommend this if you love shifter stories with excellent LGBTQ rep, so go pick this series up!!

I've been making my way through Klune's work for several years now, but have somehow never broken into the Green Creek series. However, with Tor publishing the whole series again, and with them giving me an ARC (thanks!), I decided the time was ripe. And boy, am I glad I did.

I read the whole book over the course of two evenings, an absolute "stay-up-late-screw-my-sleep-schedule" book. Werewolves have always been one of my favorite paranormal creatures, and I was engrossed in the story of Ox and the Bennett family. This book has a lot of heart, and a lot of love for found families. It spans the length of I think about ten years, so you get to see the main couple, Joe and Ox, grow together, and apart, and back together.

The book is written in a choppy, simplistic writing style, which works for being in the head of the main character, Ox, but I'm not sure how it'll work if that style continues into the other POVs. There's also a ton of italics for emphasis which is one of my writing pet peeves, but I was having such a good time I was able to mostly ignore them.

Very much looking forward to cracking into the rest of the series!

I was hooked on Wolfsong from the first chapter. Wolfsong is a fantasy novel, the first in the Green Creek Series, with elements of the love and bonds developed with found family. Klune has a gift for writing characters that pull on your heartstrings. The story involves a lot of internal thoughts and descriptions of feelings versus focusing on dialogue. I sometimes found some of those thoughts to get kind of repetitive, but that is probably realistic when it comes to negative thoughts that we tell ourselves over the years. I fell in love with the humans, witches and werewolves in the story and can't wait to get back into their world for Ravensong (Green Creek #2).

Having seen rave reviews of T.J. Klune’s “The House of the Cerulean Sea” and “Under the Whispering Door”, I grabbed this opportunity to get my hands on “Wolfsong”.

Originally published in 2016, Pan MacMillan recently released this edition of “Wolfsong”, the first of the Green Creek saga again.

Set in the lush green forests of Oregon, it was very easy to get pulled into this wonderful world of mystery and magic. This wonderful world of Wolfsong.

“It was warm like a summer day. It was candy canes and pinecones, it was epic and awesome, it was dirt and leaves and rain, it was grass and lake water and sunshine.
And

“Somewhere, a bird sang a song that ached.”
Just beautiful, don’t you think? “Wolfsong” is a deeply intense and emotional journey. Sometimes I felt as if I can’t breathe, because the passion ran so deep, and the author just knows how to convey that specific mood and enchantment.

Oxnard Matheson was a quiet teenager devoted to his single mother and his job at the local garage. One day, he meets a new neighbor, a kid by the name of Joe, and his whole life changes.

This book is hilarious and beautiful and emotional. It is also very slow burn, but it's totally worth the wait. All of the characters are so well developed and unique. Oxnard and Joe have an especially unique relationship and it was sometimes frustrating to only get Ox's point of view because he definitely never saw the whole picture right away. The time jumps were fun because it felt like you were watching through a window briefly and then moving on.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this book if you enjoy MM friends to lovers, found family, age gap, gentle giants, werewolves, witches, and revenge plots.

I was provided with a digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'll be honest, if I had known this was a werewolf romance, I wouldn't have requested it. But I just saw that there was a T.J. Klune novel available, and since I've really loved his other books, I requested this one too. And don't get me wrong, there are a number of things that I liked about this. It's a great novel about found family, about hurt and healing, about love and learning. Those are all hallmarks of Klune's stories, and they're in abundance here.

But like I said, it's a werewolf romance, and the comparisons to Twilight (which the author even includes as character jokes) can't be denied. I thought the imprinting/romance between Joe and Ox was problematic, even though that seems par for the course with werewolf pack behavior -- or at least how it's been envisioned in fiction. I also found the possessiveness problematic, but again, I think the expectation is that the reader should accept that as typical pack behavior. But knowing those things didn't stop the ick factor for me.

I like some of the stylistic choices Klune made in telling this story, but I also think that some of them were overdone, and that the story as a whole could have been shorter. It's a 500+ page book with a 300-page story. I definitely skimmed in places because so much of it was repetitive.

After reading T.J. .Klunes books under the Whispering Door, The House in the Cerulean Sea, and In the Lives of Puppets, I was so excited to read some of Klunes works which predated these popular releases. I was so excited to be introduced to Ox, Gordo, and Joe and the Bennett clan. The welcome feeling felt warm and personal. I felt as though the Bennett family were the type of people who loved without question as long as their pack was safe; if you were loyal, they were loyal.
I wish someone looked at me the way Joe looks at Ox, smelling of “candy canes and pine cones and epic and awesome”. I will say I did not expect it to be as much of a romance read as it was, but I am not at all mad about it. I did think it would be more about pack, and family, loyalty, and survival and in many ways it is that as well. I feel like in the wolf pack, it does not matter if you are gay or bisexual and I really like that. There’s so much acceptance and openness about simply loving who you love. There are more negative connotations towards being human rather than a man loving another man and honestly, I can get behind that sentiment sometimes.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book if you are looking for a supernatural/ paranormal LGBTQIA+ romance with loyalty, heart, warmth, and a welcomeness towards all who offer good intentions. My one critique would be that some of the dialogue can be a bit campy but I really kind of think we all say dumb things when we are in love, don’t we?

Thank you to Netgalley, TJ Klune, and Tor Books for providing me with an arc in return for an honest review. Before I get into the review I just wanna take a moment and say congrats to TJ Klune for how far he has come. He really broke out big with the release The House in the Cerulean Sea. So it's nice to see his earlier work starting to get the same attention.

Wolfsong is about a boy named Ox who was abused by his father and the world. Next door lived a pack of wolf shifters who Ox became fascinated by. Ox befriends the youngest Bennet boy named Joe but the two were torn apart when a murderer came to town and destroyed their lives. Joe left town but three years later returns a changed man, one who Ox can't deny his attraction to.

Gay werewolves for the win. The romance between Ox and Joe is amazing. The two have incredible chemistry. If you are looking for instant love mates this isn't it. The relationship builds over time with Ox and Joe growing together and learning to become their best selves.

The secondary characters really add to the beauty and complexity of this story. I can honestly say I enjoyed this book immensely.

If you're looking for an exciting, lovely, amazing read then this is the book for you and I recommend it for everyone.

TJ Klune has a way with words where you are pulled so deeply into the story that you don't even realize until you've reached the end.

Wolfsong is an exciting and heartwarming found family fantasy novel. I enjoyed the bonds that Ox was able to build and the confidence he gained in himself. I can’t wait to continue the series. Pinecones and candy canes and epic and awesome for everyone. P.S. my Twihard self giggled at the Twilight references.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a great series starter from master TJ Klune. A different take on shifter romances, this book is full of action and angst for the two main characters. I poured through this book.

I couldn't be more grateful to NetGalley for an eARC of this book, it has been on my TBR for months and I just hadn't gotten around to it yet.

And what a crime that was... this book EASILY is in my top books of the year. I don't cry in books... ever. I was crying before I even hit 100 pages. This book took me on a ride, I will think about this book for years to come. Rereading books is something I RARELY do, but I will ABSOLUTELY be rereading this one.

Highly recommend.

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did! This book has some "epic and awesome" characters with great connections between them. Found family, slow burn, and a little teenage angst in the mix. You can't help but feel Ox's emotions, his embarrassment, happiness, sorrow, all of it. I enjoyed the world building and the magic that came with it.

True to TJ Klune's brand, this story is heartwarming and drew me in from the start. I love the characters he's created so much, and the story unwinds in a way that is so interesting.

I'm not sure I have words to express how much I loved Wolfsong and the world of Green Creek. This powerful, emotional, and even funny book had me laughing on one page and crying on another, convinced my heart had been shredded. The characters, especially Ox and Joe, and fully realized, complex people, and I wanted to hug and protect them all. Despite its 500+ page length, Wolfsong never lags or slows down -- if anything, I wanted more by the time I reached the end. Can't wait to read more in the series.

"People could be cruel. They could be beautiful, but they could be cruel too. It's like something so lovely can't just be lovely. It also has to be harsh and corroding. It's a complexity I didn't understand."

Ox, our MC, has not had the greatest life, especially after his father walked out the door at age twelve. He is an outcast, the man of the house now, and lives a quiet and solitary life.

That is until the age of sixteen when he meets a boy.... a boy full of life, not alone, a boy who talks as fast as he runs. But this boy has a secret... a secret that changes Ox's life forever

A world full of color, a place where he can not only exist but belongs, and a murder that threatens it all.

I am completely WRECKED but also hopeful! Ox and many characters have dedicated bonds... they are PACK. You mess with him, and you have to go through me type of mood. The loyalty in this story had me completely absorbed! But the loss in the tale was enormous... a complete hole in my heart. It made me want to tilt my head to the sky and howl my song of sorrow to the moon.

The romance...swoon! It was so soft and sweet at times and a demanding bite in others. It was an obligation to things we must do and a choice because we get to choose. I LOVED it!

This story could be cruel. It could be beautiful, but it could be cruel too. It's like something so lovely can't just be lovely. It also has to be harsh and corroding. It's a complexity I didn't understand.

This book hurt me to my core and healed me all the same. I will be recommending this one for a long time.

You can pre-order this new and beautiful cover. It will be released July 4th.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing me with an ARC.

As a big fan of TJ Klune, I began to read this book with great anticipation. Although I finished it, I was very disappointed. First, the transitions from human to werewolf and back were often unclear, and sometimes it seemed as if the person/wolf was staying, and functioning, in mid-transition... also unclear. Thanks TJ Klune for giving explicit lessons on what gay sex looks like, but I really didn't want to know that. Too much information. Some things are better left private and in the realm of suggestion. I read the excerpt from "Ravensong" included at the back of the book and, since it seemed like it was going to be more of the same, I decided to give it a pass.

TJ Klune never disappoints!
Wolfsong is unlike anything I’ve ever read. Fantasy with mystical elements and romance. I typically don’t read fantasy, but this had me hooked.
The family drama included in the story makes it even more interesting and keeps your attention.
Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review.