Book Report: The Silver Wolf

Werewolves in Rome? How could I resist?

And the werewolf part is pretty good. I liked that it avoided the "slobbery killer beast" cliche. And the Rome part is good -- Alice Borchardt brings the dying Rome of the eighth century to life in all its nasty, smelly, diseased decadence.

But something was ... lacking, somehow.

Regeane is an orphaned relation of Charlamagne who happens to be a werewolf. Her guardian, Gundabald, and his nasty son Hugo plan to restore their fallen fortunes by marrying Regeane to a wealthy barbarian, even though she might inadvertently make him into a bedtime snack.

They lock her up, starve her and beat her a lot. Just the thing to do with someone you're going to have to have clean and presentable for the marriage market.

And Regeane is characterized so poorly that you can't predict what she's doing to do from minute to minute. She's supposed to have a quiet power, yet she spends an awful lot of time stomping her feet, crying and shouting. She *hates* her uncle, then has a fit when Lucilla announces she's going to kill him.

Then again, Lucilla's wild emotion swings and lapses in judgment make her pretty darn annoying, too.

Antonius? Borchardt tries to make him wise and mysterious, and mostly fails. Then she spends the majority of the book setting him up as a lover for Regeane, and then blows it all with an awkward "yeah, we're not going there" monologue.

The romance ... mostly wasn't, although I liked Maeniel and his crew. But there was absolutely no mystery to the other wolves -- I knew who they were within seconds.

And did we have to have 300 pages or so of Regeane learning to be a confident, self-sufficient woman only to have her get stuck in that ridiculous, damsel in distress ending? Sigh.

Even with it's many faults, though, I found myself enjoying the ride, in a trashy romance sort of way. Borchardt's descriptions are vivid and lyrical, and it was easy to close my eyes and see the action.

Don't expect anything deep -- this is beach or airplane reading. It's better than the in-flight magazine.