2021 paranormal romance short novel. Laney finds a wolf caught in an
illegal snare, but while she's freeing it it briefly becomes a naked
woman…
Dasha is a werewolf from the colony of werewolves just up the
river (somewhere in remote Yukon Territory), and was not expecting her
Destined Mate instinct to kick in when she woke up. Lacey used to live
in civilisation, Dasha has spent all her life out here mostly with
19th-century technology, and they have very different attitudes to
problem-solving.
This felt to me like a balancing act: on the one hand there's the new
relationship and the friendship and interest that go with it, on the
other there are external pressures (Dasha's family's disapproval of
her getting involved with a pure human, and Lacey's neighbour who set
the trap on her land.) These are effectively balanced in a way that I
suspect many writers would find challenging.
That's pretty much all there is to it; this is only just barely longer
than the 40,000 word minimum length for a novel by Hugo definitions,
and apart from an epilogue it all happens over a fairly short span of
time and place. But as with Maggie and Fiona in Moose Madness, I
ended up feeling that I'd like to read more about these people
building a life together.
A side note: Laney is gradually losing her vision to retinitis
pigmentosa, and while this is an important plot point it's not used
to define her (nor to bring in a miracle cure). Quite a few books seem
to be doing this with long-term disabilities now, and I'm glad to see
it.
(Recommended by Russ
Allbery.)