I’ve been given this ARC for an honest review. This is a werewolf novel. It is short, but it doesn’t get me hooked. I feel like the plot is "Deja vu". The story is written from multiple POV, which is a thing I like, but there’s a lot of dialogue. A little too much in my opinion. I must admit that this is not the kind of book I usually read, so maybe it’s just not my taste. If you’re into werewolf short novella with mystery, this could be the kind of story you’ll like.

Thank you to NetGalley and Matthew Gregory for this ARC.

I really love a good werewolf story and had high hopes for this one.I think this one started off promising, but somewhat towards the middle I got a little lost with all the location changes. I felt like some of the dialogue between Darius and Violet was a little awkward for two people in a relationship. It missed the mark for me but it did have the potential to be good.

Thank you to NetGalley and Matthew Gregory for letting me read this as an ARC. I love all things werewolves and was excited to get my paws on this!

Unfortunately, this book is not for me.

Despite being a pretty short read, I found it difficult to get into. The plot is tired (Alpha has lost control and started killing humans and must figure out why), and what I'm assuming were plot twists end up being a combination of common plots from werewolf stories/movies/shows.

The writing is straightforward and felt exhausting rather than fast-paced as it followed characters doing a lot of things without the pay off of developing any character building. The wring relied heavily on dialogue, with little gained personality (save for some chauvinistic jokes from one of the agents).

I would've liked more descriptivet writing and character building, but I'm sure there are readers out there who will enjoy Wolf Blood, regardless.

Thank you to Netgalley and Matthew Gregory for an advanced copy of this book! I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a very cool concept that would benefit from some redrafting. The writing felt a bit stilted, but overall a sound foundation for a book! I liked the prologue set in Scotland in the 1400s. I would recommend putting a "Present date" or the current year on the first chapter following the prologue, because I was confused if we were still in the past in Scotland until I read the modern speech. I think tightening some of the dialogue, using better descriptions and flow to 'show rather than tell', and adjusting writing style will help the reader feel more immersed in the story. Great job with describing the transition from wolf to man and vice versa.

2.5/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Matthew Gregory for the opportunity to read Wolf Blood by Matthew Gregory.

I’ve been looking for werewolf stories and was eager to start this one. I felt it had great potential but it is missing something. I think it needed more time to work out the kinks. The beginning gave us a good start, layout of the characters. However, the transitions and plot felt rushed and not as well planned.

Thank you, Matthew Gregory, and Netgalley for this ARC opportunity.

The story is about a couple, Violet and Darius who genuinely want to live a quiet secluded lifestyle up in the mountains of Montana but there is one teeny tiny problem.
Darius is a werewolf.
Things take a turn when a former member of Darius' pack decides to initiate an uprising as if they didn't have enough problems trying to blend in with society.
Kendra Stilton a paranormal investigator starts snooping around trying to uncover the truth when they discover mauled bodies of a campers.

Wolf blood is definitely a mixture of paranormal meets society.
A little nostalgia for Twilight and Vampire Diaries fans based on its paranormal thrill and modern-day dilemmas.
It plays on the survival of werewolves in the modern world.

If you enjoy paranormal novels, you may just enjoy this.
However it did feel a little rushed but the concept is great.

Would love to receive an actual hard copy of the book.

Matthew Gregory's "Wolf Blood" is sort of like "Sharknado" in that it's not great, but bless his heart because he seems to be having fun.. It opens with a banger of a prologue set in Scotland in 1450 that gave me real hope.

Fast forward to the present day. The main characters are Violet (human), Darius (her werewolf boyfriend), and Agent Kendra (government spook). A werewolf uprising is in the works. Can they stop it in time?

The book is a modest 165 pages, and I like werewolf stories enough to keep going. There's a lot of potential, but some of the writing choices drag it down. For example, the first few chapters are alternating first-person POVs from Violet and Darius until Agent Kendra arrives and it shifts to third person for the rest of the book. Character motivations turn on a dime, and sometimes they make intuitive leaps that seem guided by what has to happen for the plot instead of feeling organic. I'm also pretty sure Agent Kendra should be arrested for half the stunts she pulls.

There's also a lot of telling when there should be showing. What should've been a big climax of an action scene with lots of werewolf mayhem is instead narrated from the sidelines by one of the characters like an old radio show. It's a missed opportunity. I wish the rest of the book had lived up to that prologue.

This wolf lacks bite. If the listing price for this was $10, I'd say pass on it. Since it's $3, it might be worth your time. Just don't expect a lot of polish.

(Review ARC provided by NetGalley)

Quick read with a interesting take on werewolves! We begin by following Violet and her werewolf boyfriend Darius in their remote Montana town. Everything is going great, until two people wind up dead, killed in some violent animal attack. Soon a secret paranormal branch of the FBI is in town, and things are falling apart.

I really loved a lot of the elements that were introduced in this story. The dynamic of how werewolves continue to live in the modern world and the secret, hush-hush, FBI team were promising. There was a great balance of gore as well. Where the story fell short for me was the fleshing out of these really great elements. Maybe if the book was a little longer there would have been more time to go a little deeper.

Thank you to NetGalley, and Matthew Gregory for a copy of this book.

Content Warnings: Murder, Death, Gore, Violence, Dark Web, Conspiracies, Animal Death, and Body Horror.

“Wolf Blood” by Matthew Gregory needs a few more editorial passes before it’s ready to be published, in my opinion. Not for the grammar but for the story itself. I started reading the book and instantly realized that I was going to be in for a ride. Not a good ride, mind; one that took me back to my high school’s creative writing class.

One of the first issues I have with the book is that, despite being short, it feels like it takes too long to do anything. The actions of the characters don’t make sense most of the time, leaving the action choppy. It reads as “Character X did this, and then did this, but backtracked and did this instead.” It felt very much like it was not planned out at all, that it was more of a stream of consciousness than a plotted novella.

The most important law of writing, the golden rule, is ‘show, don’t tell.’ There are instances where this can be circumvented in novels, but for the most part, it should be the one unbroken rule of creative writing. Gregory tells everything. It was impossible to get a grip on what was happening around the characters, what the characters looked like, their physical surroundings–anything. Everything is told to the point that it may as well have been a script instead of a novella. Characters are introduced by name and nothing else, leaving me trying to figure out why they are even in the story.

The dialogue was very difficult to read. There were times in the novel where who was speaking changes without any indication of who is speaking. For example, two characters would be speaking with the pattern of character A speaks, character B speaks, etc. Suddenly, though, the pattern would break without any warning or explanation of who was now speaking. The book relied far too much on dialogue as well, conversations taking up pages without any breaks. Characters would monologue for no reason other than exposition.

As I mentioned above, the actions of the characters do not make sense. There are instances in “Wolf Blood” where a character will do one thing, only to backtrack less than a page later. Why is that in the novel? Why do the characters act so irrationally, so inhuman? I know that there are a number of werewolf characters in the novel, but even they do not act as a wolf would.

I had high hopes for “Wolf Blood;” the premise seemed interesting. A group of humans and werewolves trying to stop a massive massacre. This plot is only present in the last fourth of the book, as though the author realized suddenly that he needed something to happen.

I cannot recommend “Wolf Blood” by Matthew Gregory.

I was a fast read. The plot started off good then took a rapid nose dive halfway through the book. Felt rushed and incomplete. The humor was dry .. I love a good werewolf book but this one didn’t do it for me.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

Really enjoyed how fast paced this werewolf story was. I’m a sucker for werewolf novels. Really enjoyed the multitude characters and the dialogue. There was tension throughout and I look forward to see if there is more that comes from this. If it is a standalone however the story is very well done.

A werewolf story that takes place in Montana. Fast-paced read that can be finished in a few hours. Low gore with some humor.