A Fall into Reading Challenge Selection…

Dancing with Werewolves
Carole Nelson Douglas
It was the revelation of the millennium: witches, werewolves, vampires and other supernaturals are real. Fast-forward 13 years: TV reporter Delilah Street used to cover the small-town bogeyman beat back in Kansas, but now, in high-octane Las Vegas—which is run by a werewolf mob—she finds herself holding back the gates of Hell itself. But at least she has a hot new guy and one big bad wolfhound to help her out…

I have to admit, I had pretty high hopes going into reading this novel. I may not have read the majority of Douglas’s backlist, but I’m a big fan of her Irene Adler series. So, honestly, I was a little thrown off by this one.

First off, the novel began with a little too much repetition; see, Delilah is an orphan, and for the most part that was the heft of the content in the beginning chapters. I was happy when she shed the continuous thoughts on her background as she left Kansas behind in favor of Las Vegas. Once there, the novel picked up, and I found myself enjoying it. But…it was still odd.

Maybe it was the phrasing or a character trying to hard to be unique, to have her own voice, whatever it was, it occasionally had me stumbling.

There’s plenty of vintage feel here; Delilah is addicted to vintage fashion, jewelry, etc, but plenty of silver screen stars make cameo appearances. {Even though he’s more notable from his small screen role, I have to say that my favorite cameo was Perry Mason. I could hear the credit music in my head as he walked on the page!} If you’re not all that familiar with “old” movies or actors, the constant references may pull at the pacing of the story. But that’s my dad’s era {sort of} and he firmly raised me to appreciate it, so I did, even here.

Other than that, Dancing with Werewolves is chock full of interesting characters. Ric, the man Del finds herself falling for, is wonderful. And then there’s Snow….Very interesting. {But I won’t say more because you need to read about him for yourself, if you’re inclined to.} Also, there’s an intriguing pup, Quicksilver, that I can’t wait to read more about as the series continues.

So, all in all, I quite liked Dancing. It wasn’t what I expected, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t hesitant to put it down.