The Reading Spot

The Silver Wolf by Alice Borchardt

This is the first of a trilogy (2-night of the wolf, 3- the wolf king). I had never read her before all I knew was from the bio that she is sister to Anne Rice. The story was very well written. The research was very good and the plot was well thought out. It is a historical fiction that takes place in Rome at the beginning of the reign of Charlemagne. It is not really a romance as much a novel. I am guessing that the next books have more romance in them because they are about the Hero and heroine after they get married, but I don't know yet. It was a good shifter novel if you like historical fiction with a paranormal twist.

The story is about a girl named Regeane who can shapeshift into a wolf. It is an inherited trait that she got from her father, who was killed before she was born. She is stuck in an abusive family and believes that she has no hope. Her uncle wants to marry her off so that he will have more money to go drinking and whoring, and he beats her for fun. The time that they are in is an unstable one with no one knowing who was going to triumph between King Charles (Charlemagne), or the Franks. After a match is made for Regeane by the king to a barbarian she does not know, she befriends a woman named Lucilla, who is a cortesean and mistress to Pope Hadrian. This friendship will protect her and guide her though the olitics she must now lear to survive. One night when she is running as a wolf she crosses paths with more of her kind, and realizes that she is not alone.