Judas Wolf, or Muttopia volume six

 

Hiding in a rundown bar at the edge of the desert, Kaidlyn tries to keep her snout out of trouble. She settles into a normal routine, nursing her wounds and minding her own business.

Until she is visited by a mysterious stranger who knows too much about her past. Before she can say ‘werewolf’, she’s being dragged back into a battle for the city. All the problems she hoped to avoid come front and center, including a comatose soldier, a damsel in distress, a scorned lover, and a fiancé she’s trying like hell not to marry.

She suffered devastating losses: physically, emotionally, supernaturally. Before she can fix her life, a new villain from the old world steps onto the battlefield, and he means business.

What I like about this story so far: Kaidlyn is coming into her own as a monster, but she’s regained some humanity. She’s also tangled up in stickier quagmires and more complicated relationships. When she thinks she can duck out of the responsibilities and keep her head down, the world doesn’t give her a moment’s respite.

I like where we find her: on the fringe of a society she rarely felt a part of, tending a bar, and hoping to hang up her gun belt.

Of course, life rarely works out as we plan.

She’s got a reputation for solving problems, so, naturally, the crap keeps coming. 

And I’m going to shovel the shit, metaphorically, because fictional protagonists can never catch a break.