Guest Review: Wolf Lines – Vivian Arend

Into the best-laid plans a little chaos must fall…
Jared’s not sure how his quiet morning coffee near the harbour ended with him on a cruise ship impersonating one of his pack mates. Well, it might have something to do with a woman, but who can blame him? The female of the species was made to love, and he’s more than willing to share his considerable skills in that area. Especially since he figures the chances of meeting his own one-and-only are slim.
Keri Smith is positive the last-minute recruit sneaking aboard the Arctic Wolf Cruise Lines tour is her mate. Ix-nay on confirming that, though, at least for the next ten days. She’s promised her best friend to be overall troubleshooter for the shifter-only cruise. Getting tangled up in mating lust would reduce her skills to nil. Avoidance of the sexy wolf for the duration of the cruise, followed by jumping his bones, seems the logical solution.
But when libidos are on the line, “logic” and “wolves” don’t go together. Throw in suspicions of wrongdoing, and these two virtual strangers will need a lot more than luck to find their way through to forever.
Warning: Really? You need to be warned about the hot nookie and sarcasm? Yeah, it’s in here. Also colourful cat shifters, lupine royalty, and wild adventures in cabins like you’ve never seen before.

Series:  Granite Lake Wolves #5
Release Date:  June 12, 2012
Publisher:  Samhain Publishing
Source:  Novel Sidekick
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Reviewer’s Thoughts:

Running away from the big brothers of his current lover, Jared finds himself jumping aboard a cruise ship to avoid getting caught. Never one to pass up a good prank, he pretends to be his pack member and joins the ship crew as a maintenance worker. What begins as a prank ends with him being stuck on the ship for the duration of the cruise impersonating someone else, fighting his attraction to his mate and trying to stop a jewel thief intent on framing him for the thefts.

As the fifth book in the series, you would expect characters or storylines to start getting redundant. That’s not the case here. With his almost childish sense of humor, Jared is unlike the other Granite Pack heroes we have been introduced to thus far. His quirkiness was perfectly complimented by the seriousness of Keri, his mate. Whereas Jared doesn’t seem to take anything serious, Keri takes her job on the cruise ship as troubleshooter and general hand holder to her best friend and cruise director, Tessa, very serious.

The only complaint I’ve got is regarding the thefts. That part of the storyline seemed forced, as if it was tossed it to give the story a twist. However well intentioned it fell a little flat. It seemed more like a bunch of random events that were tossed in rather than part of the actual storyline. That aside, Keri and Jared’s behavior towards the other, trying to avoid each other while still keeping a close eye, was entertaining. It was very reminiscent of high school and first love. Being a very visual person, I couldn’t help myself from chuckling more than once picturing two grown adults acting like children every time the person they’re interested in comes in the room.

It was great revisiting the Granite Pack and I can’t wait to see what the future brings for the other pack members.