A Counselor of Wolves (Leader Murders Case Two) by Liv Olteano

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Blurb

Sequel to A Tooth for a Fang
Leader Murders: Case Two

Five dead leaders, their bodies arranged in a pentagram. Treason, lies, and backstabbing. A make-believe affair that turns into a real mating.

Timothy Sands is a PBI counselor, half-fey, half-elf, with a secret crush on Herman Weiss, PBI director. As a new chapter is added to the Leader Murders, it is Weiss’s responsibility to investigate what seems an impossible-to-solve case. The other problem? Weiss is suffering from rages, and his only salvation lies in Tim’s emotional-grid-balancing skills. They only have to pretend to be a couple for Tim to use his talents, and he owes Weiss a big favor. Piece of cake, right?

The fey might be involved in the Leader Murders. Someone on the Council might be their ally, and another prominent PBI figure looks more and more suspicious as they investigate. The stakes are upped when Timothy’s father, the Fey King, threatens to leave the Council destitute if they don’t hand Timothy over to him. Weiss’s brilliant solution? Mating Timothy and forcing the Council into protecting him.

There’s only one small hitch in that plan: instead of protecting one, the Council might decide to get rid of two.

Review

Timothy has had a thing for Weiss for a long time. In fact his infatuation with Travis was because of the similarity to Weiss.

Weiss had a male lover once before, but it ended badly. Now he’s stuck in a loveless mating that is about to finally be over, but he has a mess to clean up before he can be happy.

Someone is using magic to make Weiss unstable and it is up to Tim to ground him and keep him alive long enough to solve the mystery and the murders.

In a huge bout of drama our two erstwhile lovers manage to save the day and find love.

**

I really wanted to love this book. I adored book one and was so excited for this to come out.

I never liked Weiss. Sure I understood him better, but he just kept feeling like a big ol’ jerk and he was never very nice to Tim.

Tim who should have been so strong ends up being a door mat and even though he survives all the trials by fire, I never felt like he was appreciated. At all.

The mystery/drama eclipsed the love story for me and took the attention away from what felt like a mediocre love affair at best.

I just never bonded with the couple as a couple and as a result found this book to be lacking.

The writing was fine as was the editing, and if you are looking for drama this is a good book. But if you want a sweet love story I’d keep looking.

2.75 of 5 hearts