Winter Howl by Aurelia T. Evans
Totally Bound Publishing, 2012
We live in a world obsessed with
labels. Liberal. Conservative. Erotica. Romance. Gay. Straight.
Kinky. Vanilla. The passion to pigeonhole affects (or perhaps I
should say “afflicts”) both individuals and organizations.
In some ways, this trend to slice and
dice everything into appropriate categories is a necessary adaptation
to increasing complexity and information overload. However, it has
many negative consequences. People – or let's get specific here,
readers – seek out categories they've liked in the past (just as
individuals consult media outlets that reinforce their
already-established opinions). They resist exposing themselves to
different types of literature, sticking with familiar genres, and
thus lose the opportunity for new, possibly wondrous experiences.
Then there is the problem that some
books simply don't fit neatly into any of the genre boxes, but have
to be assigned a label anyway. Such works tend to be overlooked or
even maligned, because they violate the expectations of readers who
chose them based on the admittedly inaccurate categorization. Such
books are rarely judged on their own merits, even though they may be
more original and creative than average.
Winter Howl by Aurelia T. Evans
is an example. The book is labeled as erotic romance, but it breaks
the traditional rules of the genre at every turn. The heroine, Renee
Chambers, has sexual and emotional connections with several different
characters, rather than focusing on a single relationship. The book
sets these relationships against one another – indeed, that's one
source of the fundamental conflicts in the story. It is not clear
which of her lovers, if anyone, is Renee's “soulmate”. One of her
partners is another woman, her long time friend and companion Britt,
even though F/F interactions tend to be unpopular in stories that
also include heterosexual sex. And the ending, unlike most romance,
is hard to predict as well as emotionally ambiguous. In fact, I can't
quite imagine an unadulterated happy ending for Winter Howl.
Every one of Renee's possible choices involves some gain and some
loss.
Personally, I really enjoyed this book.
But then, I'm a bit of a genre buster myself. Renee is a rich,
surprising, three-dimensional character. Afflicted with severe
agoraphobia and subject to panic attacks, she can barely deal with
human society. She manages Sanctuary, an isolated rural compound that
shelters abandoned dogs and canine shape-shifters seeking protection
from harassment. The inhabitants of Sanctuary are her family, her
support, her lifeline. She believes herself to be powerless, weak and
fragile without them – especially Britt, her loving friend who
doubles as a service dog on the occasions when Renee can't avoid
dealing with the outside world.
Then the werewolf Grant arrives – a
wolf shifter, made not born like the rest of Sanctuary's inhabitants.
Renee is inexplicably drawn to him, despite his crude, violent
nature. He brings out a totally different side of her – questing,
hungry, willing to take risks. The connection between them feels
alien, but is just as powerful as her bond with Britt and the other
shifters.
So which Renee is real? The tentative,
tender woman Britt lovingly initiates into Sapphic sexuality, or the
raw, animalistic siren who bites her lover and marks him with her
fingernails? Both, of course, and Renee must face the problem of
arbitrating between these two disparate aspects of her personality.
The tensions between familiarity and
growth, safety and danger, tenderness and passion, drive the plot of
Winter Howl. Meanwhile, the book chronicles in delicious
detail the carnal interactions between Renee and those competing for
her lust and love. Ms. Evans' sex scenes are glorious, full of subtle
detail, without any of the hackneyed prose that sometimes
characterizes erotic romance. The early interactions between Renee
and Britt are especially wonderful. Their relationship is not fully
consummated from a physical perspective until well into the book. The
author succeeds in making even the early fully-clothed session of
exploration spectacularly erotic.
Renee's sexual collisions with Grant
have an entirely different tone. They more or less attack one
another. These wild, raw scenes may even turn off readers with more
delicate sensibilities. As for me, I was impressed by the range of
the author's imagination and her ability to bring both types of
sexual encounter to vivid life.
Winter Howl is the first volume
in Ms. Evans' Sanctuary trilogy. I am looking forward to reading Cry
Wolf, the second book (already available), which puts the
spotlight on Kelly, an intriguing minor character in Book One. This
series may not fit within the standard constraints of erotic romance,
but it's got me hooked.
