spalmero's Full Review: Colleen Shannon - The Wolf of Haskell Hall
Some people like witches. Some people like vampires.
I like werewolves. I have to admit that the idea of being able to shapeshift into a wolf, to be able to run through a forest, hunt, and still be able to have human 'comforts' appeals to me. So maybe I'm a little weird.
Nevertheless, when I figured out that Colleen Shannon's The Wolf of Haskell Hall was actually about a wolf, and more importantly, a werewolf, I was thrilled.
The book is part of Dorchester's LoveSpell line, and the new Cangleglow imprint. Candleglow was started as a response to the readers who wanted to see a return of the gothic romance. The maiden in peril, the dark and brooding, dangerous hero, and forbidding settings.
Wolf rises to the challenge on some of those fronts. Certainly, Ian Griffith, the 'wolf' in question, is dark and brooding and dangerous, the descendent of a gypsy ruined by a Cornish gentlemen generations past. He, from the very beginning, is almost more wolf than man even when he's on two legs. He has a temper, and he has an appetite, both violent and carnal.
The setting, the moors of Corwall, also rise to the challenge. They're described beautifully, from their sometime appeal and dark beauty, to the danger of the bogs hidden within them. Ms. Shannon makes us understand why someone would want to call them, and their secrets, home.
Delilah Haskell Trent, however, isn't quite the sort of maiden one would expect in a gothic, I think. She's strong-willed and certainly not delicate. She's an American who's come back to Haskell Hall to take up an old family inheritance, because it's a challenge, not because she's stumbled into it. She's opinionated, and loud about those opinions. She's not even, really, a maiden, but she's a decent enough match and compliment for Ian.
I've enjoyed Ms. Shannon's writing style before, specifically in her Heaven books. This time, however, flowery prose made it difficult to get in to the story, and even once I was engaged, sometimes pulled me out of reading and had me snickering over phrases. There are grand sweeping and elegant descriptions of waterfalls and scenery that are made almost comic, in my opinion, when compared to the almost-crude love scenes taking place in those settings. And let's not discuss how many shades of purple she uses in describing bodies and acts.
Ms. Shannon uses her villain and a secondary character to really get inside the mind of the werewolves of the book, however. Through Thomas and Shelly, she explains the choices that the werewolves make, and the two worlds that they walk between. It's nicely done.
Not so nicely done is the ending. Yes, publishers like authors who can prove that they can write more than one book, but this one has an ending that's set up for a sequel so blatently that it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Still, I love werewolves, and I'm not sorry that I spent time reading the book. A keeper? Maybe not. Entertaining? Yes, definitely, and an interesting twist on old mythologies, for those who follow such things.
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