Judith’s review of Seeking Pack Redemption (Pack, #3) by Eve Langlais

Sometimes even outcasts can earn forgiveness.

Thrust into a nightmare, Thea thinks all hope is lost, until an unexpected rescue by three strangers. Forget returning to her old life though, because not only does a psycho vampire want her back, a trio of wolves wants to claim her as their mate.

What started out as a search for his missing sibling, turns into a rescue mission of a woman who makes his inner beast howl. Trent knows it wrong to want his dead brother’s mate, but he can’t help himself, and neither can his friends. However, danger stalks the one they want and they’ll have to face true evil before they can set her free.

And for an outcast wolf, the path to redemption is lonely. Can Jaxon ever atone enough to be welcomed back to his pack and into the arms of the woman he loves?

Eve Langlais is one of those authors who,by her own assertion, is always trying to “push the envelope” beyond what current culture and mores will permit in real life.  She has certainly pleased her readers with the paranormal ingredients in her novellas and stories, and she is not on the third book in a series involving a werewolf pack that has had its problems.  Right from the get-go I was to say that I have read a number of Langlais stories and, for the most part, have liked them all a lot.  I was a bit put off when I read the first book in this series, Defying Pack Law, almost a year ago and wondered who this would continue on.  Recently I came across book two–Betraying the Pack–and when I finished that one realized that this third book had been released.  And while it is, for the most part, able to be read as a stand alone work, I think reading the first two books will make this book far more understandable and the story will hold together with greater cohesion.  It is true that four new characters are introduced in this story.   But at the heart of the story is the continuing “journey” of Jaxon, a mulato werewolf whose encounter with Roderick, the rogue, half wolf/half vampire  (who exercises remarkable mind control when his victims are at their weakest and plants hipnotic “triggers” in them at that time) brought about his betrayal of his mates and his pack.

Each of these  stories brings the reader more fully into Roderick’s evil and the stories of his victims.  It also expands on the relationship Roderick formerly sustained with his son who is now the Alpha of the Pack.  It is Roderick’s delusion and mental illness that injects his evil into the minds and lives of other wolves, especially “dormant” wolf shifter females who become the objects of his obsession to birth and build an army of shifters who are under his mental control.  Book 2 is about Jaxon’s mate, Bailey–the woman he loves dearly and who he betrayed to Roderick when she became pregnant.  Now in this third book there is another pregnant female who was lured into a love relationship with a wolf shifter already under Roderick’s control and who is now imprisioned with the object of eventually taking her baby.

All tree of these books are built around this Pack’s rule that because of an imbalance between male and female shifters, every female must take at least two husbands, but unlike former times, the choice of who those mates will be is the woman’s choice.  While all the books in this series have a definite dark side, this third book has darker and with a sense of loss that is not present in the other two.  There certainly is an erotic element here–of course, with three wolves lusting after the same woman, but these men are aware that Thea, the heroine, must be the one to choose.  As a result, there is that sense that these shifters are hanging back a bit, allowing attraction to grow while they keep themselves in check.

One aspect of Ms Langlais’ writing that I have always appreciated is that her characters are all very different.  I think the personality of many shifters tends to look just like every other shifter, but here you have three distinct personality types–Trent, who is the rough and tough Alpha of a smaller pack that has come to the larger pack for protection, but who is very much still his own man;  Marc, a fun-loving guy who is very much able to hold his own in a brawl, but who is far less aggressive in male/female settings;  and Darren, a strong wolf who could easily be an Alpha but who is comfortable being Trent’s “second” and best friend, the one who sees Thea’s terror and hurt after her imprisonment by Roderick, and who displays much greater sensitivity to her as an individual;  and then there is Jaxon, the lonely, grieving, and determined wolf who will kill Roderick if it is the last thing he does, all in the name of keeping his mate, Bailey, safe.  Characters from all three books make their appearances in this third book, and help to flesh out the story for those who have not read the first two in the series.

I have to say that I enjoyed these three stories and found them fun paranormal reading.  I think I liked each one because I had read the preceding ones and was familiar with the characters and the contexts that were carried over.  I would like this writer to venture forth and write a really meaty, full-length paranormal novel.  I think she is moving in that direction as her novellas are getting longer and the stories more involved.  This author has written romances with varied relational configurations, but this series is a menage in all three books.

I give this a rating of 3.75 out of 5.

The series:

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Amira Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.