Lure of the Wolf by Jennifer St. Giles

". . . a fast paced adventure infused with an over abundance of sex."

Dr. Annette Batista’s sister Stefanie has been missing for months. Stefanie worked for SnoMed, a super secret international medical corporation supposedly working to find cures to several of humanity’s worst diseases. Instead, it is the brainchild of Pathos, once a leader of the Shadowmen. He is a shape shifter in the service of Logos and sworn to protect humanity. Now Pathos helps his fellow demons by providing them with special Élan blood to sustain and fuel the vampires’ every need and desire.

At a ring of standing stones in the Appalachian Mountains near where Annette lives, she finds a medallion on a broken chain. She doesn’t know it belongs to Aragon, a part human, part werewolf warrior in Logos’s service. Aragon has renounced his position as leader of the Blood Hunters in order to find and destroy Pathos. Just as he is about to strike Pathos in his werewolf form, he finds himself naked and in the bathtub with Annette who has unwittingly called Aragon to her with his medallion. Both are shocked as desire and sexual hunger threaten to overcome them both. And so begins a race against time to save Annette’s sister, stop Pathos, and destroy SnoMed. It will take Annette, the local sheriff and his deputy, a Celtic psychic and her daughter, Jason—a fallen Blood Hunter—and his lover, and Aragon from the Appalachians into Pathos’s stronghold, pursued by demons and underlings all the way to Belize.

Lure of the Wolf is the second in the Shadowmen series by Jennifer St. Giles. Most of the story stands on its own, but there are several instances where the reader feels like this is the middle of a story, leaving the reader hanging in places for lack of information. Other than that, the story is a fast paced adventure infused with an over abundance of sex. The sex grows not so much out of the moment, but is a large pink elephant in the middle of the room impossible to ignore. That is not to say the sex is not warranted, but rather that it often gets in the way of the story and stalls the action.

The sex scenes are hot, and the temperature soars, even in the midst of a cold cave in the middle of a storm with demonic underlings hot on the protagonists’ tails. I suppose one could forgive Aragon for being overwhelmed by lust and desire since it’s his first trip to earth and his first encounter with a human female. (No wonder angels are willing to fall!) His boyish, hormone-fueled enthusiasm and innocence are appealing, but St. Giles leans too heavily on Aragon’s curiosity and willingness to mate as often as possible while the story languishes, especially considering Aragon has a very little time before he fades away permanently.

Make no mistake about it, Lure of the Wolf will lure you into its claws with a healthy dose of hot and steamy sex. It is full of interesting characters that could have been more substantial with a little bit of work. St. Giles has a gift for storytelling and a deft, albeit heavy, hand with the romantic twists and turns.

Reviewer: J. M. Cornwell