NoX by Adrienne Wilder (Wolves Incarnate I)

Title: ⟫ NoX (Wolves Incarnate I)
Author: ⟫ Adrienne Wilder
Blurb: ⟫ A nude man invades Luca Suarez's home and protects him from creatures who cannot exist. Creatures hunting him. The stranger can't tell Luca why. He can't even tell Luca his name. He remembers nothing until the moment he sees Luca. The only hint Luca has to the stranger's identity is a tattoo on his wrist: N o X.

NoX doesn't know who he is, but he's sure of three things, his memory loss is temporary, the monsters chasing Luca are called Anubis, and his Alpha, Koda, sent NoX to protect him. There's just one problem… Koda is Luca's brother who was murdered five years ago.

With each passing hour, NoX fills in the pieces painting an impossible truth. And with each passing hour, both men find themselves inexplicably attracted to each other. Something Luca is willing to embrace because he has nothing left to lose. And one NoX can't let happen because it could get Luca killed. NoX is a HEA/HFN m/m paranormal, science-fiction romance. But be warned, these are NOT the shifters you are used to reading about.

Review: ⟫ This book was a sprawling, engrossing and fascinating alternative view of shifters that I was surprised by. The only thing I can compare it to is a shock fan-fiction masterpiece that you discover out of nowhere, with incredible attention to detail, world-building and lore.

It was also confusing as heck.

I don’t get quantum physics – I barely understand basic physics. And there was a LOT of physics in this book. Like, some of the time I felt like I was reading a textbook. I can only imagine that this was/is a passion project for the author, because it is so completely obvious that a lot of time and effort went into this book. Unfortunately, the explanations and world building got in the way quite a few times – there were occasions where I just wanted to skip over the physics and get back to the relationship building between Luca and NoX.

The physical relationship between Luca and NoX was blistering hot, and the confusion for NoX as to whether or not it was him or the Anubis that was so attached to Luca was intriguing to read. If the Anubis wasn’t part of him, would he have such an instant and huge attraction? And for Luca, how much of it was because this was his first chance to experience life? He had been living under a death sentence and suddenly his life is invaded by this gorgeous man who needs to save and protect him, as well as show him things that he never imagined he would have the chance to experience for himself.

NoX’s relationship with Koda and his fellow betas was interesting to read, but I would imagine a few people might be a little squicked out by the fact that Luca was basically beginning a relationship with his twin brother’s ex. That’s boiling it down to it’s lowest denominator, but perhaps the scenes with the ichor and Koda as the Alpha could have been shortened and not quite so explicit.

I really enjoyed reading this book, although sometimes it did feel like a bit of a slog. The last say 20% sometimes felt a bit rushed, which feels weird to say about a book this long. Perhaps if there had been less physics lessons earlier in the book, this wouldn’t have been the case.

I feel like this book could benefit from a ruthless editor to cull a lot of the exposition, or dumb it all down just a bit to make it more accessible. There were also quite a few spelling and grammar errors that pulled me out of the story. I only mention these because again, this is a very long book and it would be easy to lose some of the audience because of these issues.

I was lucky in that I found this book after the sequel had been released, so I didn’t have the long wait that a lot of readers did waiting to see what happened next. It very much ended on a HFN/cliffhanger which could have been aggravating if I had had to wait for the next instalment. I haven’t read a lot of Adrienne Wilder – after reading NoX and Anubis, I downloaded Wild to see what the writing is like in a different arena. I will follow the Wolves Incarnate series to see where it goes, but I hope that in the meantime, Adrienne’s team help to cull things a little and make the stories a little easier to consume.

Anubis by Adrienne Wilder (Wolves Incarnate II)

Title: ⟫ Anubis (Wolves Incarnate II)
Author: ⟫ Adrienne Wilder
Blurb: ⟫ It was supposed to be over: The Utah Facility discovered, New World Genetics dismantled, and the people hunting Luca, dead.

Then strangers who call themselves Varu, come to Luca for help.

They claim he’s a Cana and tell him he’s the only one who can bring back their wolves.

NoX doesn’t want to trust them, then he learns how people called Mah are responsible for the atrocities committed in the Utah Facility. And that the Anubis residing inside NoX will consume him and destroy Luca.

But they promise they can protect Luca if NoX will let them cure him of the ichor.

Luca knows the perception of the Varu is contaminated by the tragedy that decimated their people and separated them from their wolves.

He also knows the Anubis isn’t the mindless entity they believe it to be, a danger to him, or the world.

In fact, the Anubis might be the only thing strong enough to unite a warring people and protect humanity against the real enemy who wants to enslave it.

If NoX won’t listen to reason, Luca will use the Anubis to save them both.

After all, Luca is NoX's Alpha.

And the Anubis is really Luca’s wolf to call.

Review: ⟫ I must admit, I thought that there would be less physics in this book, which was most definitely not the case. And the cast of characters got a LOT bigger, which was occasionally confusing.

The Varu sucked – there’s no other way to describe them. I particularly hated Isaiah as he came across as bigoted, close-minded and manipulative. I was more than a little unhappy with NoX allowing someone like that to get into his head. That being said, the thought of living thousands of years with an integral part of yourself missing would no doubt warp the best of people.

The relationship between Luca, NoX and the Anubis continued to grow and deepen, and I liked the fact that Luca had a relationship with the Anubis that was separate to NoX – his understanding of the creature, of what it wanted/needed, was fascinating to read.

Johnathan and Reese Dante are an interesting duo. I was repelled by Craige (which I imagine was the point) and the introduction of this new couple was intriguing and is hopefully explore further in future novels.

The machinations in the background were interesting and intriguing, although sometimes more than a little confusing. In fact, I think that is my main feeling about this book – there were so many confusing factions that it was becoming muddled in my head. I can’t imagine how Adrienne Wilder manages to keep it all clear in their head and my hat goes off to them.

This was another very long book which, again, I felt would benefit from a ruthless editor to get rid of the spelling mistakes, name and grammar errors – again, sometime things like that pulled me out of the plot. I absolutely adore Phillips and think she is incredibly kick-ass and someone I would most definitely want on my side.

Expanding on the world-building of the first story, and adding more lore as well as future plans make this an intriguing and engrossing addition to the Wolves Incarnate verse and I do look forward to reading the next instalment although I don’t know how long it’s going to be before this is published.

This was another HFN for me, with the addition of more couples and characters to care for. I would recommend reading it but be prepared to keep your brain engaged because you’ll need it!