The premise of this book is excellent. Werewolves? Witches? Gays? What’s not to love.

Ox is one of the most likeable characters I’ve come across recently. In fact, most of the characters in this book are. Klune has a way of making you feel like part of the families (biological, found, or made) that you’re reading about. The pacing of the story was good. And the writing is very lyrical, which I thought was lovely and emotionally piercing at times.

I, personally, really struggled getting by the age gap between Ox and Joe. I adored their relationship in the first ~25% of the book, with Ox being a big brother, a protector, a hero in Joes eyes. Then the romance came about and it is a very large and important part of the story. Thus, because I couldn’t get past the age gap, the rest of the story kind of fell apart for me.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend picking up this book and giving it a go for yourself. The story is interesting and enjoyable for the most part. And the characters themselves make the read worth it. Just because I took issue with some parts of the novel, doesn’t mean everyone will (and the ratings on Goodreads are a testament to that).

This was as intriguing as always. Klune is upliftingly generous in his works and i cannot wait to read the rest of the series. Again, another indulgent story that keeps us going.

I have to admit to feeling rather tense when I started reading Wolfsong by TJ Klune, to be honest, werewolf fantasies are not really my normal reading fare, but I had loved The House in the Cerulean Sea, so I was willing to give this a shot, Twilight vibes and all. I am so glad that I did, the world building is excellent but what makes this fly are the characters created and developed, the magical lifelong relationships developed, the touchy feeliness, the sheer fun and banter, and the central love story. The heart of it is the blended family of humans and werewolves that just keeps growing throughout, held together through the structure of the pack and it all begins in Green Creek, Oregon. 16 year old Oxnard Matheson, whose father had walked out when he was 12, leaving him with serious self esteem issues, bumps into the whirlwind of energy that is 10 year old Joe Bennett who tells him he is awesome and epic, lusciously smelling of pine cones and candy. The following day Joe gifts him a stone wolf.

Ox and Joe develop an unbreakable soul deep bond, a love and bond that will get seriously tested, although it will take some time for Ox to become aware of the true nature of the Bennett family that he and his beloved mother become a part of, a world of full moons, wolfsongs, monsters, witches, magic, tethers, trauma, betrayal, loss, separations and battles against evil. The Bennett family is lead by the wise Thomas, with the beautiful, loving and artistic Elizabeth, Carter and Kelly, and Mark. They all become closely connected with Gordo, who owns the garage that Ox began to work at when his father leaves, a work family that shelters and saves him that includes mechanics, Rico, Tanner, and Chris with his feisty teacher sister, Jessie. Amidst the paradise that is the woods, there is heartbreaking grief and loss and a epic love that must survive the deadliest of challenges.

Klune is a beguiling storyteller, weaving a spell of MM love, of human and wolf connections that break conventions and an expansive and all encompassing sense of family and pack where speciesism has no place, with the threads that bind and protect. There are elements that emulate other classic fantasies, but the author makes it all work to make this an enthralling, vibrant and riveting reading experience that sparkles and captivates. You cannot mistake that this is the writer of the tender and beautiful The House in the Cerulean Sea, and if you loved that, it is likely that you will adore this too. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Look at the gorgeous cover of this glorious book! Love it soo much! And I’m so curious about the other three!

Okay, if you haven’t read the Green Creek series yet, preorder the new edition of Wolfsong now! This series is full of amazing characters, found family, a romance full of chemistry, and of course werewolves.

From the moment I first started reading Wolfsong, I got hooked to the story. Ox and Joe immediately found a place in my heart, and the only thing I could do was read on and on and on. First, the precious friendship between the teen and the kid, and later, their beautiful romance. Rereading this story was such a joy, and I can’t wait to have this new edition in my hands, preferably the sprayed one from Waterstones (because that one is even more beautiful!).

I'll preface this by saying that I'm not the biggest fan of werewolf stories and the usual wolf tropes, but I still picked this up because I admire Klune's work and therefore wanted to try it. Since this is just my personal taste and has no relation to the quality of the book, it will not influence my review.

My first impression was that it reminded me a lot of Twilight (no, hear me out). We have the young disadvantaged ingenue who falls in with a group of people they do not understand and who are ultimately revealed to be quite other. The inevitable lovestory develops as our hero(ine) becomes part of this mysterious new world, while an elderly guardian figure tries to wrest them away from it out of a misplaced sense of wanting to protect them. I don't mean that as slander, by the way; I enjoyed Twilight when it had its day and still think Meyer did not deserve all the hate she got for it.
So far the parallels. The differences weigh far heavier: one of the first things that struck me reading this was the excellence of the prose, which is poetical and beautiful without ever becoming too much or artificial. What I absolutley loved was the queer rep, which is easy, natural, matter of course. Seriously, I wish all books were written like this. The romance is very slow-burn even though you see it coming from very early on (as you're supposed to), and you get to spend many aching pages watching them try to will-they-won't-they work it out.

The two main characters are very young in the beginning of the book, a child and a young teen respectively; and I think it's because of that that the book initially feels quite YA. I was aware that it was marketed towards adults, but I was still not prepared when after 400 pages of intense longing glances and teenage angst it dropped one of THE most explicit scenes that I've ever read, lol. And it wasn't short, either. But, even though it was graphic, it was beautifully done, because it was suffused by all that these two feel for each other.

Surrounding all this are a lot of emotional things that both main characters have to work through (and help each other work through and grow together), and there are themes of hurt and healing, of family and belonging that are just beautifully developed.
I've you're looking for a queer werewolf romance with excellent writing, lots of angst, all the usual enjoyable wolf romance tropes (hey, I know they have a bad rep but they're popular for a reason), plenty of emotional development and a big payoff at the end, you can do no better than picking this one up.

I kinda loved it, even though I don't like werewolf books. ;)

I want to thank NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here expressed are my own.

If you like any this authors other works you'll be sure to like this one too. From a very well built urban fantasy world to sweet characters, this novel tugs at your heart strings, especially with it's slow burn romance! Even all the side characters felt well fleshed out and had their own stories going along side the over all plot. I can't say that this book was plot heavy but the relationships between characters were so interesting that you didn't even notice. I'd highly recommend this for anyone who just needs something sweet and not too dark!

Wolfsong follows Ox, whose father walks out on him and his mother. As a teenager, he befriends Joe, a boy with a traumatic past, who instantly takes a liking to Ox. They become best friends and Joe's family, the Bennetts, essentially take Ox under their wing. Soon, he discovers that the Bennetts have a secret—they're werewolves—which puts Ox in danger.

This book was a joy to read. Klune has a very distinct writing style. He has a way with words that makes the narrative feel punchy and immediate. The language is simple yet hard-hitting and full of emotion.

The bonds between the various characters are portrayed really well. Klune uses the 'found family' trope to create a palpable intensity which makes you care for the characters that much more. We get a real sense of their relationships to each other and how close they are. There's also a lot of queer representation and acceptance, and no conflict rooted in homophobia which was refreshing.

In terms of plot, I was instantly drawn in and fascinated by Ox and Joe. The beginnings of their friendship felt really wholesome. As the story progresses, we watch them grow up and become adults, with their bond ultimately tested once trouble comes to town.

I did struggle a bit with the length and pacing though. The middle of the book could have probably been been cut down a bit. I didn't have too much of a problem with the romance as some people seem to have—both characters are of age before anything happens. The only thing I could have done without was the incredibly explicit scene later in the book which felt a bit unnecessary.

There are also a lot of characters that ended up kind of blurring together. Carter and Kelly Bennett were indistinguishable to me, along with Ox's co-workers—Tanner, Chris and Rico—at the garage. Still, they provided great comic relief through their banter and teasing of Ox so I appreciated their presence, I just wish I got to know them more as individuals.

If it wasn't for these few issues, this would have been a five star read for me, as I was totally invested in this story in a way I haven't been for a long time. I'm really looking forward to reading the next book in this series and seeing where Klune takes these characters next.

A new hardback edition of Wolfsong is out on the 1st of September 2022, including signed and exclusive sprayed edge editions from Waterstones.

Many thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for providing me with a Digital Review Copy.

The book was good, but it clearly wasn't "my type of book".
Nevertheless, I loved the characters.
I loved the family and feeling of belonging.
There's love, loss, deep connections and bonds that are unbreakable.

I would recommend this to people who likes to read about shapeshifters, but not for me.

Oh how excited I was to dive into Klune's werewolf series! I absolutely adored his latest standalones so I felt like he's the perfect author fit for me. Sadly, this turned out to just not be the book for me, and noone is sadder about this than me. It's not at all a bad book and I can absolutely see why it has so many fans, but I guess I'm just not as much into werewolves as I thought I am.

"Wolfsong" tells the story of Ox, a simple dude in a simple town with a horrible dad, an amazing mum and a set of new neighbours that are a little peculiar to say the least. The new family comes with a ten year old boy called Joe who immediately clings to Ox like they are meant for each other. Spoiler alert: They are.
This is probably one of the big things that made me uncomfortable from the get go. Ox is 16 or 17 when they meet, Joe is 10, which is a big age gap when you're this young. And yet, noone including his own family seem to mind that little Joe has now more or less imprinted on his future boyfriend. Sure, nothing happens between them until Joe is 17, but he's basically been a possessively jealous little thing from day 1, effectively punishing Ox for having dates and relationships. He literally tells him he had a hard time not killing the people Ox liked, not tearing him apart to be able to taste him, not marking him all over so noone would ever touch him again. I know a lot of people are into this kind of primal, obsessive romance behaviour but dear god I wanted to send him to therapy. This is not how I like my werewolves. Ox and Joe also more or less grew up as brothers after meeting very young, with Joe's father calling Ox his son in all but blood, so... I don't know. It just didn't feel romantic at all to me, and I might just not like the whole Mates thing. I find it a little creepy.

I quite liked the family dynamics and how welcoming the pack was to Ox, and I enjoyed the larger world building around the different packs, the Omegas, the witches. I especially enjoyed Gordo as a character, he might be my favorite. But because this is primarily a romance (and one I didn't enjoy for the aforementioned reasons), all the other plot points kind of fall flat., There are big battles, but in the end, they're mostly there to further the romance. The pacing is rather slow too, so I was honestly a little bored and wanted to skip entire pages at some points. This is not helped by the choice of writing style - while I liked Ox' voice and I really enjoyed him as a character, too, it was a bit tiresome to read.

So this is a very unpopular opinion and I by now way am saying this is a bad book, but well. It's just definitely not for me and there are too many themes and tropes I simply don't enjoy or make me uncomfortable within the narrative and the characters and their relationships so I can't give this more than 2 stars. You should probably ignore my review if you're into those very themes and tropes though.

I enjoyed the second half of the book way more than the first half, because in the first half I was really struggling with this age gap thing going on between an 11 year old and a 16 year old. Yes, the romance doesn't actually start until about 7 years later.... but still. There was a lot of angst around this kid being upset about this 16-year-old dating people, and it just felt really weird.

But I do really love TJ Klune's writing, and I think he's got a great sense of humour, I found the book to be very funny which of course makes for an enjoyable reading experience. I also really enjoyed the found family aspect, there was so much love and care in this amalgamation of characters and you could really feel that coming off the pages. There's also such great casual LGBTQ+ representation, where it all feels so calm and accepting, with no angst surrounding that aspect, which is always great to see. There are also so many emotional moments, even in the first half of the book, which are like a proper gut punch - which I think shows the mark of great characters if you can really feel for them after only knowing them for about 200 pages.

I do also wish that there were better storylines for the women in here. There are a sum total of 3 female characters in the whole book, and each and every one of them only exists as a sounding board for the male characters' angst/plot device to make the male characters more angry. Hopefully in the next few books there will be better storylines for them!

4.75 stars

Wolfsong follows the story of Ox Matheson, who grows up in a small Oregon town known as Greencreek amongst magic and werewolves. When disaster befalls his family and friends he must fight harder than ever before to save his pack from a feral werewolf seeking vengeance.

I don't know what I was expecting when I went into this book but I absolutely loved it. It's touching, emotional and at times heart-wrenching and has one of my favourite fictional families (both found and blood mixed together) ever.

This book is both a beautiful coming of age story for Ox, as well as the romance between him and Joe. Ox’s growth throughout the book is a really moving, he grows from a boy abandoned and shit on by his father to a confident alpha who will do anything for his pack. The relationship also progresses really naturally from best friends to that sudden oh! realisation (which I am a sucker for friends to lovers so I loved this) and you can tell they care so much about each other. There was also a fair amount of angst at times, which was stressful but also very satisfying when it resolved.

I also enjoyed exploring Ox’s relationships with other characters. His pseudo-parental relationship with Thomas and Elizabeth, who you could tell loved him so much and it was nice to see healthy parental figures for him. Carter and Kelly (who I also loved them both - I think they have their own books later in the series and I'm so excited) and their brotherly bonds. Gordo and all the crew at the garage I also loved so much and their banter was so much fun!! Honestly I care about all these characters so much and their bonds with each other <33

I loved TJ Klune’s writing style in this book, I’ve read quite a few of his other series and all have quite a distinct voice and this one is no different. I would say this is a lot more poetic and dreamy than some of his other stuff, there is still a hint of humour but in general it feels a bit darker and more haunting.

In summary I would highly recommend this - I have to read the rest of the series first but I have a feeling this will become my favourite TJ Klune series. Full of cinnamon roll werewolves, everyone is gay, classic creepy small town vibes, a beautiful love story - what more could you want?!?

Anything by Klune is just perfection, and this does not miss the mark at all! This is a beautiful fast paced and enticing book. Could not put it down, read it now!

Be warned, there's going to be some spoilers ahead.

A very divided opinion from me on this book, lots to like, lots to not like so much. Which isn't hard in a book this long. I felt it could have lost some pages without changing the story.

There are definite twilight vibes going on here, something that is amusingly mentioned in the book.
Gay werewolf, that's different.. I'm good with that.
However, Joe is just plain creepy.
His obsessive/possessiveness from such a young age should have had Ox running.
Also the way Ox turns into a stumbling clown the minute there's any attraction... felt a little silly.
However, the character of Ox was fab, as we're most of the others, and the bonds they built and families they forged between themselves was truly heartwarming.
Some great battle scenes.
Genuine moments of sadness when things don't go as planned.
I really enjoyed the authors style of writing.
Lastly, I'm going to be forever amused at a werewolf called Elisabeth Bennett.
Probably just me.

Twilight meets Half Bad meets Vampire Diaries...but they’re all werewolves!?

I love werewolf stories and this one is definitely a highlight!
I loved it from the first page on. I loved everything about it. The setting, the story, the style of writing, the characters!!! They’re all so precious and need to be protected, especially Baby-Joe.
The family (and/or pack) dynamic was so beautifully written, the connection and relationships between all of them made my heart hurt, but in a good kind of way.
The love story was totally different to anything I ever read before, it was super special and I loved it. The way everything develops and grows over the years.
So many tears...either from the characters or from me (there was a lot of crying and heartbreak), but also the humour in this one was super awesome (the guys from the car repair shop are my favourites).
I don’t even know how to put into words how I feel about this book, it’s one of these books that just make your heart sing (god this book made me corny).

Oh wow, this was wonderful! Another story of found family from this author but this time…..wolves!!!!!

Ox lives in a small town, born and bred. Horrible Dad, lovely shining light of a Mum and he meets the Bennett’s who live down the lane. And then it all starts……..

I love Ox. He is an utterly beautiful soul. So innocent with a good heart. I loved that we saw him growing up from a boy to a man.

Joe I took a bit longer to like but as Ox is just so adorable, I think it took my shining light from Joe!

All of the characters were so good and I especially loved the garage guys but there was one who stood out for me in this whole book…………Carter Bennett. I think he has a book out and can’t wait to read it!

The story was built up and up and I ate up every word! Magical, wolfy and beautiful.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the free arc.

Wolfsong follows the story of Ox and Joe and the rest of the amazing wolf pack, this is the first book in a series of four and is my favourite series by TJ Klune.

The characters are all so well rounded and over the series they all get their moments to shine, grow and expand as people. The new cover is stunning and I’m so excited to see the others.