| Title | : | Fox Run (The Madison Wolves, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 348 |
| Publication | : | First published April 27, 2013 |
| Awards | : | Rainbow Award Best Lesbian Paranormal Romance (2013) |
That all changes early one morning when Lara Burns, the Madison Wolves alpha, introduces herself, much to Michaela's chagrin. Lara explains to Michaela that "we only want to talk", but when a werewolf comes knocking on a tiny, delicate foxes' front door, Michaela knows talking is the last thing in the wolfy mind.
This novel is 93,000 words and is the first in in The Madison Wolves Series.
Fox Run (The Madison Wolves, #1) Reviews
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I actually read this book about a year ago but have hesitated before putting up a review for reasons I will explain.
This is an okay book, not great but not outrageously bad. I found it a little perfunctory in a number of areas but it was fine.
So why the low rating?
I call Catfish on this author as he was uncovered as being the heterosexual male author Joe Larsen. He is also apparently Julie P Lynde. Now I don't have an issue with anyone writing a book from any prospective they chose (see Geonn Cannon and Erik Schubach), but what I object to is the deceitful presentation of this author as one thing, when they are apparently something else entirely.
This is not a case of outing George Eliott, who needed to portray herself as a man to her readers in a bid to escape from the female stereotype of only being able to write lighthearted romantic fiction and achieve recognition for the quality of her work and not her sex. This is the 21st century not the 19th and the only reason for this portrayal is (I hope!) a desire to sell more books into the Lesfic community. We are not a big and powerful sector that needs to be subverted to allow other voices to be heard.
Rant over.
A big thank you to Trin Denise for wising me up to this on Facebook. -
2.5 stars.
Pros
■ New were culture aspects I hadn't read about before
■ Foxy Michaela is a really engaging character
Cons
■ Inconsistent characters
■ Repetitive
■ Insta love
■ Chemistry is lacking
■ Editing issues
■ Story lacks structure
I wanted to like this one but character inconsistency pretty much killed most of the enjoyment I had for this book. Michaela goes from "I won't forgive you another time!" to forgiving everything no matter how many times she gets abused or betrayed. And Lara goes from apologetic to "doing what's necessary, damn the consequences" which ends up with abuse directed at Michaela. Not to mention she imprisons Michaela at first to "keep her safe" and then does a 180° and sends her in dire danger to takes some photos for her... I'm just sitting there not believing what the F I'm reading.
And then there's insta love. They talked a couple of times in a short time span and suddenly "I love you!" starts dropping and again I'm baffled about what the heck is happening.
The base ingredients and the author's writing style are good. A competent editor could have shaped this up into a good book. I hope the series get better later on so, for now, I'll continue reading. -
hm
I finished the book and was kind of enjoying it. Until I saw this post on a review about the author
https://lesbianadvocatesagainstfraud....
A big NO -
I rarely give low rating, to me, 3 stars is considered low.
The story is nice. I actually love the main character Michaela, I love how witty, cunning, smart, and bold that she is. However, I definitely have problems with the other main character- which is Lara.
Lara was fine at first, she definitely gentler than most wolf. However, think about it. In term of human's concept about love, her actions screamed "control", "dominance", and "bully"<---yep definitely, I took the word out of Michaela's mouth.
Spoiler down here (long rant):
Ok, I'm done with all the rant. Here are some good things about this story.
I love story about a were-fox, I love the main character Michaela, her only main flaw is how she forgive Lara so easily. I love her cunning manner and how she deals with other wolves.
I don't care who the author is, I'm here to judge a book, not the author themselves.
I don't care much about grammars, seeing how I have bad grammars myself.
Ughh back to bad things, the romance in this story is so shitty, it's not fluffy at all, it all about conflicts, solve it, couple fight, reconcile, fight again over the same damn thing...*face-palmed*
Interesting story regardless. With all the rants, one would have thought I should give this a one star, but I did mentioned before, I rarely give bad rating unless it really really really bad. This one isn't that bad. (heck I actually gave twilight 2 stars)- Fifty shade of Greys would likely be 1 star if it wasn't for me gave up reading it halfway due to the extremely unhealthy relationship between two main characters (And I don't rate a book unless I finished it entirely).
This story still successfully made me want to read the next book. However! That's just because I hope Lara can change into a better lover.
Sorry, I can't help but put some little bit of rant here again- what with the "submit" words that keeps repeating over and over in the entire book? The day that Michaela finally "submit" and join the rank of the wolf instead of being her own alpha...is the day I yank my hair down in frustration. So I will give the second book a try. I wondered why so many people rate it highly, and I hope, really hope their relationship will change. -
I will preface this review with the admission that paranormal fiction is generally not my cup of tea. I prefer other forms of speculative fiction and I think part of it is because paranormal fiction tends to have romance central to many plots and there is often some sort of imbalance in those relationships (human dating a vampire; human dating a werewolf; vampire dating a werevampire hybrid, etc.). This is the story of Michaela Redfur, a werefox, whose life as an employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Wisconsin is disturbed by a group of wolves looking for information about another pack trespassing on their territory.
The Good:
I honestly felt engaged through the novel and finished it after staying up ridiculously past my bed time.
Lesbian romance is most always a plus for me and what was wonderful about this book was the fact that the tension did NOT stem from any of the characters stressing about coming out. There is one line later in the novel from the antagonist about going against the natural order, but it doesn't make the bulk of his disagreement with the protagonists and doesn't become a whole tirade against homosexuality. I really appreciated this. It's part of why I very rarely enjoy YA LGBTQ novels. I personally don't like reading coming out stories.
I also appreciated that it had a plot! That I actually cared about! It was a romance and there was some fluff, but it didn't sidetrack into porn without plot (it was actually rather tame and I appreciate that as well).
Room For Improvement:
As is the case with many self-pubs, this could have used some editing of various types. There were typographical errors as well as some pacing issues, especially where the relationship was concerned (I think things were forgiven too easily).
The thing that bothered me the most and why I didn't give it 4 stars was the relationship imbalance between Michaela and Lara. It was addressed multiple times, but it still gave off the feel of an unhealthy relationship. I don't expect immediate perfection, but there were some things that Lara did where I felt she should have conceded more, Alpha or no.
I don't know. I might have to think about it some more. Overall, it's a decent read, especially if you enjoy supernatural/paranormal fiction. -
I sooooo love the paranormal genre and when this come with a good lesbian romance I'm in heaven..well this book is wonderful in both ways!
I found always more difficult to relate to a 1st person speaking book but this have controlled all my attention right from the start.
In this book we have a funny, vain and intelligent little werefox, that talk to us about her life and her adventures.
The story start when Michaela, the little fox, have her house invaded by 5 big bad werewolves...wolves love to hunt, and little foxes are always interesting preys..so Michaela try to flee but the wolf Alpha catch her easily.
Lara don't want to eat Michaela she is there with her wolves only to ask for Michaela help and here begins an amusing relationship between the little fox and the wolves pack.
Robin Roseau have done an excellent work in portrait not only Michaela thoughts and actions but giving the readers also a deep vision of how Lara and the others wolves think and interact.
The characters are well developed and absolutely three-dimensional, this help the reader to empathize with them.
This is a book written in an impeccable manner, I have loved it from start to end.
And like I always say: in the 1st book of a series the best that an author can do is to make the readers want to read the next installment....well after have read this I have gone directly to buy the second...and have started to read it not more than 5 minutes after ending "Fox Run"...really Robin Roseau could not have done a better job! -
I really dont know why I finished this series, I was always waiting a change with Michaela's situation, but Jesus... Lara is a controlling freak.
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Some rocky bits, but I really loved it a lot!!!! It was really funny and there were cute parts as well.
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I enjoyed this story. The chase scenes or any action scenes were very well written, and I appreciated the research the author did for Michaela's job. The budding relationship between Michaela and Lara had me frustrated at times. Just when I thought things were progressing between them, something would happen and their steps forward in the relationship would have to step back. I respected Michaela for making the alpha wait before having sex, however frustrating it was for me, someone who thrives on sex in a story, but I totally understood where she was coming from. Michaela was her own alpha as a fox-were, and respect had to be earned by the alpha of the wolves because of the trust issues Michaela had towards wolves. Having witness her parents' death at the 'paws' of wolves, it was completely understandable of her actions. This is my first time reading a story with a shapeshifting fox, it's actually the first time I had even heard of fox-weres, but I am glad I discovered this from fellow readers online. I'm looking forward to the sequel and hope the relationship between the protaganists continue on building.
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A brilliant start to a brilliant series
So I've read all these books and came back to review this one to give people an idea of the series as a whole to see if it's worthwhile.
To start there's only one book in the series I disliked (fox fate) and one I had mixed feelings for (Omega life) due to the actions of certain characters.
Now the good stuff. This series is excellent. The main character for the majority of the books is the wonderful Michaela Redfur, a brilliant, intelligent character with a deeply sad backstory that unfolds through the books. The side characters are great and I especially love the budding romances in the background (such as Angel and later Monique) . The plot of each book tends to deal with a particular problem in an over arching story between the whole series. so I'm summary great plot, excellent characters, sad moments, happy moments and very racy in parts. -
Very reminiscent of the Mercy Thompson series, but less expansive. This is a nice enough story about shifters, but I found myself aggravated by Lara's attitude and need for control. She is easily swayed to violence and I found her kinda bland overall. Michaela puts up with a lot of bs, and given what we learn later on, I don't think her reaction to the wolves was significant enough when they first meet. It feels a bit like that was something written in halfway and the beginning was never expanded/updated.
The main threat was eliminated pretty easily and the book focused a lot of times when people were shifting and playing around. I was much more interested in Michaela's platonic relationships with other members of the pack than the romantic one with Lara. The book may have benefited from other POV chapters from Lara, but it wasn't a big deal. -
Michaela is a fox shifter living in werewolf territory. She keeps her head down, doesn't make any trouble and avoids the wolves. That all changes when the alpha of the Wisconsin pack comes calling. Wolves are invading her territory and she calls on Michaela to help hunt them down.
It took me a long time to get through this book. I started in May and I finally finished a couple of days ago. It's not bad, if it was I would have walked away. But it wasn't a book that demanded my attention either so I would put it down, move onto other books and then come back to it.
Finally at about the 70% mark it sucked me in and I pushed through to the end, and it was pretty good. Entertaining fluff. Good enough that I'll probably read the second in the series. -
Nice to see a lgbt were story that is a little different and not quite so cookie cutter predictable. That being said it wasn’t an amazing story, the execution left much to be desired. A little too much focus on trying to make Michaela come off as crafty and sly but instead I found that to be rather off putting and redundant. I don’t particularly care for the dynamics and honestly found more chemistry between Michaela and Elisabeth and even that was iffy. Idk this had good potential but fell short of my hopes
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A decent story. I have read a few Were books and this one was better than some. I do find the wolves to all be bullies. The dominance games at times are a bit much. The fox has her pride at the wolves seem do do nothing buttry to beat her down. I will most likely continues for a bit with the series depending on how the characters grow
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I've read a lot in this series, though I stopped before the last few books. I liked the first one and the next few but I would recommend stopping after that. They get a little repetitive with the dominance games and sometimes made me a little uncomfortable.
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I think I found this book through the tag system of Goodeads: it was tagged as fantasy, paranormal and lesbian, so I give it a try... and I fell in love with it. Our beloved protagonist is Michaela Redfur, a werefox that works for the government as a scientist controlling some natural places. However her peaceful life will be shocked with the appearance of Lara Burns, the leader of the Madison Wolves' pack. She said that she wanted to talk to Michaela, but Redfur is going to be dealing with wolves much more than what she would like to. This first book present the characters, specially Michaela Redfur and the pack of Lara, and also introduce quite some troubles for both "forces" to make them work together and have a power struggle. There is a relationship, but is more romantic than a sexual one and is quite strange after all. However, this is not a bad point. I loved the way the characters met, how they struggle for their own space and with their duties and how people is connected among them. I think it is a good starting point for a saga, much better than the one presented in Dark Guardians saga, for instance. I would love to see this books printed :)
Parece que siempre llego de relativa casualidad a los libros que más me gustan. En este caso descubrí Fox Run, el primer libro de The Madison Wolves, gracias al sistema de etiquetas de Goodreads, ya que tenía varias que me llamaron la atención: fantasy, paranormal y lesbian. Partiendo de estas "ideas" pensaba que podría ser algo en la línea de Los guardianes ocultos, aunque por suerte es más en la línea de la saga de Kitty Norville. Robien Roseau presenta en esta primera novela a Michael Redfur, una cambiaformas zorra que vive tranquilamente como científica que hace muestreos de algunos parques del gobierno. Su mundo cambia por completo cuando aparece Lara Burn y su manada de hombres lobo, a pesar de que la alfa solo quiere hablar con Michaela. A partir de aquí habrá demasiados lobos para gusto de nuestra querida raposa, un montón de problemas e intrigas y bastante acción para los lectores. Roseau sabe combinar las escenas tiernas y graciosas con otras de gran tensión e incluso sabe dar voz a los diferentes personajes, a los que podemos llegar incluso a coger manía o a querer como si fuesen nuestra propia hermana. Me parece un buen comienzo para una saga, aunque es una lástima que no se revisen estos libros para una publicación en papel, porque me ha gustado mucho lo que he leído. ¿Es un poco especial la relación que presentan? Si, sin lugar a dudas, aunque tampoco creo que haya que exagerar como en algunas reseñas, donde no tienen en cuenta que los cambiaformas tienen ciertas costumbres de los animales a los que cambian, cosa que siempre queda patente con Michaela y sus instintos zorrunos de huir, correr más que los demás, etc. ante el menor peligro... y no diré más para no chafaros la lectura ;) -
Engaging opposites-attract ff romance told in a political thriller.
Robins's books primarily take place in matriarchal societies.
Many readers take issue with the way women treat women in Robin Roseau's books. If you can't get past it, you can't. Some female characters in Robin's books are manipulative, treacherous, promise-breaking, and physically abusive. They hogtie characters for days, lock them in tiny cages, kidnap, enslave, humiliate, ... the list of abuses we normally associate with male perpetrators are performed by female characters. These actions are shocking and offensive but also part of each story.
Fox Run is one of the tamer books in this author's extensive collection.
It's a story of overcoming extreme prejudice. If you are egregiously misused by a group, can you overcome your repulsion towards others who are similar to that group in appearance? Can you join them to fight a common enemy? If they treat you like they would one of their own before realizing portions of that treatment are too harsh for you, do you walk away? Or do you negotiate compromises and push down your pride, realizing you need each other to rescue innocents from that enemy?
Once the goal is met, you may find, despite everything, you are family.
To me, Robin's stories are about the struggle. We all struggle and suffer and learn to push away those who remind us of others who've wronged us. Maybe pushing them all away is a huge mistake.
Robin's books are full of lovable, relatable characters. Those characters are flawed, and each has a fascinating story of her own. The stories are highly engaging and hard to put down. -
My first lesbian book! Woo! I'll admit, this was a lot like all those other young adult books I've read like Maximum Ride, Twilight, etc. But the thing is, this is exactly what I was looking for. I love the quick pace and the way it digs me deep into the plot, despite the few typos and slightly unrealistic dialogue -- something I was easily able to overlook. Best of all, it centers around a lesbian romance, and one that I was able to connect to. That alone makes me love this book as much as I do, because I do adore my young adult quick reads, but it's nothing without a love interest I can share and a romance I can identify with.
