Review of Reflected – Book 3 of the Silver series by Rhiannon Held

I really enjoyed the first two books in this series about werewolf society – read my review of Silver here and Tarnished here – would this third novel be as compelling?

The were have lived among humans for centuries secretly, carefully. They came to America with the earliest European colonists, seeking a land where their packs could run free. Andrew Dare is a descendant of those colonists, and he and his mate, Silver, have become alpha in the Roanoke pack… the largest in North America. But they have enemies, both within their territory and beyond the sea. Andrew is drawn away to deal with the problem of a half-human child in Alaska, leaving Silver to handle the rest of the pack just as a troublemaker from Spain arrives on the scene.

So one of the main characters had initially drew us into the action is now absent for most of the narrative – would it unbalance the story? Nope. Silver has plenty in the locker to keep this reader absolutely locked into the action. I love her character – Held has given her a strong sense of difference. So instead of Silver merely being a normal woman with occasional wolf behaviour – her were side completely defines who she is and how she reacts to all situations. This is one of the most successful werewolf series I’ve read, because of that sense of difference. The other interesting wrinkle about Silver is that she is compromised – a were who can no longer change into wolf form. So how will she manage to keep control of the pack without Andrew Dare’s lethal skill in fighting and his knack for keeping order?

For that matter, how do females manage a pack when they cannot change during pregnancy? Perhaps females shouldn’t be alphas at all – there are certainly dominant males who believe this. The issue of pack order and dominance is never something you can forget in this book – because it is overriding concern of werewolves in both human and wild form.

Held manages to produce a storyline in this world with these compelling characters that had me hooked right to the end. This entertaining, accomplished read was a cut above most of the werewolf tales I’ve read and a worthy addition to an enjoyable series. If your taste runs to werewolf tales, but you have become fed up with some of the second-rate offerings out there, then track down this series. You’ll thank me if you do.
9/10