SERIES REVIEW: BIG BAD WOLF SERIES BY CHARLIE ADHARA

the book cover for The Wolf at the Door by Charlie Adhara

STAR RATING FOR WHOLE SERIES: 4 stars
PAGE LENGTH: Around 300ish pages for the whole series
DATE PUBLISHED: 2018 – 2021
PUBLISHER: Carina Press
WHAT BOOK DO I START WITH? The Wolf at the Door
HOW MANY BOOKS IN THE SERIES? Five
CONTENT WARNINGS: Murder, Sexual content, some Animal death (off page)
IF YOU LIKED THIS, TRY: The Alpha and Omega series by Patricia Briggs

SYNOPSIS OF FIRST BOOK

An ex-FBI agent is partnered with the enemy in this suspenseful first installment of Charlie Adhara’s Big Bad Wolf series

Hunting for big bad wolves was never part of agent Cooper Dayton’s plan, but a werewolf attack lands him in the carefully guarded Bureau of Special Investigations. A new case comes with a new partner: ruggedly sexy werewolf Oliver Park.

Park is an agent of The Trust, a werewolf oversight organization working to ease escalating tensions with the BSI. But as far as Cooper’s concerned, it’s failing. As they investigate a series of mysterious deaths unlike anything they’ve seen, every bone in Cooper’s body is suspicious of his new partner—even when Park proves himself as competent as he is utterly captivating.

When more people vanish, pressure to solve the case skyrockets. And though he’d resolved to keep things professional, Cooper’s friction with Park soon erupts…into a physical need that can’t be contained or controlled. But with a body count that’s rising by the day, werewolves and humans are in equal danger. If Cooper and Park don’t catch the killer soon, one—or both—of them could be the next to go.

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, then you know very well of my journey to find the perfect werewolf book and/or series. I love werewolves, and have for years. I read gobs and gobs of werewolf books to only (usually) be disappointed. I picked up the Big Bad Wolf series on the recommendation of one of you Book Bloggers, and well, I was pleasantly surprised. Was it perfect for me? No, but it came pretty dang close.

The Big Bad Wolf series is set in a world where most people have no idea that werewolves exist. However, werewolves tend to be at the heart of almost every extremely violent crime, so a subset of the FBI has been created to look into said crimes. Our main character, Cooper, is an agent of this subset, the BSI. He is not a werewolf, but he was attacked and disemboweled by one a few years before the series starts. He’s got a prejudice against werewolves miles and miles wide, though he swears that he doesn’t. Cooper, throughout the whole series, drove me insane. He second guesses himself and his motivations in almost every single book. I know he’s supposed to be competent, but very frequently he hides what he’s thinking from the people around himself. It was infuriating, especially when it came to his relationship with his partner, Park. Cooper is forced to partner with Park in an experiment for the BSI. Park is a werewolf — now they’re working together with the wolves, and at first, Cooper hates this.

Stepping back from that explanation there to say this: Cooper and Park obviously end up together over the course of the series, and they form a very tight knit partnership. However, it takes quite a while for them to admit that. They are adorable together, not to mention the extremely steamy sex scenes in every book. I loved how protective Park was of Cooper. Park was absolutely my favorite character in this series, and I thoroughly wish that he had been the POV character. Cooper’s self-hatred became a little much by the last book.

Each entry into this series is centered around a murder mystery, and though it sounds like it might get old, I think Adhara wraps the whole thing up before it does. Each book is different enough that you aren’t bored by the premise. We see Park use his wolfiness to help find clues, and then we see Cooper use his giant brain to ultimately solve the case. They work excellent together, and it’s so much fun to watch them parse it out. I love mystery books like these, even if I’m horrible at figuring out who did it. I don’t think I guessed it once in this entire series. Whoops.

Ultimately, I wish there had been a lot more wolf bits to this series. I really wish we saw Park as a wolf way way more. I think we see him in his wolf form for the first time in the third book. That’s way too late for my tastes!!!! More lore surrounding werewolves would have been good, too, but I’ll take what we got. If Adhara ever feels like writing more into this series, I would absolutely not hesitate to pick the next one up. The whole series is on KU, and I recommend you check them out soon!!