Thrown to the Wolves

Thrown to the Wolves (2019) Charlie Adhara (Big Bad Wolf)

Cooper is mostly (but not completely) recovered from the events in the previous book, but not yet back to work, so when Oliver receives a call that his grandfather has died, Cooper heads north to Canada with him.

Things go badly from the very start.

Cooper put the guidebook down and cleared his throat. This was getting ridiculous. “Did you tell them I was coming?”

Park blinked slowly, like he’d been dragged from deep in thought. “Yes, of course,” he said after a long moment. Then, “Don’t be nervous.”

“I’m not,” Cooper said. Well, I wasn’t until you said that.

And then get worse.

Park said. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

“No!” Cooper groaned against his own arm. “No more doctors.”

“You lost consciousness.”

“Didn’t. I was just closing my eyes,” he muttered. Park was silent. “I can sense your disapproval from here. Surely that means I’m not concussed.”

“You’d have to be dead not to.” Park sighed.

As with the previous book, there are passages that are like punches to the gut.

“Haven’t you ever felt bad about something that wasn’t your fault? Or even wrong at all? Of course you have. Why apologize for not being what you think we wanted, otherwise.”

“That wasn’t— I wasn’t apologizing for being me.”

“Good. Don’t let them make you. No one should feel like a dirty secret.”

Also, notice that’s a nice parallel to a passage in an earlier book.

Also, if the second book was about Cooper dealing with his past, this one is about Park doing so. And Cooper continuing to be more self-aware.

And though it was never Cooper’s intention to fuel that, he hadn’t exactly helped, either. He’d been all too willing to accept Park as perfect. It had felt nice to believe someone so close to faultless had looked at Cooper’s fault-ridden life and thought, Oh yeah, I want in on that. It was validating and had given him the breath and the boost he’d needed to process the last couple of years and heal. But it hadn’t left Park a lot of space to unpack his own shit.

The mystery is good here, but the best part is discovering more about Oliver and his family, and watching Cooper and Oliver continue to work at their relationship.

Publisher : Carina Press
Rating: 8.5/10

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