Review: Cold Hard Ground (Carpe Noctem #1) by Ariel Millar

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I am a huge fan of this author in her persona as a contemporary MM romance writer (E.M. Lindsey), so I immediately pounced on this book when it came out. Then I did that weird thing where I put off reading it, only to devour it in a single evening once I started. I’m not new to paranormal romance, but I am relatively new to “omegaverse” fiction, which explains a bit of my hesitancy. However, I should not have doubted Millar’s skill as a writer to hook me, which she does by using biology and genetics to build the world of her Wolf shifters rather than hand-wavy magic as an excuse for sexy shenanigans.

This book does feature some sexy shenanigans that fall into two more tropes common to this type of story: fated mates and “f— or die.” Again, the way Millar develops this world and hooked me with Kor and Misha meant that I accepted these aspects of the story without a hiccup. Science may have put these characters into the positions they find themselves, but if fate makes it worthwhile…. Well, romance stories are a form of escapism for a reason.

I’m glad that I read Millar’s short prequel to this series, “Nothing to Lose,” because it provides a decent amount of context for the current situation that Kor and his fellow Wolves find themselves in after a war. This means Millar doesn’t have to do quite so much exposition work in this book so that the story moves quickly and dynamically. I look forward to continuing this series to see how the overall plot develops, and I’m excited that I know via the author’s social media that Kor and Misha will return as the heroes in a final book because I’m not ready to be finished with their surprise bond and developing relationship.

Rating: 4.5 (out of 5) stars. Cross-posted to Amazon and Goodreads.

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