Tarnished

March 11, 2013
In this insubstantial follow-up to 2012’s Silver, werewolves Andrew Dare and Silver have found temporary refuge with the Seattle pack. They await the annual Convocation of alphas, where Dare can challenge his old boss Rory for leadership of Roanoke, the pack encompassing the eastern half of the continent. Before that, he must deal with the Sacramento alpha, who seeks revenge for his son’s death. The Convocation itself brings a complex layer of politics and old grudges into play, forcing Dare and Silver to use every resource at hand (or paw). Held’s take on werewolves is fairly standard, with a few twists relating to religion and metaphysics, and the story is primarily driven by character and emotional depth. However, werewolf society seems to exist with almost no relation to the human world, depriving it of grounding and contrast. Agent: Cameron McClure, Donald Maass Literary Agency.

March 15, 2013
Werewolf Andrew Dare and his mate, Silver, face new challenges in this sequel to Silver (2012). Previously, former pack enforcer Dare was badly injured tracking and killing the fiendish creature that had tortured his mate, Silver, by injecting her with silver. As a result, Silver's wolf self is dead and her human body crippled. Though not fully healed, Dare faces new challenges: from vengeful Sacramento, whose psychotic rapist son Dare executed; and from Rory, Dare's former alpha, for leadership of the Roanoke pack. This time, weak, treacherous Rory has formed an alliance with the Spanish pack of Dare's dead wife. Worse, the Spaniards have kept Dare's daughter incommunicado and fed her vicious lies about what really happened. Silver, however, in overcoming her physical handicaps and psychological trauma, has gained an alpha's ability to face down physically fit and stronger males through sheer force of personality. Dare's lone ally, John, once again alpha of Seattle, has a problem too. His mate, Susan, is human, and humans traditionally are excluded from Were business and relationships. Silver decides to tell Susan what she needs to know, since John won't, and let Susan make her own decisions about her standing among the Were. Once again, the plotting's mostly on a psychological level, and what holds the reader's interest are the interactions between individuals and among packs and how Held guides the conflict away from masculine snarling and growling toward less obvious but equally effective feminine dominance--wolves in formal dress, if you like. Series fans will--well, they'll wolf it down.

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April 15, 2013

Packless werewolf Andrew Dare has found his mate in Silver, a female who "lost her wolf-self" when she was tortured with silver. Dare has a bad reputation among the werewolves because of some incidents in his past that have been distorted in the retelling. Still, Dare's friends urge him to challenge the alpha of the Roanoke pack for leadership of the East Coast werewolves. The situation is not that simple, however, as bad blood is undermining pack unity and cooperation. VERDICT Held's sequel to Silver elaborates on internal politics of the werewolf world and continues the story of the growing bond between Dare and Silver, as well as her search to recover the wolf-self that has abandoned her. Held's storytelling is perfect for the genre, and her characters are believable and fully formed.

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