A Review of One Wolf Next Door

Hello Everybody! I sometimes do some reviews of books I get off Netgalley. To be honest, I only do those I can say something good about because I don’t like tearing down another author’s book publicly unless I am taking a lesson from it.

The book I’m talking about today is One Wolf Next Door by Efthalia. I have to start by saying that’s a cool name. It just is fun. And it looks nice on the cover. I will also mention that my Everyday Disasters books use the same cover model. I’m not saying that biases me, but she’s an awful cool model. Anyhow, moving along.

One Wolf Next Door is Urban Fantasy romance. You have wolves and witches and vampires living in a world of human where human are unaware that magical beings walk among them. Our main character, Sam, is a ‘defective’ witch. She’s also a florist. She’s defective, in her words, because when she casts spells they don’t work. They usually cause some kind of minor mayhem. I have to pause here and say that Sam does twitch her nose to make her magic work. Yes, just like Samantha on Bewitched. I’m taking it as homage to the show. It also, yet again, made me try to figure out how to actually twitch my nose, making me look silly while I failed utterly.

Dex is the titular wolf next door. He’s Sam’s relatively new neighbor and of course he’s gorgeous and kind of Alpha-y, and upon seeing her, realizes she his mate. Okay, another pause here. I usually hate fated mate tropes because it leaves nobody any choice and what if you end up with a psycho as a mate? (I have thoughts about a very dark story involving that scenario, but I doubt I’ll write it because yeah, dark). In this case, Efthalia treats the situation lightly with both being in agreement, and while things move quickly, there’s definite consent all around.

The plot revolves around someone trying to kill Sam for reasons unknown and Dex (who’s a retired member of a paranormal policing organization) helping capture the person and protecting Sam, and Sam figuring out she’s not as detective as she thought.

The book comes to a satisfactory closing, but also sets up the next book in a good hooky, but not terribly cliffhangery way. Kudos there.

First let me say the book is a fairly short and super fast read and doesn’t have a lot of meatiness. It’s a beach read, which is perfect for me right now. The plot is fast without much by way of subplots. You’ve got the question of who’s trying to kill Sam and why, and then you’ve got the romance. This isn’t a tortured romance, but two people happy to get acquainted and having banging sex and both being delighted with one another. No personal angsty-ness between them, which I found refreshingly pleasing. It’s just nice to see people meeting and lighting up for each other and having it go well.

We’ve got a few ensemble cast members who are fun and that makes me happy because I’m fond of ensemble casts. We’ve got some fighting action and a fairly shallow and stereotypical villain, but I’m okay with that. I don’t need to have deep angsty-ness about him.

If you’re looking for a breezy and happy read with some action and the good guys winning, this is definitely a good book to pick up. Grab your soda (or daquiri) and sit back in your lounge chair (couch or bed) and enjoy!