The Call [Paperback]

Jourdan Lane (Author), Emily Veinglory (Contributor), BA Tortuga (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2009

Werewolves under the moon. City boys forced to accept their wilder side. Primal danger. The Call anthology has all this and more. Three stories give us an inside view of the life of the wolf. Jourdan Lane, author of the popular Soul Mates series, gives us Instinct. Construction worker Ethan hates being a werewolf. He hates the man who made him what he is. When he meets Noah, he finds a fellow wolf who wants his help, and his body. Can he open up to Noah enough to put aside his fear? And what happens when the man who turned him wants him back? Emily Veinglory pairs the small town werewolf Nate with the city boy Steven. When Steven's car breaks down at Nate's gas station, Nate figures he's found something worth keeping. He has secrets, though, and he might be too wild for the sophisticated Steven. Can he juggle his past and make a new life? From BA Tortuga comes Home Fires, the story of Houston, who escapes torturous captivity to return to his mate, Jackson. Jackson welcomes Houston back to their remote New Mexico home, and sets about healing Houston, body and soul. Can they remove the scars that Houston can't hide? And can the two wolves escape the ghosts of the past when they come looking. Run with this anthology today!

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Torquere Press (January 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603700870
• ISBN-13: 978-1603700870
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,730,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and thought-provoking, but ..., October 16, 2007

By 

A Pod Peep "Contributing reviewer at podpeep ... (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Call (Paperback)

I purchased this book because I was intrigued by the blend of genres: Gay werewolves. Werewolves, well, maybe not...the werewolf aspect of these stories is really incidental, as there isn't a great deal of wolfing out happening here aside from standard machismo. These are not horrific monster stories, and it is obvious that they were not intended to be. These stories are so much more than that; actually, they are parables illustrating a great moral and spiritual depth. These are very human stories of desperate men trying to find their place in the world while dealing with some of the most difficult issues humans have to face: love, acceptance, family loyalty, societal prejudices, and the desire to be with one's own kind. The stories also expose some very serious themes and messages: trusting your instincts, managing and connecting with your inner beast, and what it feels like to live in a world and yet feel so alienated from it. All this is wonderful, and this is what a reader of serious literature expects to find amongst the words.

However, I do have some reservations...

The first two novellas in the book were well-written, well-constructed love stories. The sexual elements were hot, hot, hot, crossing the line into erotica in some places; although I did feel that the male characters were a little over-feminized. This is all good, but...this book suffers from very serious editorial flaws, which was surprising, since the editor's name is blazed across the spine of the book.

As a reader, I can forgive a few typos here and there, but this book is littered with them, not to mention the rather slap-dash book formatting and typesetting.

In the third novella, the technical issues were so severe I was unable to continue the story to its conclusion. The story was written in the third person narrative voice, but the voice seemed to be that of the internal dialog of the main character Jackson. The problem this created is that there is no clear demarcation between the character dialog, internal dialog and thoughts, and the narrator's voice. A story constructed in this way makes for a very muddy and frustrating read. It was almost as if the author had originally written the story in first person and then got cold feet, changing all the "I"s to "He"s without a proper edit to make it work. A critical editorial once-over would have fixed this serious technical issue.

Overall, I really enjoyed the concept immensely, but I feel that the publisher and editor failed the authors. The slap-dash approach in no way did these stories the justice they deserved.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent anthology on hot werewolves in love!, July 30, 2007

By 

R.Parklane (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Call (Paperback)

3 stories here by my favorite M/M writers, each one distinct from the other. Instinct by Jordane Lane (Soul Mate series fame) on Ethan, an abused werewolf, finding love with another of his kind is well written and sexy. The sex scene when they turned in the middle of their coupling is really sizzling hot and erotic. However I expected more from the ending. It is fine but I was looking for a closure between Ethan and Jake, the werewolf who converted and abused him. Maybe there is a sequel.

Son of a [b...] (no pun intended as this really literally means son of a female carnivorous animal) by Emily Veinglory is really good and has a most original plot. Here we have a group of outcasts, both gays and werewolves, finding each other and making life work for them. The side characters are well developed despite this being a novella. Nate's mother, an alpha female werewolf in their pack, is one forceful character. Her few confrontations with her alpha werewolf son provided some engaging moments. Steven maybe human but this quiet character with hidden strength complements the self doubting but courageous Nate nicely. I wish this story is longer.

Homes Fires is a wonderful surprise. Tortuga tends to give us more sex than emotions in her works. But in this novella, Tortuga has written a touching and tender story. Of course the sex is just as hot and animalistic. Both Houston and Jackson are werewolves and they of course mate for life. Houston left Jackson because he wished to see the bright city lights. Houston and his city pack were captured by soldiers and subjected to terrible experiments. He managed to escape and unite with his mate and their love story from thereon is stirring and moving as Jackson helps Houston to heal.
This is a great anthology of hot and sexy werewolves in love.