Title: Ravensong
Series: Green Creek
Author: TJ Klune
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: August 1, 2023 (originally published 2018)
Length: 512 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

The beloved fantasy romance sensation by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about love, loyalty, betrayal, and joy. The Bennett family has a secret. They’re not just a family, they’re a pack . Ravensong is Gordo Livingstone’s story.

Gordo Livingstone never forgot the lessons carved into his skin. Hardened by the betrayal of a pack who left him behind, he sought solace in the garage in his tiny mountain town, vowing never again to involve himself in the affairs of wolves. It should have been enough. And it was, until the wolves came back, and with them, Mark Bennett. In the end, they faced the beast together as a pack… and won.

Now, a year later, Gordo has found himself once again the witch of the Bennett pack. Green Creek has settled after the death of Richard Collins, and Gordo constantly struggles to ignore Mark and the song that howls between them. But time is running out. Something is coming. And this time, it’s crawling from within. Some bonds, no matter how strong, were made to be broken.

The Green Creek Series is for adult readers.
Now available from Tor Books.

You many have seen my super-gushy lovefest review of Wolfsong, the first book in TJ Klune’s Green Creek series. You may be wondering — can she keep this up? Will she love the rest of the series, and write yet more super-gushy lovefest reviews?

Yes. Yes, I can. Yes, I will.

Ravensong picks up after the events of Wolfsong (read these books in order, my friends!), but also fills in backstory for this book’s main character, Gordo Livingstone.

We meet Gordo in Wolfsong when he befriends a young Ox Matheson, then twelve years old, abandoned by his father, and desperately lost. Gordo takes Ox in, becomes a friend and father-figure to him, and gives him connection, found family, and a place to belong.

Gordo — besides being the town mechanic — is also witch to the Bennett werewolf pack. Gordo’s magic is embedded in the elaborate tattoos that cover his arms. He’s powerful, but he also has secrets and hidden pain.

In Ravensong, we learn more about Gordo’s past and why he holds on to such bitterness toward the Bennetts. As a boy, Gordo watched his father Robert Livingstone serve as witch to the Bennett Alpha, Abel. At far too young an age, Robert and Abel tattooed the magic into Gordo, and introduced him to the world of witches and werewolves. Yet despite the pain involved, Gordo also found a home with the Bennetts, particularly with Abel’s son Thomas, next in line to be Alpha, and with Thomas’s brother Mark, a kind boy slightly older than Gordo who seemed determined to protect Gordo, even when he didn’t want protection.

After tragedy strikes, Gordo becomes the official witch to the pack — but when a fresh, devastating tragedy occurs, Gordo is left behind. He’s abandoned by the people who are supposed to be his family, and he’s left behind by Mark, who only recently declared Gordo his mate. Gordo stays in Green Creek, but he’s hurt and angry.

When the Bennetts return years later, Gordo has made a life for himself with his garage, the group of (ridiculous) guys who work there, and with Ox, his ward and son-figure. And even as he’s drawn back into the life and struggles of the pack, he never forgives them — or Mark — for the betrayal so many years earlier.

The first third or so of Ravensong gives us all of this history, which is touching and allows us to know Gordo in a different, more complicated way than in Wolfsong. For the remainder of the book, Gordo is deeply enmeshed in the pack’s looming battle against dangerous enemies who seek to destroy the Bennett pack once and for all. The danger strikes deeply at the foundations of the pack, and Gordo’s magic is one of the few defenses and remedies the pack has against a threat that’s seemingly impossible to overcome.

What can I say about Ravensong? I felt completely invested in the well-being of the Bennetts and their pack, to the point that I just wanted everyone to be happy and healthy and not be in danger (although that would rule out about 50% of the plot of the book). These characters are all so wonderfully written, and it’s easy to love them all. Can I help it that I’m an emotional wreck when I see character I love suffering? And they do suffer in Ravensong, unfortunately.

Despite its 500+-page length, Ravensong moves quickly. There’s barely time to catch your breath from one dramatic moment to another. And yet, despite how much action there is, there are also beautiful moments of romantic and familial love.

And lest you think everything is completely dire — there are also hilariously funny scenes, especially when the humans of the Bennett pack get involved.

Then Rico said, “Okay, like. No offense, papi. You know I love you. Bros for life, and all that. But did you go a little nuts in your head from the mystical moon magic? Because it seems like you went a little nuts in your head from the mystical moon magic.”

(Okay, that’s not even the best example, but I was so absorbed in reading that I didn’t stop to highlight all the passages that made me laugh or cry.)

While I loved Ravensong, I maybe loved it a teensy bit less that Wolfsong. Gordo is a hard character to know, and while Ravensong shows us so much more of his life and what happened to make him the man he is now, I still felt a little removed from his inner self at times, in a way that was never true in Wolfsong when it came to Ox.

And while I was aware ahead of time that each book in the Green Creek series would have a different main character as its focus, I couldn’t help wishing for more (much more!) time with Ox and Joe in Ravensong. I mean, they’re there, and they’re still vitally important — but their love story is in the background here, and their role is more focused on their importance to the pack… and I won’t say more, because spoilers, ya know.

As I mentioned in my review of Wolfsong, I love the pack dynamics, the mind to mind connection (PackWitchBrotherLove), and the deep love that runs between all of those who belong to the Bennetts — blood family, found family, humans, werewolves, and their witch. I still feel that I don’t know Mark Bennett very well, and that’s maybe why I wasn’t as deeply invested in Gordo and Mark’s love story as I expected to be — but it’s still lovely and affecting, and takes some twists I never would have seen coming.

Ravensong ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger, setting up what’s still to come in the next books. The main action set pieces are resolved, but it’s clear that the threat to the Bennett pack isn’t gone, just regrouping until it strikes again.

Tor Books is reissuing the entire Green Creek series in gorgeous hardcover editions. Ravensong was originally published in 2018, and while the Kindle/ebook edition is available now, the new hardcover will be released August 1, 2023. Hardcover editions of books 3 and 4, Heartsong and Brothersong, will be released in 2024.

I am all in when it comes to Green Creek, and although I’m trying to pace myself and not read them all at once, I’m not sure how long I can hold out before starting Heartsong!

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