Zeus loves his job on the Mad Creek Search & Rescue team, and his inner Saint Bernard is finally being used to his full potential. When he sees a mysterious and wild-looking quickened—a dog shifter—at an earthquake site in Alaska, Zeus is compelled to investigate. Zeus falls hard for the primal beauty of Timo and of Alaska itself. Both call to his deep canine soul. But the Qimmig pack’s laws … laws are as harsh as the Alaskan winters, and Timo is out of his reach.Timo’s pack of dog shifters left their Inuit village generations ago and have lived wild ever since. Not trusting the “one-skinned,” and with their numbers dwindling, the Qimmig are on the verge of extinction. Timo is shocked to discover a whole group of “two-skinned” working as a rescue team, and he is particularly fascinated by Zeus, a gentle giant. He senses what Zeus feels for him… but it’s forbidden.Can Mad Creek save this lost quickened clan? Perhaps—if they can learn how to run with the wolves.
more
This was a great addition to the series! Zeus is especially endearing.
This series is an especially wonderful take on the M/M shifter books where some dogs are quickened, receive ‘the spark’, that allows them to become human. Mad Creek in California near Yosemite Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains is home for born quickened and it serves as a sanctuary for the newly quicken that make their way there. Delightfully sweet and particularly uplifting for those of us that are dog lovers. Book four of the series, ‘How to Run With The Wolves’ find out-of-place St Bernard Dog shifter Zeus finding his step with Mad Creek’s search and rescue team. Being composed of dog shifter, the Mad Creek team is the absolute best there is and Zeus loves the work as it puts him in touch with his St. Bernard ancestors. Responding to a natural disaster in Alaska, Zeus is befriended by Timo a dog shifter whose pack is failing to thrive and in a series of events, two of the Alaska pack’s members are invited to Mad Creek. There they discover a ‘wealthy’ dog shifter community with pups and modern ingenuity that results in robust pack growth. The geneticist Jason Kunik uses his intellectual gifts to understand the problem then come up with a solution for the declining Alaska pack that allows for Timo and Zeus as well as other Mad Creek-Alaska dog pairing to improve the quality of life for all concerned.
Zeus has not felt like he totally belongs. Timo has been trying to stretch his wings too. An emergency leads to an encounter that changes both of their lives forever. In the process the lives of their packs are changed as well. Both men are strong and stubborn. Timo has a lot of tradition to reconcile his feelings. I hope we will get to see more of Alaskan pack. And I so want Yuki’s mate to have a healthy pup. Listened to the Audible version. It was so well done. I would never had got the names right.
Eli Easton’s extraordinary Howl at the Moon series comes to a close with How to Run with the Wolves. Fans of these characters are going to especially enjoy this one, because a good part of the story takes place within the community of Mad Creek. To me, these guys are dear after five books, and this is a particularly sweet way to say goodbye. If you haven’t delved into this magical world, start with the first novel, How to Howl at the Moon, and read them in order!
The entire series is available in audio, performed by the marvelous Matthew Shaw. I’ve been impressed by the multitude of voices this talented narrator has come up with for the extremely diverse supporting cast! Plus, throughout the series Mr. Shaw has continued to find unique traits in all of the main characters to make each of them special. It’s been a true pleasure to listen to Matthew Shaw’s rich, warm voice as he brought these characters to life.
When Mad Creek’s Search and Rescue team head to Alaska to help after an earthquake, they discover a unique group of shifters. Structured more like a wolf pack, the Quimmiq tribe have purposely cut themselves off from the modern world. They look down on technology and want nothing to do with the ways of man. However, the Quimmiq aren’t thriving, and the pack is at risk of becoming extinct.
Though Zeus was born in Mad Creek, he’s always preferred small groups and wishes for a more low-key life. When handsome Timo invites him to spend a few days immersed in the Quimmiq’s more basic existence, Zeus finds he can definitely appreciate the way this tribe lives. Of course, Timo is curious about Zeus’ world too, and a trip to Mad Creek shows him all the amazing and wonderful things modern technology can provide.
The negative aspects of the human world have been ingrained in Timo his whole life, and he has trouble understanding why the Mad Creek shifters would actually choose to live among men. Zeus tries to help Timo understand how it’s natural for dogs to be drawn to men, after all it’s only through this connection that dogs can get “the spark” and become shifters. His understanding will be the only way to save the Quimmiq tribe.
While each of the novels in the Howl at the Moon series has been completely unique, there’s been a common thread running through all of them. As the various breeds of dog shifters work together to build a community in Mad Creek, they learn to accept and embrace each other’s differences. This support network becomes particularly important once they share their secrets and include humans in their world.
What a wonderful thing it would be if beloved pets could get “the spark” and become quickened! I’ve enjoyed seeing all the ways Ms. Easton has explored so many aspects of this marvelous world. Listening to Mad Creek blossom and grow into the place it is at the end of the Howl at the Moon series, with How to Run with Wolves, has been a delightful experience, and I’m tempted to start at the beginning and do it all over again.
Audiobook review:
Story 5
Performance 5
Overall 5
A sweet story; loved the audiobook.
Listening to the audio of a book that I’ve already read often increases my appreciation for the original story. Matthew Shaw’s wonderful performance of How to Run with the Wolves has me increasing my rating from 4 to 5 stars. The many different voices he does are really great and I found myself enjoying the story more the second time around.
A copy of my original review follows:
I really enjoyed reading How To Run With The Wolves. It’s a sweet story with one of the main characters being a bit naïve about how city dwellers live. This is the fifth story in the Howl at the Moon series but it’s also the beginning of a new series that will be centered around the Qimmig of Alaska.
The Qimmig are featured prominently in this story. They are a small group of dog shifters living in Alaska and their number is diminishing every year. The females have trouble carrying their babies to term and there are also a high number of still-born babies.
Zeus is a member of the Mad Creek pack but he often feels like an outsider. When the Search & Rescue group he is part of goes to Alaska he loves it there. It’s also where he meets the Qimmig – a group of dog shifters. Timo is part of the Qimmig pack and he brings Zeus to the pack Alpha so that he can mate with one of their females. This doesn’t go over too well with Zeus.
There is really a lot going on in this story and the romance between Zeus and Timo has kind of a minor role until near the end of the book. We get to revisit several characters from the previous books in this series but you won’t be lost if you haven’t read them.
While some of the technical/medical information in the story was a bit tedious at times, I do believe it was necessary to help explain the plight of the Qimmig and eventually end up connecting them to the Mad Creek pack.
I think the story didn’t grab me as much as book four did because it was necessary to explain so many things to Timo that he didn’t understand about the Mad Creek pack. It took me longer than usual to feel a connection to the characters. Still, all-in-all, this was a good book and it has me looking forward to the real beginning of the new series about the Qimmig of Alaska.
A copy of this audiobook was provided to me but my review was voluntary and not influenced by the author/narrator.
***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com*** (posting on April 15, 2020)
This is the 5th book in the Howl at the Moon Series. How can you not fall in love with Zeus with his lovable person. He may not care for the crowds. when comes back to Mad Creek he is giving the chance to join the search and rescue team which he is perfect for. While in Alaska Zeus finds a group that has keep hidden for generations and is slowly dying out. When Timo see Zeus he feels something but not sure what can happen. wonderful story of two pack helping each other and getting to see a new side of things. recommend this book
Everything about this series is impeccable. The characters are complex, instantly lovable, the plot is entertaining with the masterful mixture of heavy and fluffy, the romance is always swoon worthy, and the humor is sweet and lighthearted. This book is no different in its fundamental goodness from the first four books, but it comes with a marvelous discovery. A brand new pack, the Quimmig! A pack of wild quickened, who has lived isolated from humans, or “one-skinned” since the 1700s and is accidentally discovered, when Timo, a Quimmig, meets Zeus, who is in Alaska as part of the Mad Creek Search and Rescue team, during an earthquake. Zeus and Timo are fascinated with each other, and it doesn’t take long for Zeus to yearn for Timo and his wildness. But their relationship comes with many complications, Timo’s pack is suffering from generations of isolation, and it is Timo’s heart desire to help his pack survive, even if it breaks Zeus’ heart. The story is very sweet and funny, full of Timo’s wide eyed reactions to urban living, he is innocently comedic, as is his internal monologues about how to get his way. He’a trickster with a playful, honest and kind heart, which captures Zeus who was lonely and felt out of place in his Mad Creek pack. Even though he knew he was loved by his pack, Zeus always yearned for the wild solitude of nature, and Timo is like a dream come true. There is lots of longing and yearning going on in the book, but the resolution is very satisfying, and it was a pleasure to see characters from the other books show up in the story, and if this new pack brings more adventures to the Mad Creek world, I will be immensely pleased, and as Timo says “that is that.”
Just when I think I have read the best of the Quickened books, the next one is out and I’m amazed again. This book is my favorite of the series so far and I highly recommend it. Eli Easton Beautiful characterization and scenery, and a gorgeous love story running through every page.