How to Love Thine Enemy is the sixth book in my Howl at the Moon series.
It features a new couple and can be read as a stand-alone, though reading the series in order is recommended. It is now up for pre-order with a pub date of April 7.
This tale was inspired by a movie I watched recently called Slash/Back, which is set in the small Inuit town of Pangnirtung and features contemporary Inuit girls fighting off an alien. 🙂 I loved the contemporary native tone of the film, and it reminded me that I had intended to write about the Inuit and the Qimmig (a pack of dog-shifters). So I was spurred to bump that book up in my tbw pile.
The Howl at the Moon world features dog shifters. You see, if a dog is bonded deeply enough with a human, they may “get the spark”–the ability to take on human form. Most of my series is set in a town called Mad Creek, California, where dogs who were born descended from dog shifters, and dogs that just recently “got the spark,” all live. But in book 5, How to Run with the Wolves, one of them discovers a pack of wild dog shifters living in remote Alaska called the Qimmig. The Qimmig are descended from huskies, but their pack has nearly reverted to their wolf nature due to lack of human contact.
This book, How to Love Thine Enemy, is set entirely in Alaska and features a young Inuit man and one of the Qimmig pack.
Here’s the blurb:
Can a forbidden love heal the rift between two enemy tribes?
Legend says that, centuries ago, the sled dogs and the Inuit were so deeply bonded that the dogs rose up on two legs and became men. The Qimmig and the People lived together happily until one of the Inuit betrayed the dog-men. The Qimmig fled, vowing never to return.
Taq figured that was just another story his elders told around the campfire. But when he witnesses two dudes survive a polar bear attack by shifting into dogs, he has to rethink everything. Could the Qimmig really exist? And could they have anything to do with the special, golden-eyed boy he’d played with as a child?
Cupun has missed his old friend, Taq. But it is forbidden for the Qimmig to have anything to do with Inupiat. When a series of events brings Taq back into his life, the feelings of protectiveness and joy awakened in his dog’s heart tell him that Taq is his soul’s mate.
But neither the Qimmig nor the Inuit are prepared to accept this bond. Are the boys fated for tragedy? Or will their love find a way?
How to Love Thine Enemy is a star-crossed lovers/Romeo and Juliet trope set in Alaska. Friends-to-lovers, doggie shifters, and destined romance with a little wilderness adventure.
I hope you’ll give the Howl at the Moon series, and How to Love Thine Enemy, a try! It’s been a perpetual favorite with my readers.
You can pre-order this book here:Â https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXSYTR2J
You can read about the entire series here. https://www.elieaston.com/howl-at-the-moon-series
Eli Easton
Nola Kim