From Publishers Weekly
Keeper of a terrible secret and resigned to a fate some might regard as worse than death, Alice White lives alone, has no friends and permits herself human contact only in the arms of men she picks up for one-night stands. Once a month, at the full moon, Alice locks herself inside her basement and turns into a wolf. In this riveting debut, Danvers gives suspension of disbelief a whole new meaning. Never for an instant does the reader doubt Alice's plight nor fail to empathize with her dilemma: Should she , for the first time in her life, risk loving someone enough to share the secret with him? She wants desperately to end her self-imposed isolation but fears the awful truth will drive Erik Summers away. Wildlife biologist Summers, a man with a keen sensitivity to the anmial world, seems the ideal counterpart for the troubled Alice. Complicating these already dark matters still further are Summer's ex-wife, who wants him back, and Alice's psychiatrist, who has fallen in love with her. Human complications notwithstanding, it is when we are with Alice the wolf--prowling her den, pawing the floor, confined, condemned, yet unmistakably alive--that this provocative novel is at its sensuous, page-turning best. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild alternate; paperback rights to Pocket Books; film option to Pathe Entertainment.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Beware the publisher's hype: it makes this lovely novel sound ridiculous. Primarily a story about the trials of love, Wilderness has as its heroine Alice White, a woman who has kept herself shut off emotionally because of a shameful secret. When she meets Erik, they fall in love and she decides to tell him who she really is--a werewolf. Of course he doesn't believe her, and their resulting soul-searching is painful to share. Alice's main concern was to be believed and, more important, accepted; so at Erik's rejection she decides actively to explore her animal half. Matters are complicated by Alice's inept psychiatrist and by Erik's ex-wife, who decides at this crucial time that she wants him back. Eventually, Erik realizes he loves Alice. The characters are all well rounded; we even get a glimpse of the pompous psychiatrist's empty home life. In no way a horror story, this book is as good as the publisher claims, but it is a pity that the promotion even mentions the "werewolf" theme. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/91.
-A.M.B. Amantia, Population Crisis Committee Lib., Washington, D.C.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
