I thought moving here would keep my family safe.  But the danger we left behind has nothing on the darkness in these woods.  After a messy divorce and years of putting my career before my kids, I was desperate for a fresh start.

A quiet cabin in the Vermont wilderness seemed like the perfect place to rebuild what we’d lost.  But the peace I was hoping for didn’t last long.  It started with the howls at night.  The claw marks on the trees.  The eerie sense that something—or someone—was watching us.

Then I met Jack Whitman.  Tall, rugged, with piercing blue eyes and a beard that makes my knees weak.  My neighbor.  A forest ranger with secrets as vast as the woods he protects.  Jack says he wants to keep us safe.  And when he looks at me like I’m the only person who matters, I almost believe him.

But the deeper I fall, the more I realize…  He’s part of the danger.  And the only way to survive is to trust him.  Even if it costs me everything.

Titles in the Moonlit Secrets series include: Neighboring Midlife Wolf ~ Fated to the Lone Alpha ~ Alpha’s Hidden Legacy ~ Wolves’ Midlife Healer ~ Alpha’s Second Chance ~ Alpha’s Scarred Heart ~ Howling for Home ~

This is an adult 18+ story that contains language, possible violence, and/or sexual situations geared to an adult audience.

Title:  Neighboring Midlife Wolf
Series:  Moonlit Secrets #1
Author:  Breanna Mason
Published:  December 22, 2024
My Rating: 3.5 stars

Neighboring Midlife Wolf is the first title in the Moonlit Secrets series, and it introduces Hannah and Jack… a woman restarting her life along with her daughters, and a wolf shifter who has known heartache and is attempting to keep his pack and his territory safe from the rogue wolf attacks that seem to have become far more personal lately.

While most shifter romances feature instalove/insta-lust, Neighboring Midlife Wolf took that to a whole new level for me.  There was no indication that Jack saw Hannah as his mate, although he had lost his mate due to the rogue attacks. Strangers one moment, deeply intimate the next.  It felt off to me, too quick, without showing any connection or attraction between them.  There are many people who view shifter romance as little more than sex and violence, and while that’s not completely true about this story… I wanted more story to go with the sex and, yes, violence of the rogue attacks.  I liked the story, was starting to like the main characters… then the story was done.  

So, frankly, while Neighboring Midlife Wolf was a good, short, sizzling shifter story, I don’t believe I’ll be continuing the series.  I like a story to get lost in, as well as the intimate moments in any paranormal/shifter romance, and while the core story was good, it felt underdeveloped, jumping around a lot, and repeating conversations where I’d think “didn’t they just say that?”. I will try a different series from this author in the future, but for this series, unfortunately, it’s just not for me.  That’s my opinion, yours might be far different… and that’s okay, no two people ever read the “same” book.

I read this title through my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

This title is available at Amazon (affiliate link)