Cobblestone Press, $4.99, ISBN 978-1-60088-149-7
Fantasy Erotica, 2007

I should really pick on Cobblestone Press more often. They do have some interesting books in their catalog. As you know I love werewolf romances so today let’s check out Cora Zane. I really liked this last short story she wrote.

Libby French is divorced and out celebrating the anniversary of the event with a drunken night out with the girls. They all decide to check out a little bar on the edge of town called the Moonlight Run which turns out to be a werewolf hangout. Libby runs right into the arms of Drake Logan, werewolf and local auto mechanic.

I have read the other books in the Werekind series but I think Dominant Territory is the first time I saw Cora Zane really building her world into a unique place. Werewolves are not secreted away from humans but live right next door. So it is more of a racial type fear happening here, not “OMG! Werewolves are real!” type fear. The subsequent relationship between Libby and Drake receives a type of interracial scorn by her friends.

The big thing I liked most was the whole weaving of ordinary with the extraordinary besides the small town community or the werewolves and humans living together was the fact that the only thing special about Drake is he is a werewolf. Otherwise, he is simply an auto mechanic. He is not whisking Libby away to his mansion, taking her away from her day to day life in a fly over state, or promising her anymore than himself and his love out of it all.

All this makes me wish Cora Zane spent more time making this short story longer and fleshing all this interesting world building. I liked her characters and found that I could relate to them. There are your typical Werewolf cliches running rampant but there are also some solid unique ideas here.

This world works more for me than Twilight did. I mean come on, why would an undead vampire be hanging out in some small town high school for Christ’s sake?! Now college sure, why not? Even I have run into professional college students wasting their parents’ money working on their next degree. That makes more sense to me. High school was never a favorite place for me or anyone I have known. No wonder everyone likes the werewolf. He at least has a reason to be in high school because werewolves age like we do and they have reasons to be in a small town on the edge of some wilderness, trying to stay unnoticed.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on so. I give Cora Zane a Grade B on Dominant Territory because she is really building an interesting and highly readable world with every new story in my opinion. Now let’s hope her stories get a little bit longer and give us some room to really enjoy her characters that we find there.