The Witch's Wolf

Fated Destinies, Book 1

De: Heather K. Carson

Narrado por: Louise Brenner, Ash Beverly

Fate doesn't exist. But try telling that to the growling wolf shifter who thinks I'm his mate . . .

This is not my week. Or month. Or year.

My now-ex-boyfriend cheating on me with my best friend? I'd get over it eventually. Finding out my sister has Lycan wolf DNA and I have hours to get her out of the city before she's locked away in a government research facility? I definitely didn't see that one coming.

To save my sister's life, we take off in the middle of the night following cryptic instructions from our late father to what was supposed to be the toxic wastelands. Imagine my surprise when we stumble into a fairy tale civilization of wolf shifters where magic is real and a frustrating, but ruggedly handsome pack enforcer has serious plans for me.

The big, bad, and hungry wolf thinks I'm his fated mate and he's not taking no for an answer. That's just the icing on the metaphorical cake. But this isn't some magical bedtime story. Real danger exists in the Cerberus pack. There's a poison in the ranks. Shifters are leaving. My sister isn't safe.

And a blood-thirsty Alpha murders anyone that challenges him. Which I may—or may not—have accidentally done . . . Did I mention today is not my day?

Contains mature themes.

©2023 Heather K. Carson (P)2024 Tantor

Female narrator hard to listen to

Liked the story but almost stopped because of the female narrator- weird cadence and breathing. But I liked the premise of the book. Don’t know if I would recommend due to narration.

loved hearing my favorite author in audio form

both readers did amazing job bringing this book to life! So well written! I wasn't into shifter romances until this week when I officially fell in love with this series and genere! buying book 2 now!

Couldn't finish cuz of female narration

The story intrigues me. I got to chapter 5. I could not get through this due to the female narration. Her inflection through it all sounded like she was continuously stressed and on edge every second. it gave me anxiety listening. I will have to get the book on my Kindle and read. The story so far was decent...

Good story

I am enjoying this book but I do need to say.... Dang, Sage! Loosen up!

ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS?!? Of course I loved it!

I'm not even going to lie, I had ZERO doubt about Heather's ability to write a NA book. I knew she would rock it and it would be amazing and I am STILL amazed at how awesome this story was. I felt every single feeling on the spectrum reading this book. I would, and will, recommend it to anyone who ever asks for a shifter recommendation and even those who don't. Seriously...I'm telling everyone about this book.

Sage is a bad ass. Coral is a sweetheart and I cannot wait to read her story ASAP. Maddock? I mean 🥵🥵. Kera...OMG she is amazing! I loved how Sage and Maddock's relationship grew. How it took time for them to get to know each other and even though they're fated it wasn't rushed. Coral and Kera's friendship is everything and Sage stepping in as a positive woman in Kera's life makes my heart happy.

Louise Brenner and Ash Beverly NAILED this audio. They were perfect and I'm so happy they were the ones chosen to bring this to audio life.

Will need to read it myself

So far, I am hooked by the story. The world building is so interesting! The characters also seem well designed in personality and dynamics. I will definitely be heading over to my other app to read the book myself. Unfortunately I can’t finish the audio book. The voice acting for me does not fit and I can’t get past it.

overall liked it

Liked it. only thing i was not a fan is that it came off as a more paranormal romance but it was more paranormal than paranormal romance. i may do the next anyways it didnt keep me captivated.

Nice story

It is a nice beginning of the story. Hope it gets better with next books. Not a fan of insta lust dragged over many chapters to make it seems like love developed "over time", when in fact it was just couple of days/weeks at most. Back story was repeatedly mentioned but never clearly explained the whole situation, may be next books?
And the male narrator made the female voices weird at times. Eithet nasal for teenagers or coy for Sage even, when situation is otherwise.

It was difficult to finish

If I didn’t pay for this or if there was a way to return it I would have. Right at the beginning the voices were kinda cringy. Then some small things like unnecessary details being added over and over. Overall, the reading had a slight monotone to it and I just couldn’t get into it.

This writer has a lot of maturing to do 

This is my second Heather Carson book. I DNF'd the first one, but I like to give an author a couple of chances. The premise of this book had A LOT of potential. By shifter standards the setup was very unique: it’s a dystopian world where everyone lives in a perfect gated city that’s a scientific utopia (ie. genetically scanned ‘pure’ populace, man made (not mined) building materials, solar powered cars, designated green zones, government controlled climate/air quality, ‘soylent green’ end of life solutions, fountain of youth technology, highly educated/purposeful populace). All this was created supposedly because of radiation fallout in the rest of the world, but the heroine (Sage) soon finds out the world beyond the gates was not destroyed, only overrun by magic and shifters. Also I think that the moral that ran through the book: that a person can't truly see until they're ready, was a strong one.

But the writing style makes it almost unbearable to read. The setup is wasted and left undeveloped, instead it’s just HOURS AND HOURS of repeating inner monologue. I kept wanting to increase the speed to move it along, but there's no way to escape that many irrelevant words. After 11 chapters we were still trapped in a boring loop with a heroine who didn’t trust, touch, or have normal fluid conversations with the hero. By chapter 17, yup, she was still a fretting space cadet. By chapter 23 they still “don’t even know each other” 🙄. Finally the couple 'gets together' (🌶️ out of 5 sex), but the stalling, the frustrating conversations mid action, the badly timed fights, and a heroine obsessed with her sister (some tedious Anna/Elsa 'hoes before bros' bs) was so irritating. This is supposed to be a romance it’s more like random milliseconds of lust mixed with hours of mistrust and miscommunication. The author even jokes about the miscommunication trope, while clueless that she's built her annoying book on it. At the end the pack sigma and enforcer, the hero (Maddox) - who IMO should have challenged for Alpha - was DISGUSTINGLY weak, trying to rally everyone to run away. The final battle was truly messed up.

So much lost potential. So little raw emotion or real world conflict. I don't care enough about Coral or Kera to keep reading the series. They ruined this book! But I made it through this without DNFing so that's something.