If you’ve followed my reviews you’ll notice how I gush over almost everything Klune has given us.  This book is both wonderful and uncomfortable for me.

Ox has always lived in Green Creek; even after his father left them, even after they almost lost their home when his mom didn’t make enough money, and even after all the torturous treatment from his schoolmates.  Ox never expected anything from anyone and he never expected anything to change.  So the day he met Joe was more than unique; it was unprecedented, unexplainable, and unforgettable.  Until that day Ox knew he was nobody; unimportant and forgettable.  After that day, everything changed…albeit, slowly.

Ox is twelve when we meet him; a very large boy, a very quiet boy, a very misunderstood boy.  His father has recently left and things are tight at home.  The local car repair shop is owned by an old friend, Gordo, who employs the boy “under the table.”  Gordo and his fellow mechanics are the first real friends the boy has ever known.  The next friend appears when Ox is fourteen and although Ox didn’t know it; he made a tremendous impression on the man, Mark.  But it’s two years before he sees Mark again and his introduction is a bit…tumultuous. On his way home, he is intercepted by a young ten-year-old tornado standing on the road between Ox’s home and the big empty house at the end of the lane.  Joe is anything but ordinary in his immediate adoption of Ox and the implied requirement to come meet his parents. And it was years before Ox understood the implication of Joe’s immediate love and acceptance of him; years before he truly understood how broken the boy had been and how much his family adored Ox for recovering him.  Mark is the boy’s Uncle and along with Joe’s parents, Thomas and Elizabeth, Joe has two brothers, Carter and Kelly.  Ox had never met anyone like the Bennetts before; a gregarious family, openly affectionate but quite unknowable and mysterious.  But along with his mother, and the repair shop family, Ox now finds he has more family and friends; people who don’t judge his slowness.  And, to his amazement, he finds a father in Thomas.

When Ox is seventeen, he learns the dark secret the Bennetts are keeping – the reason why little Joe is so broken.  By that time, his bond with Joe is so strong, he is the only one to calm him after the nightmares.  So, of course, he’s the one they have to call when Joe turns the first time – yes, werewolves are really a thing.  But to also discover that his boss, Gordo, is a witch is almost too much to accept.  After that, it’s no real stretch to understand there are evil ones out there and that he is now part of a pack that takes care of their own.

Of course, now it’s time for evil to rear its ugly head and take the story to darker times.  The man who hurt little Joe is back and he wants more; and Ox is a way back into the family.  The pain and heartache brought by the man tears apart Ox’s new family/pack; and threatens to even destroy Ox’s and Joe’s relationship – something that no one who knew and loved them ever believed possible.

I don’t think it’s necessary to describe more of the plot.  The basic story is all about Joe and Ox; the evil and mayhem are just a way to advance the story.  Suffice to say there is much bloodshed and not all of it is the bad guys.

What I do want to describe is the dialogue and character development; this is where Klune really shines.  The dialogue, both internal and verbal, feels so very real; like the way people really communicate.  Through the dialogue is how we come to know the characters.  I also really like how Klune introduces the magical elements (which seem to be, generally, in all his books) but they are part of the world-building and not just plot devices or gimmicky.

And, because this is Klune we’re talking about, there is gay love and - here is the sticking point for me – gay sex.  This is, most definitely, not a YA story; strictly adults only.  As always, the gay love is sweet without being cloying; tender without being sappy and even though I’m a female I can totally empathize with the characters.  But, because I’m a female I simply do not identify with the sex scenes.  I have read porn so I think I can, at least, say the scenes seem real but without gratuitous descriptions that lend nothing to the story.  The gentle reader has been warned.

It’s hard to put my finger on it, but Klune communicates to the reader in such a way that you simply must love the characters.  I don’t know how he speaks to me – a hetero cis-female – but he does; over and over again.  This story, the first of four in the series, is from the viewpoint of Ox.  The next one, Ravensong, is Gordo’s story.  Keep watch for it.  I may have skimmed over the sex scenes but the other 500+ pages were worth my time.  So I will be back for more.  ~~  Catherine Book

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