Season of the Wolf (The Legend of All Wolves #4) by Maria Vale
What can I say? Maria Vale writes anglo saxon wolves with the exact sense of ever present otherness that is my sweet spot for werewolves.
Don’t read these out of order, because VAle doesn’t really explain or summarize things. You’re thrust right into the aftermath of stuff that happened after the last book (some shifters captured by the Great Northern Pack) and to understand the whole political picture as well as who the other couples are– best to read in order.
This is pack Alpha Evie’s story. Her POV is filtered through the fact that she as spent her whole life immersed in pack and at times doesn’t react in the way she perceives humans would react. She also doesn’t understand “flirting” which is wonderful and fun as the former enemy shifter Constantine she is interested in is more human in his relations.
Vale packs alot of trauma background into every wolf (note the understated way she shows Arthur, who basically sacrificed himself for the good of the pack hangs out with Julia, another former enemy) without a lot of info dumping. Evie has the whole Alpha thing going on, and its not really in best traditional interest of her pack for a shifter who doesn’t shift to be her mate.
Constantine is just really visceral and male and the way he acclimates to the pack and the carpentry shop is so, so lovely. He also has a lot of trauma in his background regarding the way he was raised.
There are so many wonderful cultural/world building things here. From the treatment of puppies in the year of shoes, to the description of the home pond, to the acronym Evie uses to remember the places (lies, flirting, irony, jokes, etc) don’t speak the direct truth, to the language background the wolves use for traditional speaking, etc.
And Constantine and Evie are very, very steamy in a direct no-holds barred curiosity way. Quite steamy.
This is one of my all time favorite werewolf series for the culture of wolves included in the modern world.
What I Should Have Said 