I became hooked on shifter romances years ago and one of the people I blame for this addiction is author Terry Spear. Yes, that’s right, when I began to read Terry Spear’s Heart of the Wolf series, I was hooked. Why? Because Spear creates a fabulous, believable shifter world. No, I didn’t start looking at my neighbors too closely (though I did wonder about that coyote/wolf that began wandering around). Seriously, though, Spear’s Heart of the Wolf series combines believable protagonists that are shifters whom I’d love to have move in next door. (Yes, quite a few hunky alphas in this group.)
In addition, Spear is a writer who makes every detail clear for her readers. We can see this Heart of the Wolf world take form in front of us with each page we turn. Each of the books include not only charismatic protagonists, but also exciting stories that keep the reader turning page after page.
This spring, I reread the entire series and enjoyed it even more as the details that thread each story and link each book to one another were so clear and well-integrated. The stories may be set in the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, Maine, or Scotland, but there are themes and characters that remain consistently as touchstones for her readers.
Beginning with book seven, Heart of the Highland Wolf, Spear introduces us to some fabulous wolf shifter clans of Scotland. Think HOT Scottish lairds - in kilts - who are also alpha wolves that speak with a bit of a brogue. (Fanning my face right now.)
Her fourteenth book in the series, Hero of a Highland Wolf (pub date: 4 Aug 2014), is a fabulous read. I was hooked from the moment that Colleen Playfair, an American she-wolf, arrives in Scotland to investigate her inheritance - a castle and property that is managed by the MacQuarrie clan.
Laird Grant MacQuarrie is HOT, surly, and not at all happy that the American is coming to live in his castle for a year and a day. He has several plans to make her uncomfortable, beginning with a scene that I could see - like a news clip - play out before my eyes. A field of kilt-wearing Scottish hunks, bare-breasted (and oiled), dueling with one another in front of a battle-scarred castle. And Spear answers definitively that question that we all ask at one time or another. “What does a Scotsman wear beneath his kilt?” (Fanning face yet again.)
Add in the HOT romance between Grant and Colleen, a few ghosts, some mischievous wolfish brothers, an American best-friend now married to a neighboring wolf-clan laird (see book 10 for her story), innumerable witty interchanges, and a very jealous, vindictive wolf and you have a story that you cannot put down.
That’s right. Hero of a Highland Wolf by Terry Spear is a laugh-out-loud funny, slightly mysterious, engrossing, cannot-put-it-down read.
Just remember, you can never go wrong picking up one of Terry Spear’s shifter romances. I do recommend you read the series, because it’s just that good. But you don’t have to in order to enjoy each book. In my opinion, Spear’s series sets the bar for other writers to emulate as she’s just the top in this genre.
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From the Publisher
Heart of the Wolf, Book 14
Hero of a Highland Wolf by Terry Spear
Sourcebooks Casablanca
ISBN $9781402266867
Price $7.99
Publication Date: August 5, 2014
She's ready for change...
Colleen Playfair has never been to Scotland, but when she discovers she must spend a year and a day overseas learning to manage her newly inherited estate, she's ready for the challenge. She even has some ideas for improvements-if she can get past the sexy werewolf who seems convinced he's the one in charge.
But he's digging in his claws...
Grant MacQuarrie and his clan have been managing Farraige Castle for three centuries. The last thing he wants is a meddling American heiress trying to change the way things have always been done. He's more than willing to fight the she-wolf every step of the way, using every tool at his disposal. And if that means taking the lass to bed, well...all the better.
Locked in a battle of wills, caught in an attraction they can't escape, Colleen and Grant must find a way to work together...or face losing it all.
