The Wolf King (Library Binding)

I picked up The Wolf King, third in the series, and finally decided to read it last week. Alice Borchardt's writing is, in my opinion, the type of writing you'd always be interested in because it's descriptive but far from boring. Although there are some mature, questionable scenes, her portrayal of the historical setting and characteristics of the time period is very accurate (almost to a fault because it gets quite graphic). That is why I enjoyed read The Wolf King so much, more than I thought I would.

While The Silver Wolf is good, The Wolf King is slightly better. I like how the story focused on other key characters as well (Hugo, Chiara, Hugo's guest, Lucilla, the Saxon) and interwove their stories to the main plotline. On the negative side, I really didin't like the ending...it just felt abrupt and a little vague. Overall though, the story was great with elements of fantasy and the supernatural. For any readers who liked The Silver Wolf, The Wolf King will not be a disappointment.

I cannot believe the drivel that was The Wolf King was written by the same author.

Hey, I know, let's have complete character 180s! It'll be cute! It'll be funny! (There's a passing reference to Rufus and Cecilia reuniting - not a spoiler, but infuriating to those who loved the first book)

Borchardt cannot even keep character's names straight from one book to the next. Dulcina becomes Dulcinia, and her character shifts so much, it becomes unrecognizable. Add a character who Borchardt refuses to name, and Matrona hopping into bed with every male character there is, and it's just bad.

The brilliance of The Silver Wolf lay in its feminism. You got glimpses into the lives of women in a time that we see now as a time of male domination. It gives you the perfect happy ending. When it restarts in The Wolf King, you understand that life didn't stop when the book did for these characters, but as the focus shifts from a women's narrative to an odd historical science-fiction tale, the charm and magic of it dies away. Borchardt's attempt to reconnect every little detail from the first book to this book is frustrating and feels false.

Basically, I got this book because I found the first one so enchanting that I trusted that this one would continue in the world that Borchardt skillfully creates. I won't be getting the next one.

There's more humor, grisly though it sometimes is, in this book as the bear spirit encounters and then possesses Hugo. This humor is welcome, because the number of characters with their various intrigues does become a bit much, especially with a couple of inordinately long chapters that leave no convenient breaking points.

There's less emphasis on the relationship between the woman Regeane and her wolf identity, and I miss that.

However, fans of the original book should welcome this one.