ARC REVIEW Midnight Wolf by Jennifer Ashley

Shifters Unbound #11. Man, I love this series. Jennifer Ashley’s writing is always so consuming, I open the book and I’m sucked into the work of shifters, fae, and humans. The characters in this book, Angus and Tamsin, both have quite a bit of character growth through the book. Angus and Tamsin start off one way; Angus very stern and quite, very set in his ways and willing to do just about anything for his son, Ciaran. While Tamsin an uncollared shifter on the run still maintains a very optimistic view on the world  except when it comes to collars and Shiftertowns she is dead set against them and will argue even though she's heard both sides of the argument she's never understood why until Angus and Ciaran. These two opposites balance each other out and bring out the best in each other, and Ciaran (I just love that name) is such a cute kid, so open and honest. I enjoyed the story and think you can probably read this as a stand-alone but there is enough past book stuff to tantalize you into reading the other books, at least the last two or three books.

Angus Murray is a scowling and grumpy shifter when he’s not working as a bouncer he is raising his cub, Ciaran. Angus’ brother, Gavan, was an idiot who tried to go against the Shifter Bureau and it ended in his own death as well as that of Angus’ mate. Angus had nothing to do with his brother’s movement but still managed to lose his position in the pack and even though he has proved his worthiness time and time again he still can't get his place back as second. Tamsin Calloway has managed to avoid detection, she’s been lucky enough that she always manages to escape undetected or leave just before something goes wrong. But the death of two Bureau agents has finally brought her into the spotlight and now a sinister Bureau agent has his sights set on Tamsin. 

Agent Haider kidnaps Ciaran and forces Angus to hunt down Tamsin or else he’ll never see his son again. Finding her was easy enough it’s catching her that gave Angus trouble and if the alligator hadn’t of caught her first Tamsin would have probably gotten away. Tamsin, now severely injured, has no choice but to go with Angus, instead of taking her straight to the Bureau he takes her to Ben and the sentient house (I so love this house!) and calls Zander down to heal her, while he comes up with a plan. There is no choice in not turning her in because of Ciaran but that doesn’t mean she can escape right after the hand off. It doesn’t quite go as planned once Haider admits to Tamsin that he plans to dissect her to find out how she works. Now all three of them, Angus, Tamsin, and Ciaran are on the run. They end up with an uncollared shifter, Dante (who I can picture as Jason Momoa) and his half fae/half human mate, who run a carnival and travel with them for some time.

The attraction between Tamsin and Angus is pretty much instantaneous but it takes them a bit before they act on it and I loved that; the teasing and the sexual chemistry made when they finally did get together so much better. Angus mate claims Tamsin in order to protect her but afterwards he realizes just how much he wants her to stay in his life. Once Tamsin completely trusts Angus she reveals the reason everyone if after her, and together with their friends Ben, Zander, and Tiger they must figure out what to do about this and make it to where the only ones who want Tamsin are Angus and Ciaran. 

Overall, I positively loved this book, it’s not my favorite of the series but it’s really up there in the list. The characters are fantastic and of course it’s the strong silent type for me again Angus really fits the bill for a book boyfriend. Tamsin is so wonderfully optimistic even when her life is falling apart she still singing along to the radio and smiling. I am so happy that Ben is going to get his HEA finally