My Review (May contain spoilers, fair warning upon reading this review, please be responsible)

Cry Wolf is the first book in the Alpha & Omega series. I am reading both of this authors series in order from her website. After reading the prequel novella of Charles and Anna, I just had to jump into this one next and I am so happy that I did because these two just delivered all the PNR feels that I was looking for and more. Even though it is UF, it still has strong PNR feels to it because the world building of the UF isn't as focused as we are delving into a remote wolf pack in Montana. Anna and Charles are really getting to know each other in this book. They are coming to accept their bond and discovering what that means for both of them. What impressed me the most was the heroine in this book. This author keeps blowing me away with NORMAL heroines. Like what is this magic? haha I am sorry but most UF I have read, the heroines are so crazy and out of this world kick ass that I can't relate to them on any level. But Anna....she is honestly just a normal heroine. Literally your next door neighbor type of heroine and I am having a blast with it. Charles and Anna make such a balanced couple. He isn't too alpha for Anna, especially when she has softer elements to her character with her being a omega. I am also loving the Native American aspect to him and the connection that we see between him and the alpha of the pack was quite superb. The plot of the story definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. The villain is so EVIL, but how the author develops the third act was PHNEOMENAL. Honestly I didn't know what I was expecting, but this author threw me in for a whirlwind of a story.

Overall if you are looking for a more softer UF with more romance focus in it, then I can't recommend this series enough, truly loving the beginning of Charles and Anna's story. ( )

I rather liked this book in the beginning, even though there were a lot of hints about things that are not described in the book (this is my first Briggs, but as it turns out, even though this book is the first in a series, there is another series that comes before it, that has some links with it. Also, there is an anthology that describes the events that come directly before it, i.e., Anna meeting Charles.)

Later on, I had to revise my opinion though. The bottom line is, this book goes too fast for me. Anna and Charles have enough problems to work, with her having been abused and not knowing much about werewolf life. Before they have any chance to make much headway, though, they have to hunt a killer werewolf. This should be an easy job for Charles, but of course things are more complicated than they seem at first. What I dislike there, is that the 'mystery' explanation is pretty much dumped on you. There is another wolf in the pack who is the cause of all the problems and who knows how things stand with the killer. He does the flashback thing, and all things are made clear. It's a bit too simplistic for me, and there's not enough attention to the original problems. In the beginning, Anna is terrified of sleeping with Charles due to her background, but in the end, it is somehow solved, without any explanation.

Overall, I'd say this is an easy, but somewhat simplistic read, that moves too fast for my liking... ( )

To start things off I didn't read the short story that originated this novel (Alpha and Omega in the 'On the Prowl' anthology) nor the Mercy Thompson books until after reading this book. They've never appealed to me (kind of like the Aisling Grey novels by Katie MacAlister never appealed to me, but the Silver Dragons trilogy does...) and honestly speaking I wouldn't have picked up Cry Wolf if I didn't desperately need a quick fix. Not a werewolf person overall--I'm more of a vampire as the romantic hero girl.

I'm not sure if that was a bad thing or not though. I'm going to look up the short story to see if the events that are so carefully stated, but largely not in detail, were part of that story or not. Pretty much the first page of chapter one landed us at the tail end of a battle, when heroes are cleaning themselves up and preparing to fix their lives around the new circumstances. The battle that had happened was between Charles and an alpha of a seperate pack. Apparently that Alpha had been abusing Anna, Charles' mate, for three years. No wait. What was the distinction that Aisil makes later...that's right. Abuse has lost meaning over the years, whereas brutalize has not. Leo, the Alpha of the pack, had brutalized Anna for 3 years.

This is another case of lots of events in a short period of time. At the start of the story Anna has known Charles for three days, by the end of the novel its been a little over two weeks. I loved Anna. I loved her with a fierceness that I didn't expect. To survive everything and still manage to have a sense of humor at times...oh I just love her! Its not that she immediately rallied and went from being a timid, scared and beaten woman to a strong, fearless warrior chick either. Everything was new to her even though she had been a werewolf for 3 years. Leo had told her so little about what that meant that she was naive in so many ways. But she tried. What she lacked in knowledge she made up for in persistence. Or patience. Or in some cases with Charles, impatience.

By her very nature Anna is accepted by practically every wolf she meets (its part of being Omega, she's like the eye in the middle of a storm), but she doesn't want the attention or adoration. She's largely wary of dominant males--after her experiences with them in Leo's Pack, but over the course of the novel she learns to trust some. To trust in her instincts and learn from what they are telling her. I found it sad that she was both afraid of Charles (he's a VERY dominant male) and only felt safe around him. He too had to earn her trust, just like everyone else. Which made for some emotional moments between the pair of them.

Of the story--the rogue werewolf terrorizing the Cabinents and making it hard for law-abiding werewolves everyone--that took a turn for the not so great and easily fixed variety about halfway through. I suspect half the people who read the book would have made the connection a little earlier, and I was hitting myself for not picking up on the clues littered throughout that are eventually made clear, but for everyone else let's say shocker! Bad shock. Very bad shock. Not bad as in the writing was bad, bad as in 'oh dear lord that poor character has had enough happen to them!' bad.

I hope that in the second book (due out in August called 'Hunting Ground') more of Anna is explained. They teased at it a little, how because of what she endured she was different other then being an Omega. Since Omegas are, by nature, not dominant or submissive, apparently all werewolves--Dominant or Submissive--feel a protective need to keep them safe. Omegas have all the fierce protective instincts of an Alpha, but none of the aggression in other words, so they are more fragile then submissives (they won't, inherently, fight back if they can choose a more peaceful option). Anna's wolf-self however seemed to protect her during the worst of her treatment--not help her fight, but instead shield her human mind and sensibilities from the worst of what was happening to her. Charles notes at one point that when she is feeling playful, or less guarded or fearless, clearly her wolf is bolstering her spirits, but not really taking over (kind of like Blended Drink of Anna and Wolf!Anna--not really one or the other).

I'm making a bungle of it, and I suspect the author has explained it in better ways elsewhere, but that is what I understood of it.

This book has, if not changed my general opinion of werewolves, at least made me rethink not giving books with them as the forefront a chance (I can't rightly say that Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series did that since its about weres in general, not just werewolves). I am looking forward to book 2! ( )

This is nominally the first of a new sub-series in the Marok (Bran and Mercy) world, but there's a lot of backstory that is only referred to and not explained. It feels very much as if at least a book's worth has been missed somewhere.

The story opens with Bran's son Charles (who doesn't appear much in Mercy's books) bring back his new mate-to-be to Bran's pack deep in the montana mountains. She's an Omega (something not explained - not submissive, but utterly un-dominant, and outside the usual pack structure. Equally to be treasured she can calm the Beast all werewolves try to live with. Shes' just finding her feet, and Charles is recovering from the silver wounds he received, when news comes in of a rogue in the mountains. Anyone who's survived out there is pretty tough, and Bran reluctantly sends Charles and her out to investigate.

Once the backstory has been established it feels a bit like a Mercy novel, other than Anna is much less physically challenging but far from weak, her strengths simply lie in other directions. She does come across as a bit moany sometimes - but this is partly because her story is not yet established. I suspect I'm going to end up reading all of these too. ( )

I feel deceived. I had a feeling the Mercedes Thompson series might be a campy romance series in disguise - but the disguise was rather good, so I kept reading. And then Cry Wolf was released. I regret even reading it. I learned absolutely nothing, except that I have a notably high tolerance for predictable plots and poorly characterized heroines. It's the only reason I finished the book. But never again, Alpha & Omega. Never again. ( )