Series: The Triad of Magic
Pages: 235
Time to read: 1h13m
Pages/hour: 193
Date read: Mon 4 Apr 2022
Rating: 🐺🐺🐺🐺
An outsider meets his match
In the second book of The Triad of Magic series, we come to focus a little more on Cade, one of Gray’s wolves and Rocky, a wolf from another pack who’s working to upgrade the pack’s security system. Rocky is immediately difficult: he doesn’t agree with Gray’s mating to Simon, doesn’t agree with how he runs the pack at all, in fact, and he’s backed up by his alpha, who’s sent him there with a mission.
But he can’t deny his attraction to Cade, either – and Cade can’t deny his own attraction to Rocky. The strength of this book really is in the UST (and, I guess, RST) between Cade and Rocky, though we get some good movement in the overall arc of the trilogy and some new, fun characters!
What’s the deal with Rocky, anyway?
There are definitely some revelations about Rocky… that I didn’t fully get. Like, I understand that they were explained, but never in any real detail, leaving it to feel more like a confidence issue than anything else. And, sure, perhaps that’s the point, but it’s a little muddy.
Still, I liked that there was a definite moment where it could have been a betrayal or a miscommunication but Blake instead had her characters address it head-on. By that point, we’re too close to the end to embroil the guys in a fight and, instead, we get yes, a little bit of heartache, but also characters who deal with their problems. (As they should.)
And the overall arc?
Spoilers ahead!
So, in some ways, I feel like this book is spread a little thin. I get it, though. Simon and Gray’s relationship still needs a lot of work and, with the addition of Riley and Cormac, there’s definitely a lot of ground to cover. The main thrust of the arc is about Simon, clearly, after all.
But, for pacing, it probably could have afforded to be a little longer. Teasing out the new relationship between Cade and Rocky while working on Simon and Gray’s relationship could have gone on a little more, with all the stuff about what is actually going on in the background in between. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s bad, just that the relationships feel a bit more skimmed than Simon and Gray did in the first book.
The only other thing is the Werewolf Council. They’re more than a little annoying, and again, it’d be nice to see some budge on tradition, or at least some interest in doing so.
Oh, but Riley is absolutely the MOST adorable, of course.
So, what’s the verdict?
Gonna give this one four adorable wolves, too: 🐺🐺🐺🐺
Not a perfect book, but it keeps things moving and, again, I checked the blurb for the next book to see which couple was coming up – and it’s Liam and Cormac, so I was ready to go! There are some nice additional characters that add to the overall story and conflicts. There is definitely a lot going on, but we’ll see how it all wraps up in book three!
