I could say this is one of the best werewolf books I've read in a while, but that wouldn't be saying much because I don't read many. Though I love them when I find a good one, for some reason they just don't usually work for me. However, I could also say that this is one of the best books I've read in a while. Period. And considering how much I read and how rarely I like werewolf books, that really is saying something. It's been less than two months since I read my first Kaje Harper book, but she's rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors.I loved how *real* these characters were. Even with the paranormal "mate" aspect, Simon didn't go over-the-top bananas about it. And even though he fell in love quickly, that was done realistically, too. Insta-love is one of my big pet peeves, it almost never rings true for me. But it worked for me the way it was handled in this book. I loved the scene when Paul tells him how crazy that is, and Simon acknowledges that but says that while Paul has the right to tell him to back off, he doesn't have the right to tell Simon how to feel.And Paul. How much do I adore Paul, a scientist portrayed correctly, as an actual logical, analytical scientist? So often we're told characters are scientists, but then they think and behave in ways no one who's had a shred of scientific training would ever do. But Paul was a scientist through and through. Things like this quote made me shiver with delight: His computer stood there on the desktop, waiting for him. He had been walking around it all day. Because he had scientific training, and that training said if you wanted to answer a question, you did the research. And the Internet was out there, offering to let him do just that.YES! And then he proceeded to scientifically test his hypothesis. Even down to recognizing that "All the positive evidence in the world wasn't proof. You could claim that every animal in the world was a cat, and each cat you saw would support that theory, but the first dog you saw would destroy it. You had to check the negative." There are even actual scientists who sometimes lose sight of that little fact, so reading this made me almost giddy.That perfect attention to detail, to reality, continued throughout the book. There were one or two moments when I questioned word choice (at one point Simon makes a point to stay "upwind" of someone when I'm pretty sure he'd have been better off staying downwind), but those were minor niggles in a fantastic story. The end felt complete, not a rushed wrap-up or anything. The only reason I wasn't quite ready for it was because I didn't want this book to end. Ever. So I'm very much looking forward to the next book, but it's not because I was left hanging by this one, it's because I want more more more. That is a feeling I'm learning to expect at the end of any book by this author.
