Title: Pack of Lies
Author: Charlie Adhara
Published: August 30, 2022
Publisher: Carina Adores
Readership: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Romantic Suspense
Rating: ★★★★
I received a copy of Pack of Lies from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Werewolf meets human. Werewolf snubs human. Werewolf loves human?
Julien Doran arrived in sleepy Maudit Falls, North Carolina, with a heart full of hurt and a head full of questions. The key to his brother’s mysterious last days might be found in this tiny town, and now Julien’s amateur investigation is starting to unearth things the locals would rather keep buried.
Perhaps most especially the strange, magnetic manager of a deserted retreat that’s nearly as odd as its staff.
Eli Smith is a lot of things: thief, werewolf, glamour-puss, liar. And now the manager of a haven for rebel pack runaways. He’s spent years cultivating a persona to disguise his origins, but for the first time ever he’s been entrusted with a real responsibility—and he plans to take that seriously.
Even if the handsome tourist who claims to be in town for some R & R is clearly on a hunt for all things paranormal. And hasn’t taken his brooding gaze off Eli since he’s arrived.
When an old skeleton and a fresh corpse turn a grief errand into a murder investigation, the unlikely Eli is the only person Julien can turn to. Trust is hard to come by in a town known for its monsters, but so is time…
I’ve not read this author before, but I do have a lot of respect for the Carina Adores line, so I was excited to be approved to review Pack of Lies. I didn’t realise that this book was the first book in a spin-off series, but after a few chapters I was so invested in the characters and the story that it didn’t matter.
Pack of Lies is a paranormal romantic suspense book that follows Julien – a human man searching for the truth about his twin brother’s death – and Eli, a lone werewolf acting as manager of a rundown retreat that’s designed to take in werewolves without packs. When dead bodies – old and new – beginning turning up in town, Julien and Eli are drawn into the investigation, and Julien is exposed to the hidden paranormal world.
This book was smart and fast-paced, with plenty of twists and turns along the way. Both Julien and Eli have secrets of their own, which makes working together a challenge, but the forced proximity brings them closer. They had plenty of banter in their relationship and dynamic that I enjoyed.
I also appreciated that this book really set up a larger plot/mystery for the series, which I’m very interested in continuing to read past this book.
Noveltea Corner 