WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 40. Halloween Month Special Reviews: Heartsong (Book 3 of Green Creek Series) by T.J. Klune

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39926005-heartsong

I love asexual gay male characters, it’s rare in fiction to find them. Writing a character that is attracted to someone of his own gender, but sexually not interested in general, it is a challenge for a writer. I think asexual characters in general are complex and requires an adept hand. T.J. Klune made a good effort with 3 books developing Kelly Bennett’s relationship with Robbie Fontaine. I also love the idea of an amnesiac/Manchurian candidate story that involved Robbie and others, it’s such a fun and dark concept to have such a loving and scarred character be used as someone else’s weapon. What is also great is the furthering of major plot threads from prior books and the creation of an unexpected new twist to the storyline created from book 2. The Bennett pack deserves all their happy endings, but there’s always another battle and another foe.

Length-wise, it is 391 pages long and 17 hours 46 minutes long. This story will feel out of place at first from the first few novels, but once you get around 12 chapters in, you will realize what’s happening.

Plot: Robbie Fontaine believes he’s the trusted 2^nd in command of Michelle Hughes, he believes he was found by the Caswell, Maine Pack, never having left Maine since his promotion. He believes he has had a wonderful loving surrogate father-son relationship with Ezra, an old witch, who lives with him. However, all those things he believed in and all those truths that he held dear were lies created by Michelle Hughes and Robert Livingstone, both desiring undeserved power and authority. Readers are given glimpses of Robbie’s childhood, his loneliness after witnessing his mother’s murder at the hands of his father, a werewolf hunter. We learn about his insecurities and fears about being alone and desire to belong to something. When Robbie encounters his “true” pack, his mate Kelly Bennett, and return back to Green Creek, he has to learn to be himself against despite what he had done to his pack under the direction of Michelle Hughes and Robert Livingstone. Sadly, during their first meeting, Kelly is stripped of his wolf by Robert Livingstone, who is Robbie’s witch father-figure, Ezra. Kelly’s wolf soul is slowly dying, but he willingly sacrifices himself for his mate, Robbie cannot help feel but touched. Chris and Tanner are now werewolves due to what Robbie did under the influence, Rico is bitter at Robbie for betraying them despite knowing how he had no control under magic, and Robbie develop a sense of self-loathing at what has been done to him, feeling alone. Robert Livingstone makes an ultimatum to Bennett pack that they should deliver Robbie and the Timber wolf, Carter’s mate, Gavin Livingstone. We learn that the timber wolf is in fact the illegitimate son of Robert Livingstone and Gordo’s younger half-brother. Joe and Ox state in no uncertain terms that they will not hand over members of their pack. Later on, news reaches the Bennet Pack of Robert Livingstone and Michelle Hughes actions in Caswell, Maine, they are changing werewolf children into cold blooded killers of human and werewolves alike. Such an act becomes the last straw as the entire Bennett pack mount an assault on Caswell, Maine to end the threat of the renegade supreme Werewolf leader and powerful witch. A massive battle erupts in Maine, shattering lives with the hope of recreating hope. The ending is another cliffhanger as Robert Livingstone, no longer a witch, but something far worse, has kidnapped Gavin and Carter is on a lone-wolf crusade to rescue his mate for the final book in the series.

Review: Many plot threads are tied up in book 3, Michelle Hughes machinations are thwarted and her alliance with Robert Livingstone has been revealed. However, things are not that clear cut at first, nor are the stories that straightforward. There are many revelations abouts Robbie, Kelly, and the newest named member of the pack, Gavin. I think T.J. Klune use of variable time framing within his series probably worked best in this book, because he followed a logical progression. First, he gave us the present, where Robbie’s memories have been altered and he has been brainwashed to become the surrogate son that Robert Livingstone desires. We are simultaneously introduced to Robbie’s childhood and his character’s motivation for belonging with a tragic backstory. Finally, the missing time that Robbie seemingly betrayed the Bennett Pack was revealed quite well. Robbie is horrified by his actions, because he has grown to love these people again despite not knowing who he was before. If T.J. Klune ever reads these reviews of his series, I hope he knows I am a true fan of his writing. I think he should know that story framing isn’t wrong, no matter what reviewers may say, the issue with his 1^st and 4^th books framing comes from plot overlay issues not his unique technique. I hope he doesn’t abandon this kind of style in other books; it’s original to his writing.

As for characters, I love Kelly as someone who identifies on the sexuality spectrum as Demisexual, I can understand how hard it is to open yourself to another guy. Kelly won’t fall in love with any boy or girl, it has to be someone willing to love him completely as he is. Robbie proves that once for Kelly and he went to great lengths to find his lost mate, despite what Robbie had done to the entire pack, his family. Kelly went as far as losing his wolf for Robbie, I don’t know what fantasy metaphor could correlate to real life except perhaps giving up an important organ to your beloved spouse. That’s the depth of love Kelly has for Robbie.

Robbie was the star of the show of course, his journey from being a scared child hidden in a tree by his mother to his love story with Kelly to his brainwashing by Robert Livingstone broke my heart as I read it. I wanted to kill Robert Livingstone myself, he has no right to do that to Robbie, who has just found his life and love. The journey of Robbie learning about who he used to be, learning about Green Creek since the events of Ravensong, and the many major/minor details of what he had done for Michelle Hughes in the intervening time to shore up her crumbling power-play. Robbie doesn’t have it easy, Rico is vocal about Robbie’s danger to the pack, since his best friends Chris and Tanner “died” due to him, ultimately having to be turned into werewolves by Ox. It was nice to see their relationship build up to the point in the final battle where Rico sacrifices his life for Robbie at the end, there’s a beautiful friendship. Also, even with all the brainwashing and memory alteration, Robbie’s love for Kelly rang true throughout the novel, most importantly the carved stone wolf that he carries in his backpack being in fact Kelly’s was a major revelation. It showed on some level the bonds of love between them transcends even magic. That little revelation brought a tear to my eye.

Finally, the setup for book 4 was great at the end of this book. We had an operatic scene of Gavin rejecting his father, Robert Livingstone, only to sacrifice himself in order to save the man he loves, Carter Bennett. Carter despite being a self-avowed heterosexual lady's man is on a one man "Kill Bill" styled road trip to find Gavin, his mate, because Robert Livingstone has become too dangerous to seek alone. Despite what I may think of book 4, I admire how well T.J. Klune set his last book up.

My Review: 5 out of 5, it is my favorite book in the series. I enjoyed the plot, the characters, and the original concepts that T.J. Klune built into his world of werewolves and witches.