Beautifully written, descriptive without being boring, fascinating characters, and a good balance of magic and history. Quite a bit of poetic descriptions as well which I particularly loved.

We are introduced to Regan, a distant relation to a king who is locked way in a room, chained to a wall every night, imprisoned by her greedy uncle and sniveling coward of a cousin as they drink and whore her fortune away.

But Regan is no ordinary woman. She is a shape shifter who can change her form into that of a wolf by the light of the moon. The fear of her secret being discovered had long loomed over Regan, fear of what those of the church would do to her if they found out. So when her uncle announces that she is to be used in a political marriage, Regan's fear turns to blind panic overnight as she tries desperately to escape the marriage, and what she sees as her inevitable fate on the pyre when her husband finds out her secret.

However after much dancing around and bemused smiles on the face of the reader, Regan discovers she need fear nothing from her bridegroom or his kinsmen. They have more in common than she first realized. And if anyone wants to figure that out, you need to read the book.

My only complaint is that the entire premise of the book didn't occur until almost two thirds of the way through the book. Don't get me wrong I loved every second of the detour we took, but I never feel that its a good idea to have the events that draw a reader into purchasing and starting the book to occur that late within the story. It's happened to me a few times and usually I get bored waiting for it to happen and either skip ahead or put the book down entirely.

Thankfully though, this book was written so beautifully and had such wonderful and creative imagery that I did not mind the wait one bit.

I discovered after reading this book that it is actually the second in a trilogy. So now I'm off to hunt down the first and third so I can see where the story started and where its going to end.

Into the decadent Rome of the Dark Ages come Regeane, and enigmatic young woman distantly related to Charlemagne. But the blood she has inherited from her murdered father makes her much more than a child of royalty. Regeane is a shapeshifter -- woman and wolf, hunter and hunted -- possessed of the preternatural agility and strength, primal memories extending back thousands of years, and senses so keen they can pierce the veil of death itself....

Much like her sister, Alice Borchart has a gift at weaving words into incandescent tapestries that overfolw with images and sounds -- sometimes assaulting the senses in ways that can leave the reader staring dizzily at the pages. Both Anne Rice and Alice Borchardt are happy to give you the protagonist's lofty innermost desires, but Borchardt's heroine always seem to be standing at the edge of the world with the wind blowing through her hair. It's easy to see why...
She's keeping her nose above the smell.

In The Silver Wolf we're introduced to the Dark Ages...and not only the Dark Ages, but the Darkest of Ages. In the same chapter as the sun shining like an incandescent ball, the reader is brought down into the putrid existence of Regeane's childhood. Having recently lost her strict and religious mother, Regeane (a werewolf by birth) is left in the care of her disgusting uncle and his weak-willed son. Chained and often beaten, she mires in filth for several chapters: rotting ghosts, grimy prostitutes, and drunken winos.

After a while the plot introduces more refined company, but it seems like Borchardt intends to violate the senses -- and she succeeds.

An excellent book for those interested in fantasy, werewolves, or a richness of language through which all stories are made exceptional.

After i finished The Silver Wolf, I was looking for more, went back and re-read it, and am eagerly awaiting the next volume in the series! This is a richly detailed book full of history and deep running emotions....a page turner to the end and fast paced throughout!

A wonderful story I couldn't put down. It has everything a good book needs, politics, violence, magic, love and yes, some sex. The story is about a
shape-shifter named Regeane. She is trying to find her place in the society
of ancient Rome. Will she find love too? You'll have to read the story to find out. I hope there will be more stories about this "pack" of shifters.