Yasmine is a red wolf girl stuck in rural Alabama. Her world is small: pick up shifts at the greasy late-night diner and endure her pack’s petty squabbles. She’s not good at being a wolf or being human, directionless in life and disconnected from her ancestors.
Blessed by a century-old enchantment, the local red wolves have escaped extinction by blending into the human world. But with the old witches’ blessing wearing thin, the wolves face an uncertain future.
An answer arrives in the form of an exiled blood witch whose magic is steeped in reckless grief. Kalta rides into town in her dead brother’s truck, prophecy following on her heels. Despite the danger Yasmine can smell swirling around the witch, a fated bond tangles their futures—and those of all the wolves.
After an accident threatens the wolves’ secret, Yasmine has no choice but to join Kalta on the road, carving a path through the South’s backroads and hoping the magic brewing between them is enough to overcome their bloody pasts.
This was a really interesting shifter/magic system. It's brutal and visceral in many ways. Which isn't standard fare for a sapphic book. But I think it might be standard fare for Tamara Jerée and I am certainly not mad at it. It definitely grounds you in their reality.
A common theme of the werewolf story is the reluctant wolf. And Yasmine certainly falls into that trope. But it does present in a unique way. Then there's Kalta, and she is obsessed with her magic. Her magic and Yasmine's wolf.
Weaving the werewolf story in with endangered red wolves and black people in the American south was stunning. It was tragic and aching. And not an easy read, but well worth it.
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