Published: August 1, 2024
Publisher: Silver Wing Press
Series: Married to Magic #5
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 464 (Kindle)
My Rating: 3 Stars
Synopsis:
To enter the woods as a human means death… But I am no mere human. They call me, “witch.”
As one of the last surviving witches, Faelyn’s sole duty is to keep the protective barriers on the forests where the lykin roam—creatures who can shed flesh for fur—sparing nearby humans from their violent, beastly natures. When she has an unlikely encounter with the rare, primordial spirit of the moon, Faelyn finds herself not only the object of the Wolf King’s desire, but essential to his ability to keep his crown.
Taken to the magical land of Midscape, the Wolf King claims her as his bride to control the moon spirit’s magic that now resides within Faelyn. But Faelyn refuses to resign herself and the spirit Aurora to a life of servitude underneath the king’s cruel rule. Faelyn hatches a dangerous plan for them both to escape and help comes from an unlikely ally.
Evander is the king’s blisteringly handsome, loyal knight, right hand, and Faelyn’s sworn protector…on the outside. But appearances are not what they seem. He plots against the king’s brutality at every turn and helping Faelyn escape will serve these ends. But altruism for Faelyn and the trapped moon spirit isn’t his only motivation… Evander is hiding secrets, and they might change Faelyn’s life forever.
A desperate plot to escape. A brutal king. Ancient powers. And a sworn protector who can’t keep his hands off her… Will she be taken as the Wolf King’s bride? Or will she manage an escape that will free her heart and change her fate forever?
The fifth and likely final book in the Married to Magic series, A Dawn with the Wolf Knight follows a young witch truly on her own for the first time. Faelyn finds herself deep in the woods one new moon and unexpectedly encounters a beautiful woman fleeing from lykin. Unexpected because the wolves typically don’t roam without the full power of the moon behind them. The woman she encounters and subsequently saves turns out to be the spirit of the moon and she has inadvertently bound part of her essence to Faelyn.
Faelyn and Aurora, our wayward moon spirit, are unwillingly taken back to the lykin’s lands where Faelyn will be present to Conri, the current leader of the wolves. Conri is a total bastard, but has enough charisma thanks to his super special alpha powers that no one can really do anything about it. But then there’s Evander, Conri’s handsome wolf knight who is assigned to guard Faelyn and guess what – instant attraction. I immediately guessed that they were secretly mates and that Evander knew but Faelyn didn’t. Very predictable.
The whole plot (aside from the predictable romance) was that Faelyn was supposed to help Aurora escape her mortal bindings so she could finally return to the moon. Faelyn gathers spirits to eventually aid in their escape and gains Evander’s assistance because he’s of course hopelessly attracted to her. She uses the gathering of spirits as a flimsy excuse to sneak away with Evander and scout an escape path AND get it on with her handsome bodyguard.
I think this was by far the weakest of the Married to Magic books and I didn’t particularly like the romance or the whole faked attraction/compliance to Conri (ick). I really felt there was nothing between Faelyn and Evander for most of the book – mostly forced proximity rather than the enjoyable slow fall into love portrayed in many of the previous Married to Magic stories. A Dawn with the Wolf Knight felt like very little was happening right until the end, where everything happened all at once. There was an epilogue that also left me wanting something more, especially after how much I enjoyed the first four books in this series.
Powder & Page 
Leave a comment