I didn't expect to use this word to describe a book about werewolves in Occupied France...but this is a very trite book. The plot is simplistic - leader loses lover, becomes utterly useless, New Person arrives, quickly becomes New Lover... The twists (the aforementioned werewolves in Occupied France, and the fact that both relationships are M/M) aren't enough to rescue the story. The history is poorly researched - their reaction to "concentration camp" is that of modern people, with a lot more information about what was going on there. And the French werewolves simply accept the Brit - it could be because he's a wolf, but that's not shown, and there should have been some prickliness for accuracy. It also desperately needed a good copyeditor - the proofreader was good, but no one caught the times a person was in two places (Didier was at the door and arguing with Kenneth; Sylvester's people left twice, once before the discussion of the wolves and once after...). The werewolf culture is...vague, at best, and mostly contradicted by the story. No, saying that wolves ignore nudity every time there's an extended scene where a wolf stares at someone's naked body does not make it so... Similarly, saying that the second-in-command never speaks after every time she gives a speech (once or twice a chapter) really doesn't make it so. And the only one who was really surprised when she spoke had only met her half an hour before. The sex is constant, explicit, and so detailed it's almost clinical. Really boring. I found myself skimming, and that's not my usual reaction to sex scenes. Again, lip service paid to the problems of sex between leader and follower, or between leader and semi-trusted ally - and then all that discarded because they really wanna have sex. And the final battle makes no d**n sense - both the outcome of the battle, and the fact that they had to have it in the first place (Didier is not otherwise depicted as STUPID, but his choices here can't be described any other way). And the epilogue is...convenient, cute, boring.

For me, it fails as a historical novel, as a werewolf book, as a romance, and as erotica. Not a winner. ( )