Rating: 4.75 stars
Buy Links: 
 Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novella


When the human king petitions the dragons to help find his missing son Prince Leon, Nyle – the youngest of the dragons at three hundred years old – is tasked to find him. As a dragon, Nyle would rather spend his time with his pretties – his precious, sparkly stones and jewels – and researching various subjects and problems than to have to search for the errant prince who has run away from home. Finding the prince is fairly easy. Returning the prince to the human king seems to be the problem.

Dragons have no use for sex. Intercourse isn’t part of a dragon’s reproduction, so it’s trivial. When, soon after meeting Leon, Nyle finds himself losing his virginity to the prince, he’s both confused at the feelings he has and infuriated that Leon refuses to return to his kingdom. Nyle leaves the prince only to be confronted days later by a black wolf, who turns out to be Prince Leon. When he discovers the dragons have been lied to, he is sent to investigate the reason behind the lies.

In a world of dragons, werewolves, and magic, Nyle and Leon go on a search only to discover a new threat to all the races in their lands.

I should start off letting by readers know that Finding the Wolf is the first book in Mell Eight’s series The Dragon’s Hoard. Finding the Wolf was not what I expected. It was better. There’s so much I want to say about it but I’m not sure where to start. I love a good fantasy; dragons and werewolves are right up my alley. And Eight did not disappoint. The world that was created was fun and exciting for me – full of mystery and magic. One of the signs of a great fantasy story is the detail of the description of the world in which the tale is set. This world is among my favorites. There is even a map at the beginning of the book. The description of the world helped with the setting and feel of the book. The author describes in detail the individual dwellings of each race, the caves that that Nyle lives in, not only as the adult dragon he is during the story, but also the smaller caves that he used in his younger days and again in his human form. The castle and village that the humans inhabited were, again, described with enough detail to represent the human king as boring and stuffy. The author also goes into detail about the werewolf homes and why the Alpha would live in a one room house.

The characters are well written and easily likable. Nyle is a dragon who, at three-hundred years old, is the youngest of the race. He is a little bit of a spoiled brat. He’s whiny and walks away from problems when he doesn’t get his way. But that doesn’t change the fact that, as a dragon, he is stronger than the individuals of other races. He cares for and protects Leon as one of his “pretties.” Leon has been deceived and hurt in his past and does not trust others easily, until he meets Nyle. He trusts the dragon to protect him and care for him. I really liked Leon’s character because life had beat Leon up and left him out in the cold, yet he never gave up. He accepted what was forced into his life and moved ahead without really dwelling on the past. I enjoyed that the relationship that developed between Nyle and Leon was not solely based on sex. There was sex, almost from the moment they met, but their relationship developed into much more than just a physical relationship. My favorite character has to be Gail, Nyle’s hatch-mother. She was easily excitable, curious and whiny, to the point of annoying Nyle. She seriously amused me. She was a bit of a peeping Tom when it came to Nyle and Leon having sex or showing affection. She was trying to understand intercourse in the human form since, in their animal form, dragons had no real need for sex. Whereas, most of the older dragons spoke in an old world formality, Gail spoke more in modern terms. Her character had me giggling at times. There are several characters among the werewolves and humans and maybe even the magi that I believe will receive their own spotlight within this series. And I’m looking forward to reading their stories as well.

I found the plot interesting and the storyline easy to follow. Things moved along at a fast pace within the story, but it wasn’t hard to keep up. The only real complaint I have is the battle scene. I would have liked to know what actually happened during the battle. But overall, I am very pleased with the storyline and scenes throughout the book.

All in all, I really enjoyed Mell Eight’s Finding the Wolf and look forward to the next book in the series. I recommend this book to any readers who like to venture into a fantasy world every now and then.