I understand what you mean about the possessiveness, even though I didn’t feel that way — we all have our hot buttons. Re. what Jane said, I may have been inferring too much; I think in her review of On the Prowl, she said that she felt that Anna was able to physically respond to Charles in too short a time. I can understand that viewpoint, even though it didn’t bother me.

Re. Anna’s emotional baggage, I don’t want it to drag out either, but I liked the way Briggs paced it in Cry Wolf. If Anna kept going through the same issues over and over again, it would get repetitive and frustrating, but at the same time, I think that characters without any emotional issues don’t bear much resemblance to real human beings (I have yet to meet a person who didn’t have some mixed up feelings about something). I think the challenge of a series that follows the same character can be how to keep that character both consistent (true to that character’s personality) and consistently interesting to readers. Briggs is such a good writer, I think she is up to the task and I’m really looking forward to the next book.

Re. the wolf self thing — you are making a lot of sense. It didn’t have the same effect on me, but I do see what you mean about wanting more subltety.

And BTW, I think your reviews make for very good reading, and stating why you like or don’t like a book is all that a review needs to do. There are always going to be differences of opinion because different readers respond differently to the same books — it doesn’t mean your opinion is off the wall.

I enjoyed your review with Briggs too and I liked her answer about the books being partway between parnormal romance and urban fantasy. That was how I saw Cry Wolf, too, though the “Alpha and Omega” novella was so romance and relationship-focused that it was basically a romance novella to me.

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I don’t know if Briggs will do this in future books but I really enjoyed the love scene in this one and I would enjoy seeing more, esp. since in ry Wolf, Anna called on her wolf to make love with Charles, and I’d kind of like to see her make love with him while her wolf is resting. It would show progression in the relationship, but I don’t know if Briggs will want to go there. I would love it if she did, but I’ll keep reading even if she doesn’t.

I liked that a lot. I thought it was consistent with the story “Alpha and Omega,” where Charles referred to his wolf self as “Brother wolf.” There were times in that story when “brother wolf” had a differnent instinct or POV than Charles did. In the beginning, the wolf wanted her for his mate before Charles did. And later there was a great moment when Charles almost said something that might have hurt Anna’s feelings, but the wolf stopped him from doing so.

Charles is Alpha so I expected him to be possessive and to show aggression when other males were around Anna — but I felt it was too often that he showed that side of himself. It got my nerves, what can I say? [g] I can’t stand possessive men so maybe that’s more of a personal issue [g]

As for Anna’s regression — first let me say that I don’t know how in the world Jane concluded that she got her over sexual hang-ups quickly. [g] IIRC, she was worried that she’d have to have sex with Charles when they were leaving from Chicago to Montana (in Alpha and Omega).

I understand recovery needing to be realistic but I am hoping that it will not be a MAJOR part of this series. I asked Ms. Briggs this question regarding Anna’s emotional baggage and you should read her answer. It will post tomorrow.

As for the relationship being resolved quickly — I liked that it was resolved quickly in here versus the Mercy Thompson books where that part of the subplot took about three books to resolve. I think the Anna and Charles series will not so much be about romance. I predict based on how the relationship aspect was resolved, that it will be more about them as a couple against whatever obstacles they may have to face but I don’t expect there to be any romantic issues or entanglements (and I could be completely wrong). I just don’t see this series being overly romantic and the author hinted as much.

Re: wolf self-identiy issue — I can accept that they have a twin soul (wolf self and human self) but I think it was more of the delivery for me in conveying that concept that didn’t work. I’m not against the idea of it since it is an integral part of the series but my reaction whenever I came across the author referencing their “wolf self” in third person– it just completely knocked me out of the story. I guess I’m more for subtely in that regard.

I am sorry if this is not making any sense. I have a hard to analyzing the likes and dislikes of books as well as you guys do it at DA. It’s just not in me [g] I either like it or don’t like something and say why even if it is so totally off the wall.

I really enjoyed your review, too, Janine and so loved the scene where Charles changes back to his human form in order to soothe Anna’s ruffled feathers because she was losing her bearings and was threatening to leave him. One of the many memorable scenes in this book. The funeral scene almost had me in tears because it was just a brilliantly written scene/section of the book.

I thought Charles’s possessiveness was a bit much but some readers may enjoy that more than me.

I often find possessive heroes annoying, but in this case, I actually enjoyed the possessiveness because Charles wasn’t comfortable with his own possessiveness. Part of it was him but a bigger part of it was his wolf, and Charles fought the wolf part of himself in order to give Anna the space she needed. I felt there was something noble in that, in the way he had to suppress his own impulses but was willing to do that for Anna because she meant so much to him. It was very romantic to me (not the possessiveness, but the struggle to be good to her).

Another thing is the referral of their “wolf” as a separate entity — can’t say that I liked that much and I thought it was odd.

I liked that a lot. I thought it was consistent with the story “Alpha and Omega,” where Charles referred to his wolf self as “Brother wolf.” There were times in that story when “brother wolf” had a differnent instinct or POV than Charles did. In the beginning, the wolf wanted her for his mate before Charles did. And later there was a great moment when Charles almost said something that might have hurt Anna’s feelings, but the wolf stopped him from doing so.

In Cry Wolf, this was expanded on — I especially liked the scene in which Charles thought (I’m paraphrasing from memory here) that he couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t been aware of the fact that there were two souls that occupied his body. We were also shown more of how much this was the case for Anna, with the way she was able to call on her wolf half to give her strength.

I think there is a lot that Briggs can do with exploring this in future books, esp. the difference between someone like Charles, who is used to sharing his body with another soul (the wolf’s) from birth, and someone like Anna, who is less used to it and who had it forced on her. As I said in my DA review I think that maybe part of the arc of the series will be about Anna’s having to accept that aspect of herself and of the man she loves — that they are monsters, and killers, no matter how human they also are at the same time.

Lastly, I thought Anna’s character had regressed a bit from the novella. My hope is that we don’t spend too many books building her self-esteem back up. Given this fresh start, I feel that Anna has began to heal.

I can see why you might feel that Anna had regressed from “Alpha and Omega,” especially since she starts Cry Wolf feeling afraid. It is interesting to compare your reaction with Jane’s reaction to “Alpha and Omega,” where Jane felt that Anna got over her sexual issues too quickly. In Cry Wolf we saw that this was not entirely the case.

My reaction was somewhere in the middle — I feel that the regression is very realistic, since Anna had only known Charles one day, and he was wounded, and her entire life had been changed and she was uprooted from her home. I’m very glad that Briggs put some real obstacles in Anna and Charles’ relationship, esp. with Anna’s intimacy issues, since I think the kind of trauma Anna suffered isn’t something that people get over very quickly.

Oftentimes I do think that books gloss over the recovery process for rape survivors and have the heroine get over that kind of trauma in one love scene. That rarely feels realistic to me. Which is why I actually hope that Briggs continues to show the recovery as a gradual process that can sometimes be two steps forward, one step back, as she has done Cry Wolf.

I am very glad that Anna and Charles are committed to each other but I hope that doesn’t mean the end of their issues because for me, their relationship is what I love about these books and once the relationship issues are all resolved, I don’t know if I’ll be equally interested. Of course, there’s a fine line between resolving them too quickly and dragging them out too long, so I hope that Briggs finds that balance.

Also — just for the record — I’ve never read Mary Janice Davidson or Kim Harrison [g] and I’ve only read one JK Rowling book but it was not last one. Take care.