Charlie Adhara

Don’t miss this thrilling installment in Charlie Adhara’s suspenseful paranormal mystery series, Big Bad Wolf. Agent Cooper Dayton never thought anything could be harder than solving murders. Until he had to plan a wedding. After taking down an old adversary, Agent Cooper Dayton of the Bureau of Special Investigations has earned a break. Not that planning a wedding to his sexy shifter partner, Oliver Park, is necessarily stress free, but it’s better than worrying about the ominous warning, delivered months ago, that Cooper’s life is in danger. When he’s dragged to an event by his family, Cooper braces for an awkward evening, but instead finds himself in the middle of an ugly feud between Park’s ex and a rebel pack leader. What was supposed to be a quick outing turns into a full-blown murder investigation after the pack leader ends up dead, Park’s ex goes missing, and Cooper and Park are sent a series of disturbing wedding gifts that are somehow connected to it all. The list of potential suspects is long, and with the bodies piling up, Cooper must turn to the one person he trusts the least: the villain he’s already put behind bars once and who has nothing to lose by lying and everything to gain if Cooper is out of the picture—for good. Big Bad Wolf Book 1: The Wolf at the Door Book 2: The Wolf at Bay Book 3: Thrown to the Wolves Book 4: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing Book 5: Cry Wolf

A Suspensful Paranormal Romance

Cry Wolf

Aishling

⭐️4.5⭐️

I honestly didn’t expect this reread to go so well since I wasn’t a fan of the narrator at the start, but omg did he ever improve. I would give 5 stars for the audio alone. Honestly Erik Bloomquist deserves an award for the way he narrated the sex scenes in this, I just know he suppressed every hint of embarrassment in his body to make Cooper moan like that 🤣 I would highly recommend checking out the series in audiobook, even if you have to skip past or force yourself through listening to book one just for the joys of the other boys. 

But aside from the audiobook of course this series is amazing as ever. I’d forgotten how much I loved it. The characters are amazing, and it has the best character development I’ve ever seen in a series. I loved watched Cooper and Oliver open up over the course of the five books. 

Do yourself a favour and check this series out, I could not recommend it more ❤️

Jasmine

5 Stars

  "No matter what happened in the future, no one could take away the fact that imperfect Cooper Dayton had found his own perfect love. He’d never felt more stupidly lucky in his whole life."

THE END! CRIES FOREVER!!
Okay, I still can't get over that I finished this series because it was such a wild ride and I have a really hard time letting go of characters that have come to mean so much to me. they are perfectly imperfect and that's what makes them so easy to love. Cooper and Oliver got their much deserved happy ending and whatever the future may hold for them they will face it together. I felt that it was a satisfying end to what has now become a favourite series. I really think that because of the way it ended there could always be more and I would welcome any new book with open arms because where some series can drag around the book 5 mark I really didn't feel that once with this series. I hope that maybe one day if not a Cooper/Oliver book we can maybe get one from maybe Dean or Eli's perspective (*UPDATE: Just realized there is an Eli series and it out in 3 days ahhh). This Werewolf pack and their family became my family over these 5 books and I'm so happy to have got to experience all the emotions I felt while reading this series!! I can't see this not being one I go back to and relive over and over again!

Lauren Sullivan

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[murder, violence and description of dead bodies and crime scenes, inappropriate sexual relationship (in the past), drugging victims without consent, depression, PTSD, blackmail (of a secondary character), references to past abuse (of a secondary character) (hide spoiler)]

“Dreams change. People change. Please just don’t stop giving me the chance to change with you.”

I absolutely adore this series! Five books in, Oliver and Park feel like old friends, and I know to expect a good twisty mystery, lots of snarky humor, and a steamy and sweet relationship between them. This series can’t be read out of order, and this review will contain spoilers for previous books.

“Ignorance and influence are rarely as unrelated as they should be. You have a lot more power than you think. I’m not the only one who’s noticed.”

Cooper and Park have finally found a house that works for them – a bit of an architectural mess, but it sits on the edge of a forest – even if Park keeps trying to fill it up with decorative vases and other weird rich people decorations. Despite dire warnings from an old enemy, things are pretty quiet, and the only thing bugging Cooper lately is the anxiety of planning their wedding. Cooper doesn’t have that many friends and werewolves don’t really do the whole wedding thing, so a lot of traditional wedding advice feels useless. But when Park’s ex Eli unexpectedly turns up in DC, suddenly Cooper has a lot more to worry about that exactly what shade coral is. The past is catching up with Eli – and with Park and Cooper as well. But as the interconnectedness of the events surface, Cooper is left to wonder if it’s all a coincidence, or something more sinister.

“No matter what happened in the future, no one could take away the fact that imperfect Cooper Dayton had found his own perfect love. He’d never felt more stupidly lucky in his whole life.”

I adore book series that follow one couple, but it can often lead to some interesting narrative choices that jeopardize the couple’s HEA. There’s a quote in the beginning of this book about how people change over time and how their relationships change with them, and that’s what this series demonstrates expertly. This book isn’t really questioning their relationship, but more about Cooper reflecting about the course of their relationship and his hopes for their marriage. Cooper and Park met when they were both broken in different ways, and, like Cooper jokes, a lot of locations significant to their relationship are crime scenes. They’re healing together, but to Cooper, Park is revealing his essential goodness while Cooper is still, well, a sarcastic porcupine. Cooper wants Park to be truly happy, and he’s still not sure exactly what Park needs for that and how to provide that for him. Part of that is that Park still doesn’t talk much about werewolf things with him. But even though he still discounts himself, Cooper has a deep need to protect those around him, even those he’s only tangentially friends with, like Eli, and that’s something that Park appreciates. They’re so sweet (and, whoo, steamy) together, and I love how well their relationship, warts and all, is presented.

“Why does everyone keep implying I go places to find bodies? We’re just here to ask a few questions.”

In a large part, this book is the culmination of events from the past books. Cooper’s still dealing with the trauma from the initial attack that opened his eyes to the existence of werewolves, but at least now he admits he has PTSD and is seeing a therapist about it. Park is struggling with his history of being the Shepherd and how it affects their ability to do their jobs, not to mention the fact that his mom is still out there somewhere. One of the things I loved about this book was that we get more werewolf history, and especially a look at the interactions between the packs, WIP and the rebels. A large part of the book takes place at the zoo (and starts with Cooper finding Eli in a wolf exhibit, take that particular bit of symbolism how you will) and it’s fascinating how that ties in with the themes of the murder mystery – the need to court wealthy donors for money, the various cliques within the zoo, the ethics of caging wild animals. And of course, there’s plenty of humor, including continuous jokes from just about everybody that Cooper can’t go anywhere without finding a dead body (it’s so true, though).

“So the wolf world would be watching? Let them. Let them see this love. If anything made Cooper powerful enough to be feared, it was knowing he’d do anything to protect this.”

The book ends with the mystery wrapped up satisfactorily and with Park and Cooper on new, even firmer footing. There’s tantalizing hints of where the series will go next (please let there be more books, please!) and I cannot wait to see how Cooper and Park will deal with the next set of dead bodies.

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Amy Grieve

Hi everyone, I'd just like to say I am distraught that this may or may not be the last we ever get to follow Cooper and Oliver on their adventures, although I doubt it. I feel like Charlie Adhara hasn't quite finished with these two quite yet, but let me mourn in this moment that I do not have another book to read right now. 

This review is kind of mix of my feelings about this final book, but also the overall trajectory of this series. Charlie Adhara has a very languid way with words where I can see myself in these worlds she creates. She creates spaces where I can imagine myself stepping into and an atmospheric tone which is carried throughout this entire series. The world building is impeccable, real enough to feel firmly planted in reality and yet it pulls me into another world simultaneously. Even though we're five books in I feel like there's so much more to learn about this world and so many different directions we could still go. 

And let's just talk about Cooper and Oliver for a moment. I think it's been a while since I've been so invested in a couple. With every single book I have had the pleasure of watching them grow with one another and for one another in ways that aren't selfish and it's some of the healthiest relationships I've seen written in a while. Especially considering the amount of death in these books, it was so nice to be able to read about these two men who each of their own past traumas and issues coming together to love one another in spite of everything. 

I'm so excited to read about Eli in the upcoming spin-off and finally learn more about him.

Katharina 

My second time reading this and I still love it so so much. The character development over the series is just amazing and I can’t wait for the spin off later this year! 

Sali Nim

I'm sorry, but Park and Cooper have me in a chokehold and I don't know how to rid myself of them. They have my heart.

Cry Wolf A Suspensful Paranormal Romance

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