Wolf Gone Wild

Stay a Spell, Book 1

By: Juliette Cross

Narrated by: Johanna Fairview, Aiden Snow

Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's Summary

What's the worst thing that can happen to a werewolf?

Unable to shift for three months, Mateo Cruz knows all too well. His wolf has taken up residence in his head, taunting him night and day with vividly violent and carnal thoughts. Convinced he's cursed, he needs the help of a powerful witch before he literally goes insane. 

​Evie Savoie has always obeyed the house rule of her coven: no werewolves. They're known for being moody and volatile. So, when a distempered, dangerous werewolf strolls into the bar and almost strangles one of her late-night customers, she's ready to bounce him through the door. But the desperation in his eyes when he begs her to help him softens her heart and convinces her to bend the rules. 

​What Evie doesn't know is that Mateo's wolf has a mind of his own. And now that she's in his sights, he wants only one thing. Her.

©2020 Juliette Cross (P)2021 Podium Audio

SO. MUCH. YES!!

I absolutely loved everything about this!! The story is fun and flirty and oh so hot! Juliette Cross created an incredible story brought to life by Aiden Snow *swoons* and Johanna Fairview. You will not be disappointed!!

Oh Alpha!!!!

Let me start by saying I went into this audiobook hoping that the narrator did Alpha justice... And he did not let me down. His voice was soo gravelly and smooth. There were 2 narrators and it was easy to differentiate the different voices for different characters.
Juliette mixes humor with paranormal like no other author. I was literally at my desk laughing at this book. This is a very lighthearted paranormal which was just what I needed.
Mateo is a werewolf who cant shift. He is a steel and metal artist (how hot is that.!?)that can't get any work done because his annoying wolf (so sexy) won't get out of his head. He goes to Evie (a witch) for help and haliarity ensues. Evie is super laid back comic loving girl. All the background characters make you fall a little more in love with this book. Evies sisters, their animals, and let's not forget Ruben(my other favorite scene stealer) round out this motley crew. I absolutely loved this book the first time I bought it and the audiobook just reminded me how much!

The audiobook makes it even better!

Aiden Snow and Johanna Fairview have brought Juliette Cross's characters to life!

I think I laughed even harder during this reread/listen of Mateo and Alpha antics and Evie's adorable comic book geek fan-girling. Aiden Snow did a phenomenal job of encapsulating Mateo's inner wolf, Alpha, and his primal personality. You can feel Mateo's exasperation in Aiden Snow's subtle inflections. Johanna Fairview's voice is so soothing as Evie. I could listen to her all day!

Wolf Gone Wild is one of my favorite paranormal romcoms - a refreshing take on the oftentimes dark and angsty romances usually set in New Orleans. The Savoie sisters rule over all of Nola supernatural, each sister with their own vibrant personalities and magical witch abilities. The one rule they have that Evie is about to break: NO WEREWOLVES! But she can't help but put her reputation and safety on the line when confronted with an artistic werewolf who is having trouble going furry each month.

Together they will have to discover who hexed Mateo and why!

Starts off strong but let down by obvious padding

While Wolf Gone Wild starts off strong with a promising world building and a cast of lively characters, it is ultimately let down by sections of obvious padding and moments of unintentional cringe. Best enjoyed as a mindless audiobook while doing your house chores.

Intended to be the first of a series, Wolf Gone Wild has done an excellent job setting up the quasi-real, yet magic-filled New Orleans, packed with colorful personalities that have piqued my interest and sympathy. The wolf-man hero, Mateo, is the surefire standout; his repeating banters with his inner beast offers both amusing entertainment, as well as meaningful character development. On the other hand, the cheery, slightly nerdy heroine Evie gets progressively more irritating as plot thickens; Wolf Gone Wild seems to forget she's a witch who already has a life experience beyond her youthful facade, and instead solely develops her like an immature, new-to-everything teen. Her extreme naivete contributes to some embarrassingly juvenile moments, such as being insulted on her talent (by a single individual no less) as her character's ultimate trauma, which is then led to a plot-halting 'lecture' on ignoring the haters—I had to go on GR to check if I've mistakenly picked up a YA novel.

In the guise of developing secondary characters for later installments, Wolf Gone Wild gets progressively more tedious as it limps to the end, with throwaway scenes barely related to the events at hand, and taking convenient plot shortcuts towards the final conflict, deflating any opportunity for rewarding thrill and excitement. Even the epilogue feels dragged on and can't get to its point.

Wolf Gone Wild feels half-baked, while it does have a strong overarching vision, depiction of sisterhood, and moments of delights, the actual plot runs out of steam in its last leg, and the repetitive geek culture name dropping (Marvel! Star Wars!) and crass-instead-of-steamy sex scenes close the book on a sour note when it should wrap up on a high. I'm still cautiously intrigued by the series, but will be watching out for reviews before diving into the next one.

5 Stars!!

***5 Stars***

Narrators: Johanna Fairview & Aiden Snow
Listening Speed: 1.25x

I love audiobooks.
Especially when they are books I’ve already read and loved.

But.

As much as I love them, I’m very picky when it comes to the narrator, or narrators, because if my ear doesn’t like the cadence or tone of their voice and how it brings the other characters to life, well, it can ruin the story for me.

On the flip side, the right voice can elevate my enjoyment of the book and Johanna Fairview & Aiden Snow totally elevated Wolf Gone Wild for me. I’ve listened to Aiden Snow read before and already loved his voice, but what really got me was how he was able to keep Mateo and Alpha separate but connected all at the same time. I had many laugh out loud moments when it was just the two of them going at it. Johanna Fairview is a new to me narrator and I loved how she brought Evie and the joy she has for the things she is truly passionate about to life. And as for altering their voices when it came of the many unique characters that populate the Stay A Spell world, I thought they did a great job at giving each character a personality of their own.

I’m not going to re-review the story, the review for that is below, so no need to re-do it. As for listening speed. I did start off listening to this audiobook at 1x, which is not my normal listening speed nowadays, and while I liked the performance, it wasn’t hooking me. So I sped it up a bit to my norm and it clicked and I loved getting lost in the story and cannot wait to get my hands on the next audiobook in the series!



eBook Review

***4 Stars***

This was a great start to a new series! It has everything I love about this authors writing from the great world building to bringing to life unique characters I really want to get to know a whole lot better. It was a quick, hot, a little quirky and fun read that kept me turning the pages until the very end.

Evie was a blast. This girl is sweet, sassy and quirky, but owns every bit of it. I loved her confidence and just how much she loved everything she did. Mateo is a sweetheart. I know, not the first word you’d associate with a werewolf, but he is. He’s charming, has a good heart and is simply a good man...and then there is his Wolf. He is definitely a unique character that brings that alpha protectiveness to the forefront, along with no edit button whatsoever.

Mateo and Evie’s journey to their HEA is all kinds of slow burn opposites attract goodness. I really enjoyed watching as they got to know each other and work really hard to deny their oh, so obvious attraction to each other. Their bantering was fun, the chemistry was hot and I loved how they accepted each other’s quirks and simply enjoyed who the other was. The angsty/drama between them is low, which I liked, and though there were a few bumps in their road, I loved how everything worked itself out in the end.

I’m a fan girl of the authors, have been for a while now, and I thoroughly enjoyed this lighter, more humorous side of her writing. The world is vibrant and really has me wanting to visit NOLA ~ and Louisiana in general ~ sooner rather than later ~ especially the Abita Brewery (I got real thirsty for one and had none on hand) and she has brought to life a whole slew of characters I NEED to get to know better. I don’t have an absolute favorite at the moment, but, crazy as it seems, the ones I’m most intrigued by are Clara and Violet ~ trust me when you meet them you’ll totally understand. So, bring on the rest of the series or as they say in the Big Easy laissez les bon temps rouler!

Perfection!!!!!!

Ohmygoshhh I loved this book so much. The narration was perfect and the story is everything I want. 5 stars!!! And now I’m going to go listen and read all of Juliette cross’s books!!!

Great Story Basic B Narration

The story and plot was great. Also the male narration was good. However the female narration ruined the audio version for me. I stopped listening by chapter 3 and bought the book to finish it. I will say I couldn't put it down, but listening to a valley girl that's supposed to be from NOLA just didn't fit. Don't waste a credit, buy the book instead.

Fun new PNR!

First off I need to give up to Aiden Snow. You are exceptional in this book, I adore alpha. He made me laugh so much. No one is better for this role than the growliest of all the male narrators Mr.Aiden Snow. The man can make an entire car vibrate with that growl.

Johanna Fairview was also so well cast. She played these characters with the perfect amount of whimsy and seriousness.

This is not your everyday PNR series. Reminds me a lot of Molly Harper type books. They are fun, still give you that preternatural creatures and world. But they aren’t dark like most tend to be. This was based in modern day NOLA.

I really enjoyed this book. I laughed and even got hot and bothered. If you are looking for a book to start you in PNR this would be a great one to start with.

Not sure bout this one

Ok so I didn’t even make it through chapter 1. The voice actors, actually the female voice actor really grated on my nerves. The way she read was awful, as if maybe this was her first narrative job. Couldn’t stand it and done with this story because of it. Hopefully her skill improves because I don’t like being negative but I really feel the need to warn listeners before they get this one.

It’s Okay. Too much insta-lust and teenage adults

This was a decent enough book but a few things kept me from really loving it. There was a lot of insta-lust and emotionally immature adults. The story was interesting however, and while I didn’t love the main characters I thought they were alright.

I have no intention of continuing the series however. None of the other sisters interested me and like I said they were all pretty immature for adults in their 30s-40s, even if they live a few hundred years.

I think if the author would have made the characters actually act like mature adults and would have took away the insta-lust and actually worked to build a relationship between the 2 main characters instead of them just constantly talking about how hot they thought the other one was until they finally did the deed then it would have been a pretty good story. Alas, lazy writing won and it is just okay at best.

Excellent story and brilliant narration

I really enjoyed this story. There was a lot of humor (Alpha is absolutely hilarious), but it’s also a really sweet story with proper relationship development. The narration was also fantastic. I’m usually not a fan when there’s a male and a female narrator as I often find that having different voices for the same character can be jarring - however, this wasn’t at all the case here. Both narrators did a wonderful job and having both really added to the experience.

5 star read

This was my first Juliette cross and i'm excited to find a new author i love. This was the story of Evie Savoire and Matteo Cruz, Matteo is a hexed werewolf that asks Evie for help. A slow burn romance with good characters and an intriguing story.
I loved alpha so growly and can't wait to read about the rest of the Savoire sisters. 

Fun adventure + slow burn, steamy romance

What I liked:

- Slow burn romance.

- Great chemistry.

- The love triangle between Alpha, Matteo and Evie. It was hot!

- Alpha was hilarious.

- Organic and lively world-building.

- The performers were really good in their delivery. And I really enjoyed being in each character's head.


What I didn't like:

- There was a bit of a lull at the midway point but it quickly picked up again.

light and enticing reading!

I love the performers. Amazing narrative!!! Fun and light listening. catching plot! highly recommend book.

loved loved LOVED it!

Wolf Gone Wild is the first book in a new paranormal series from Juliette Cross, a new-to-me author. This was a fun, light-hearted paranormal romance. Mateo Cruz is not currently one with his wolf – in fact, Alpha (the wolf in question) has taken up residence in his head and won’t stop his constant chattering. Not to mention, he can’t shift. He’s desperate to get his curse broken before he goes feral and Alpha takes full control.

Evie Savoie and her sisters are one of most powerful covens in New Orleans. They don’t have a lot of rules, but her oldest sister and the leader of their coven is adamant – no werewolves. But Evie can see Mateo’s struggle and wants to help him.

This book was a lot of fun. Funny, without being campy. I have to say, it was Alpha who first drew me in. His constant snark and dialogue in Mateo’s head was hilarious. I also loved Evie. She was a total geek, into SciFi and comics. I enjoyed how their relationship developed. They became friends first, then moved into something more. The mystery was easy to figure out, but that was secondary to the romance for me anyway, so I wasn’t bothered about it. Parts in the middle did seem to drag a bit, but I was so entertained by the rest I didn’t care. I loved Evie’s family, and how they embraced Mateo.

I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

Looking forward to the rest of the series.

I was completely hooked from the beginning. Such a well written story. Great characters, including the array of side characters, whom I hope we meet again in the rest of this fun, exciting series. As for the narration. Well, it was perfectly cast. I’m familiar with Johanna Fairview from other audiobooks, and she did an excellent job, as always. As for Aiden Snow. *sigh* Worth a credit for his narration alone. Superb as Mateo, off the charts with Alpha’s voice. I will be downloading Book 2 of the series as soon as it’s released in July. Thankfully with the same narrators. This was my first book written by Juliette Cross, but I’m about to check out other books she’s written.