...Bookfanatic

While I've really enjoyed this series I have to admit this 5th and final story for me has turned out to be the weakest of them all.

"How to Run with the Wolves" is the final book in Ms Easton's 'Howl at the Moon' series and also serves to segue to a spin-off series about the quickened or two skinned (as the Alaskan group refers to themselves) intended to be set in Alaska.

I found that while I enjoyed the last part of this story more than the beginning,  unfortunately, overall things just didn't work for me as well as the previous books. In general I just didn't feel the connection between Zeus and Timo but more specifically, for me, on an individual level these two just didn't quite feel right for me.

Zeus and TImo in some ways really were total opposites...mainly in that Zeus comes across as having a more serious nature as well as being a loner...someone who's not comfortable in large groups even if it's family and friends, mostly people he's known his whole life. This was one of the parts of the story that helped keep this story unique in the series and interesting for me, since for the most part the quickened tend to be more gregarious and outgoing individuals who enjoy or at least are more comfortable with a lot of social interaction. 

While Timo is close to being Zeus's polar opposite...with his jokester personality, his love of playing and also seems to display a bit of a propensity to bend the truth in his efforts to get his way which is my nice way of saying that at times he came across as a spoiled and somewhat self-centered child...and now we are heading into what was for me one of my biggest issues with this story.

For me both Zeus and Timo at times came across as being 'childish' as opposed to 'child like' or 'immature rather than sweetly naive'. In relation to this series Milo is a perfect example...Melo was sweet and naive but for me he never came across as being immature and on the same note while it took me a bit to warm up to Milo's partner, Jason when I read 'How to Wish Upon A Star' it just never quite happened for me with Timo. Even though I enjoyed the last part of the book I never really warmed up to Timo and he never quite lost that selfish edge to his personality for me. I'm not saying that he didn't care about anything but himself because that would be blatantly wrong. Time cared very much about his sister and his pack but it just always felt like whenever he did something 'what was in it for him' always seemed to be one of his primary considerations.

While I enjoyed the differences in Zeus and Timo's personalities. Other things just detracted from the story for me too much to really enjoy it. Things such as my inability to really like Timo and the fact that at times the lack of maturity displayed by both characters made me feel like I was reading a story about two boys who were considerably younger than both of these men were suppose to be, that at times the relationship development between Zeus and Timo took such a back burner to other events that it took me a bit of effort to get back to them, so things ended up being good for the most part, but just didn't hit awesome the way the previous stories did.

For now I'm undecided as to whether or not I'm going to carry on to the new series as there were parts of this story that I enjoyed that connect to it...things like the setting and characters and dynamics of the Alaskan pack, I liked the story of how they came to be two skinned or quickened but I think there's maybe a bit more to it than we got here, but I could be wrong and whether there is or not it's still a good story and the idea of finding out what happens next in the efforts to revive this pack definitely offers a lot of promise and last but not least is that this is an author who more often than not provides me with stories that are deserving of stars...all the stars! 

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An ARC of 'How to Run With the Wolves' was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.