Hunted by K. M. Shea, 2021

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Ever feel like you don’t belong?
Try being a hunter living with werewolves. I’m the definition of “doesn’t fit in”. I’m not Pack, but I’m not the enemy, either.
I struggle to survive among werewolves who are stronger and faster than me, and are competitive enough to break a bone or two for the sake of “fun.”
Greyson, their alpha, is the worst of them all.
Blatantly relentless and twice as deadly, Greyson rules the Pack and expands its territory even though it’s already the largest in the region. I just wish he’d stop interfering with my life. He’s got enough trouble of his own with his incomplete mate bond, but he’s made it his hobby to tease and test me at every opportunity.
Doesn’t my life sound fun?
When wolves from surrounding packs start mindlessly attacking the innocent humans in our city, Timber Ridge, everything changes.
Werewolves don’t turn feral without reason. Which means someone is making this happen, and they’re targeting our Pack.
I don’t like where this is going, but how am I supposed to stop a feral wolf outbreak when I’m just one hunter? Can Greyson and I set aside our differences to see the Pack through this?
(322 pages)

This is the first book in a new series that’s set in the same world as two of Shea’s other series, Hall of Blood and Mercy and Court of Midnight and Deception. They’re both fun, fluffy supernatural series that feature political intrigue, dry humor, and intriguing worldbuilding. They’re all also romances, but the romance is not the “point” of the books or the only focal point of the narrative. I really appreciate this balance, and I’ve grown to love this quirky world full of magical beings alternating between grand conflicts and inane bureaucracy. I’ve been excited for this latest series since I found out Shea was planning another story in the world, this time focused on werewolves, and if Hunted is any indication this series is going to be just as much fun as the other ones.

Let’s start with the less positive, just to get it out of the way. This book is not subtle. There’s a scene at the end of it where some new plot twists are introduced, and I had already predicted every single one of them. I was occasionally frustrated (especially in the second half) by how clueless Pip was about everything and by all the small hints and foreshadowing Shea dropped when I’d already long since figured things out. I also thought the relationship between Pip and Greyson wasn’t as fleshed out as it could have been. Pip is bitter that he was brought in to replace the previous alpha, who’d been a paternal figure for her, but besides being mentioned once or twice this doesn’t seem to really factor in to her relationship with him. She constantly claims to dislike him, including in her internal dialogue, but she never gives any concrete reasons or seem to find him anything worse than honorable-but-annoying. I’d have loved to see her take actual issue with him, perhaps morally disagreeing with his leadership style or decision-making or something. This was done really well with Killian and Hazel in the Hall of Blood and Mercy trilogy.

Now to the good. For starters, it’s fun. I had a great time reading it and never got bored – a true feat, since I read it on a plane. I usually get bored doing anything on a plane. I love the wry sense of humor in all of these series, mixing the dramatic supernatural stuff with mundane human stuff. Some of my favorite scenes were the ones where Pip was working in the welcome center for her town, wrangling the tourists seeking werewolf mementos and the werewolf women stalking Greyson with equal aplomb. I also love the scenes where she’s planning to defrost frozen pizza or trying to bully her mean, overweight cats into taking their medication. It adds such a great human dimension to the story.

I also like the angle on adoption that Shea takes here. Pip was adopted by a werewolf couple in the Pack when her first parents died, and they have now also passed away. Pip has inherited their house, she’s still treated like a Pack member even with her parents gone, and there’s just generally a baseline treatment of adoption as “real” family even past the point when her parents aren’t there to actively advocate for her anymore. This is done without taking anything away from Pip’s heritage as a hunter, or her memories of her earlier childhood, and watching her grapple with feeling alone in the world – not really a hunter, not quite a werewolf – was honestly one of the most fascinating things in the book. It mirrored a lot of the things I’ve heard from friends who were transracially adopted and what I read when we were adopting my younger sisters. I love seeing this treatment of adoption and exploration of its complications, especially when most books in this genre would likely have taken the “easy” path and treated Pip’s werewolf parents like temporary foster parents who didn’t matter once they were dead  - completely ignoring the complexities of her identity. 

All in all, this was a lot of fun. I’m glad I had the chance to read it, and I’m looking forward to seeing things continue in the sequel!