The cult that is out to “reform” shifters with a twelve-step program that forces them to lose touch with their inner animal is still at it in this second volume of the ‘Reclamation’ series. Just like any group of fanatics, they use brutal torture, both physical and emotional, and the clear parallel to gay “conversion therapy” becomes even clearer in this sequel. The comparison is brilliant, since both types of program are clearly useless, but the damage it does to the poor souls subjected to this nonsense is deep.

Jakob has been snatched, kidnapped, and told it was his pack – his mates, even – who sent him away. He still fought the “program” for a long time, but they eventually broke him. The same sister who rescued a shifter previously ends up sending Jakob home, to “apologize” for being an abomination and return a new man. Once Jakob sees his mates again everything changes, even if it takes him a while before he can believe seeing Marshal and Ben again is real, not a dream.

Marshall and Ben were told Jakob was dead, they even have the papers to prove it. Now that he appears and talks about being shot with a dart before they took him, his mates get suspicious and sic the pack alpha on the case. Nothing is resolved on that front, but Marshall and Ben are far more focused on getting Jakob back, on making him their own again. I’m sure the rest will follow in a future installment, because that “brotherhood” needs to be destroyed!

The reunion between the three mates is beautiful –and super hot! They have a lot of catching up to do between the three of them, but even Marshall and Ben, while they were together the whole time Jakob was gone, need to reacquaint themselves with the balance that works so much better for them. There is lots of bacon, eggs, milk, a hot tub, and a huge bed for the three guys to use as they work on loving and reassuring each other. I loved getting to watch them become close again.

If you’re interested in shifter stories with parallels to real life in the way a triad is considered “abnormal”, if you want to see three men who belong together reunited after incredible suffering, and if you’re looking for a read that is as brutal as it is filled with hope, you will probably like this novella as much as I do. The whole idea of “shifter conversion therapy” still shocks me – in spades, and I want to find out who is going to deal with the criminals who do all the torturing!


NOTE: This book was provided by Changeling Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )