This is a prequel/midquel/short story collection based on the book Luna the Lone Wolf, which I have reviewed before. Let's take a look! Note that this review contains both spoilers for this book and Luna.
This book consists of three short stories. The first shows how Luna's father Toltan became alpha of his own pack. The second is about Estrella, Luna's mate, and takes place during Luna the Lone Wolf. It shows how she made her way back to her mate after being presumed dead by him. The last story is about the old wolf Carlin, and shows how he lost his pack before meeting Luna in the main story.
These were all fine short stories and honestly I do like this book more so than Luna. That one was overall fine, but it had too many flaws for me to truly consider it "good". It had some scenes which lacked in logic and the romance was beyond forced. This is pretty much improved upon in this book.
Except for one aspect, which is the most notable in Estrella's story: Wells is just not good at writing romance. And her story gives me the impression he's also not very good at writing female characters. Why? Because most of Estrella's story is dedicated to her spending time with other males and the main thing constantly being about whether or not Estrella will take another mate or return to Luna.
There is already only one main character across these three stories + Luna who is female, and the fact that the only thing her story is about is who she ends up with is not great writing of your only female protagonist in my opinion, especially if the romances to begin with are not well-written. The first male character Estrella comes across tries to force himself on her but for a moment she still considers becoming his mate, then there's Tilhack the wolfdog who wants to be with her but she rejects in the end, there's of course Luna himself and in the Luna book there's also a brief mention of Rajor wanting to court her. Truly does this character do anything else than thinking about which male she wants or doesn't want to be with? Even the main plot of the story is her trying to be with a male (Luna). It just kind or irks me how the only female character's entire arc here depends on any male characters around her. I'm not outright calling it sexist, but it doesn't feel like great writing of your only female protagonist.
The rest of the book was fine though, if you ask me. I didn't have a particular favorite story (except Estrella's being my least favorite, even if it's not outright bad), but they were overall nice to read and do add to the world of Luna the Lone Wolf. If you like wolf xenofiction I do recommend this one, but only after you've read Luna. I feel that otherwise the reader might be a bit confused about the characters and events, and of course there's major spoilers for said book.
Rating: 3.5/5
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