It’s an old story. The moon was lonely. The one she loved, the sun, was always at the other end of the sky, and they could never meet, no matter how hard she tried.
Ravensong by TJ Klune
Summary
Gordo Livingstone never forgot the lessons carved into his skin. Hardened by the betrayal of a pack who left him behind, he sought solace in the garage in his tiny mountain town, vowing never again to involve himself in the affairs of wolves. It should have been enough. And it was, until the wolves came back, and with them, Mark Bennett. In the end, they faced the beast together as a pack… and won.
Now, a year later, Gordo has found himself once again the witch of the Bennett pack. Green Creek has settled after the death of Richard Collins, and Gordo constantly struggles to ignore Mark and the song that howls between them. But time is running out. Something is coming. And this time, it’s crawling from within. Some bonds, no matter how strong, were made to be broken.
Review
I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Somehow even better than the first book. As magnificent as the formation of the found family was in the first book, in this one the established found family being there for each other and working through things together as an unwavering, tight-knit group was spectacular.
I do love an asshole main character hiding a heart of gold. Gordo is wonderful and kickass and stubborn and stupid and I love him so much. The book encompassed Gordo’s childhood all the way to after the events from Wolfsong, providing the information about how everything you wondered about in Wolfsong came about. The author balanced so well the forces breaking Gordo and Mark apart and bringing them back together again, creating a delicious tension in which the reader understood where both characters were coming from and wondered if and how they would ever reconcile.
As with the first book, Ravensong progressed with a lyrical intensity that sank its talons into me and pulled me in. The reader experienced the same emotions as the characters and worked through them together. Klune paced everything perfectly and included just the exact right details to transport the reader into Gordo’s mindset. Klune used repetition of ideas and thoughts to maximum effect from page one. I lost count of how many times my heart soared and ached, how many times I teared up. The story was both deeply serious and ridiculously funny.
It took epic and awesome to new levels. This book is a little darker from the beginning, a little more action-heavy. The intensity of the action throughout and my investment in the stakes involved had my heart thudding. It’s not the kind of series where characters get through unscathed, and I literally held my breath in parts as I continued reading to see who would survive and in what condition.
I can’t even begin to describe how organically the plot, relationships, and worldbuilding flowed and grew, how well the author set up the main and side plot points for the following books. I was hooked into the next book before I even finished this one. If you heard an unholy screeching around 4:30pm ET on 3/17/23, it was me putting a couple pieces together near the end of the book. I couldn’t put it down and am dying to read the next one.
You might like this if you like: the Aud Torvingen series by Nicola Griffith; the San Andreas Shifters series by G.L. Carriger
Hissing Potatoes 