Wolfsong by Tj Klune

"Ox was twelve when his daddy taught him a very valuable lesson. He said that Ox wasn't worth anything and people would never understand him. Then he left. Ox was sixteen when he met the boy on the road, the boy who talked and talked and talked. Ox found out later the boy hadn't spoken in almost two years before that day, and that the boy belonged to a family who had moved into the house at the end of the lane. Ox was seventeen when he found out the boy's secret, and it painted the world around him in colors of red and orange and violet, of Alpha and Beta and Omega. Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his head and heart. The boy chased after the monster with revenge in his bloodred eyes, leaving Ox behind to pick up the pieces. Its been three years since that fateful day -- and the boy is back. Except now he's a man, and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them."--Page 4 of cover.

Waaay too long, but also wayyyy too cute

3.5 stars!!!

I've known about this book for a few years and never was really interested in it until I saw that it was being rereleased with new beautiful covers. T.J. Klune is one of my favorite authors and I've been keeping up with his publications for a couple of years now but I didn't have much interest in his backlist. I went into this after hearing a lot of negative things about this series and I think it might have swayed my feelings a little bit. The romance in this wasn't nearly as icky as I heard it was but I still wasn't invested in it. I did enjoy the werewolf aspect but I wish there was more information on how it works, from the “Kings” to the pack leadership. Overall, I had a good time reading this but I wasn't completely invested in it. Despite not loving it, I do plan on continuing the series for as long as I'm interested in it. I'm disappointed that I didn't love it like I've loved the author's last 3 books, but I was still super excited to read this.

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.

There were things that I absolutely loved about this book and it had the potential to be an easy 5 star read.
However, I really disliked the completely unnecessary age gap and repetitive writing. I'm also still scarred from sjm's mating bonds and this was unfortunately also used in this book.

Time of death. 36%. 6hrs 41mins in. I generally don't like anything to do with shifters so it's not surprising but I had hope. Also, the narrative choice of saying- He said “....” really didn't help matters.