Wild Country by Anne Bishop – Review & Giveaway

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Description:
There are ghost towns in the world—places where the humans were annihilated in retaliation for the slaughter of the shape-shifting Others.

One of those places is Bennett, a town at the northern end of the Elder Hills—a town surrounded by the wild country. Now efforts are being made to resettle Bennett as a community where humans and Others live and work together. A young female police officer has been hired as the deputy to a Wolfgard sheriff. A deadly type of Other wants to run a human-style saloon. And a couple with four foster children—one of whom is a blood prophet—hope to find acceptance.
 
But as they reopen the stores and the professional offices and start to make lives for themselves, the town of Bennett attracts the attention of other humans looking for profit. And the arrival of the Blackstone Clan, outlaws and gamblers all, will uncover secrets…or bury them.

Review:

Wild Country by Anne Bishop is another wonderful exciting story in her World of the Others series.  This series continues in the same world as the original The Others series.   Though this is the second book, it takes place in another town that is controlled by the terra indigene, with the Elders close by to act if necessary.  The Elders, who are terrifying, have wiped out many human towns, after the murder of many of the terra indigene.  They have agreed to allow small towns of small group of humans to work with the others.   Those of you have read my reviews; know that I am a huge fan of Anne Bishop.  I have read every series & books she has written, and loved them all.

The town of Bennett is lead by Tolya Sanguinatti (a vampire), and sheriff, Virgil Wolfgard,a wolf, who has a strong dislike for humans, after losing his mate, and pack in the attack by humans.  Within the town, there is also an intuit village of humans that work together with the terra indigene.  Jesse Walker, the intuit leader, requests help to fill the town with humans & others to rebuild the town with stores, a saloon and offices, as they are desperate for workers.  Tolya makes that request to Simon (our original hero) at Lakeside to send prospects.  One of those sent to Bennett was Jana Panica, a young female cop, who gets to work with Virgil, and she becomes the major heroine in this book.   The interaction between Virgil and Jana was difficult at first, but at times humorous, especially when Jana adopts one of the stray dogs.  In time, Virgil will learn to trust Jana’s instincts and accept her; a slow friendship of respect between them will surface.  

At the midway point there is a part that goes back to the end of The Others series when Meg was kidnapped, and the entire towns close to Lakeside are all tense, fearing the worst.  Of course, if you have not read Etched in Bone, you may want to read that book first.  This does give the humans a glimpse of how the others work, and when they need to hide.

The key to this story is another bad group of humans, called the Blackstone Clan, who are gamblers and outlaws, who decide that want to take over Bennett.  Slowly, they will bring in many of the outlaw friends and plan to attack the shifters, vampires and humans.  Will Bennett survive or will the Elders return to kill the remaining humans?

I really liked many of the townsfolk we got to know more of, such as Jesse, her son Tobias (a romance interest for Jana), Barb, Tolya,  John, and many of those wonderful characters that Bishop always gives us.  We also get to meet a young cassangra sangue, and another one (Hope) in a different town that can see the evil that is coming to prepare them all.  We really never see the Elders, but Bishop manages to show us how terrifying they are through the fear in other people’s eyes.

What follows is an exciting enthralling story that grabs our attention at the start and keeps us glued until the very end.  The last half of the book was very intense, pulse pounding, especially when the evil people were determined to bring harm to Bennett and take over the town.  Wild Country was another fantastic ride in this wonderful World of the Others.   I have said this before; no one does Fantasy in so many different types of worlds better then Anne Bishop, and I look forward to anything she gives us.  She is a master at her world building, with wonderful characters.  I suggest you go back to the original series, and read The Others, then gradually come to this series. You will not regret it.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

Anne & her publisher are graciously offering a Hardcover copy of WILD COUNTRY to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe
     

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