Leaving the Pack: Silver Nights Trilogy - Book One by David J. O'Brien

Leaving the Pack (Silver Nights Trilogy – Book One).  David O’Brien. Tirgearr Publishing.  May 2014. 257 pp., 1391 KB. ASIN No.: B00KCYJA78.

The story opens with Paul waking up by the knowledge that today is the day he will meet the woman with whom he’ll spend the rest of his life. It’s a day he awaits with great joy and mind-numbing fear!

For Paul McHew, lawyer by day and werewolf by night, is the leader of a werewolf pack that runs the local city streets during the three nights of every full moon cycle each month.   During that time the pack seeks to drink their fill and enjoy as many women as they can have; they’re full of an extraordinary energy and lust for life during this lunar time.  However, they will die out unless they marry outside of their pack and what human would marry a werewolf?

Susan is a feisty gal who actually makes the first move when she spots Paul in a local bar. For the first few minutes it even seems as if they clash so much, there isn’t a chance they will wind up on a date let alone fall in love.  However, that spark has been lit for sure and they do begin to have some wildly hot romantic nights, spend many an evening sharing drinks, and even get to the point when Paul tells Sara he has to be with his buddies at the time of the full moon.  Susan is amused for the first few months but then begins to wonder at this obsession Paul must fulfill each month!

Meeting Paul’s family and planning for the holidays delights Susan, yet Paul is unhappier within himself as time passes for he must tell her about the secret his family has held for centuries.  Humans have been told some truths, some lies, some fantastical stories and more about the true identity of werewolves, with the result being that all humans associate with the word werewolf is absolute, unmitigated horror!

Some scenes in the book carry just enough violence to confirm the association, but the reader must decide how much of reason and animal behavior accounts for what happens in each scene.

This is the story of a huge romance that must unfold with the reality of horror diluted by the truth.  David O’Brien paces the conflict perfectly and it all reads like a light-hearted, passionate romance tinged with some darkness.  It seems like a wonderful beginning to this horror-romance trilogy and it has just the right amount of passion and intrigue to keep the reader avidly flipping the pages!  Nicely done, David O’Brien – looking forward to the next novel!