Wolfsbane by Nathalie Gray

Another e-novel. I read them much quicker than print novels. And they're usually shorter than print novels too. In a way I'm glad e-authors don't spend pages and pages on boring characterisations.

This is one nasty piece of work. Because it features a lot, repeat, a lot, of non-consensual activity. Plus a lot of brutality. The main couple are really two poor victimised human beings finding comfort in each other.

My main complaint is this. Ok. The two persons who perpetrate the non-consensual acts on the hero both deservedly die. But those in Amsterdam who subjected the heroine to various indignities get no punishment whatsoever. So unfair.

Wolfsbane is essentially an eerie twisted Grimm faery tale. Set in medieval times on continental europe it still reads like a very modern story.

On many levels Wolfsbane is sordid sordid sordid. What redeems it is the rock-solid belief of the main couple in the goodness of each other. Both the hero and heroine have endured physical outrage to their bodies for quite some time past. But neither of them are bitter nor filled with hatred. Although the hero is a werewolf his condition reads more like a serious illness that has marginalised him from most of society than a rage of blood and lust. In fact the main couple do not get it together until almost the final chapter.

The story is notable for the fact that the author plays a mean trick on the readers. It's like she's trying to punish those persons who like to read hot hot scenes. Bitch! But really. I bear no ill-will to her.

Quite a nice happy ending. Although that dim-wit Frederick lets himself be taken for a fool by the heroine, Scarlett. One day he'll learn.

imo EC incorrectly categorised this novel as e-rotic. It should be x-treme because of all the non-consensual stuff.