Werewolf at the Zoo, by Charlie Richards

Helping his brother escape the zoo, Rainy discovers more than just an array of animals.

Rainy
scouts the zoo, planning a mission to rescue his brother, who’d been
sold by poachers while in wolf form. He gets a whiff of the most
intoxicating scent, the man Travis Carlyle, his mate. But he quickly
finds out that before he can claim the handsome veterinarian, Rainy has
to convince Travis that he’s worth coming out of the closet for.

Travis
leads a quiet, discreet life, avoiding any situation that could
possibly out him to his family. After so many years alone, Travis finds
the love, affection, and acceptance Rainy offers him too hard to resist.
But just when he decides Rainy might be worth the persecution of
revealing his sexuality, he discovers Rainy has been keeping secrets, a
lot of secrets: Werewolves, Shifters, Mates? When he watches a shift
with his own eyes, Travis is forced to accept the truth.

Too bad
not everyone wants Travis to know the wolves’ secrets, tossing him into a
feud between shifters. When Travis’s father tries to come between them,
can Rainy convince Travis to choose a dangerous, love-filled life with
him instead of the comfortable, quiet existence he’s led with his
family?

Rating: 2 out of 5

This wasn’t a story as much as it was a checklist of werewolf m/m romance tropes. We’ve got your insta-love, fated mates, “I know you by smell”, silly alpha pack dynamics, biting during sex, and so on and so on. Add in some paper-thin homophobia, ridiculously quick acceptance of the impossible, subplots that go nowhere, and stunningly unlikely coincidences. The whole thing was topped off at the end with a lovely scene of, “It’s a shame that I just had to rip that guy’s throat out with my teeth. Hey, the steaks I was cooking look like they’re done. Who’s hungry?” Oh, and don’t get me started on the overdone Irish dialect. Ugh.

Let’s do the math:
+1 star because it wasn’t so awful that I couldn’t make it to the end
+1 star since it had werewolves. Because werewolves.
+0.5 stars for having sentences with subjects, verbs, and direct objects, and a minimum of typos.
-0.5 star for either ignoring the need for lube or using soap as lube. Ow. Just ow.

2 stars it is! Oh, and add one eyeroll for pretty much setting up the next book and telegraphing the plot for it in a single paragraph. I will not be pursuing the rest of this series.

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