Book Review: Luck of the Wolf by Susan Krinard

I received this book as an ARC
The actual release date is November 1.

This book was quite a mess. I've only read one other book by Susan Krinard- Touch of the Wolf- but this was not only very similar, but not as well written.
The main premise of this story is that a female werewolf named Aria who has to hide her true identity, is being taken to America from her small Austrian town. Her guardian Franz knows everything, but has yet to tell Aria anything. He has kept her hidden away from the world in a cabin in the mountains allowing her to run wild. However, once in New York, Franz is killed and all of his papers and money are stolen, so Aria still knows nothing other than her family is in San Francisco. So she takes a train to San Fran and gets kidnapped by some less than above board men.
Enter our hero Cort. Beauregard Cortland Renier originally of the Louisiana bayou wins Aria at a poker game. He recognizes her as a female werewolf, and saves her from an awful fate. Thus begins the pack of lies Susan Krinard tries to feed us.
Her book was so unnecessarily complicated it is unreal.
Cort's friend Yuri recognizes Aria's eyes and sees her as lost relative to a wealthy family in New Orleans. He convinces Cort to go along with his plan.
Meanwhile, Aria feigns amnesia for no reason I could figure out. Then Yuri and Cort bring in Babette, a former whore and the most famous madame in NOLA who is now a respectable widow in Denver. Babette's job is to train Aria the half wild wolf-girl to act like a lady a la My Fair Lady. Next the connection to the Renier family in New Orleans is kept from Aria and it becomes very like the movie Anastasia. It is my belief that Susan Krinard must have watched an Audrey Hepburn marathon before getting the idea for this book.
During all this weird lying and plotting behind everyone's backs, we have a Duke from the old country who is trying to stage a coup and usurp the royal throne back in that tiny country near Austria. So he wants Aria. But even the Duke has an alias.
Every character here had ulterior motives and plots that WERE COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY!! The plot could have carried on without all of the misconceptions and lies and half-truths. It was a sloppy job of trying to write an intrigue into the romance.
Once everyone is done double-crossing and backstabbing each other, they end up in New Orleans where everyone is treated poorly. Cort at one point courted the beautiful daughter of the NOLA Reniers, Madeleine, but she accused him of forcing her and had her male relatives beat the crap out of him. She never then insulted Aria and Cort, and we, the readers, are just to take it?! Really? It was frustrating that Susan Krinard never gave us any resolution with any part of that, or with the bad guys. They were conveniently dead. No suffering, no finding out they were wrong, just dead with a tidy bow on top for the poor reading to just roll over and believe. Then everyone was double-crossed again, and might I add that it was out of left field! It not only didn't flow, but added to the irritating mess that I call Luck of the Wolf by Susan Krinard.
1 star