Kari Warner is leaving a nightclub late at night and decides to take a short cut through an alley.  Feeling uneasy about her decision but not wanting to change her mind, she talks herself into continuing and in doing so comes across a huge dog that attacks her.  Fighting with every breath she has, she knows it is a lost cause as the dog is not giving up but neither is she. Waking up in the hospital, Kari is stunned to be told that what she thought was a dog attack wasn’t.  Completely confused and not sure what to believe, Kari is further stunned and extremely agitated to realize that she has been kidnapped by her doctor and taken to the home of a man who is calling himself her Mate and telling her that she is now the werewolf queen to his King of the Cherchez pack.

Andreas Phinney is the Alpha of the Cherchez werewolf pack.  Knowing for months that Kari was his mate, he wanted to bring her first into his life by dating her and then bringing her over as a werewolf.  However, his cousin Michael’s inability to handle himself as a wolf changed all that when Michael bit Andreas’ mate and she became a werewolf.  Convincing Kari of her new exalted status in the pack is going to take some doing because not only does she not trust Andreas, she thinks he is crazy.  Then, to top it off, someone wants Kari dead and is willing to go to grave lengths to accomplish that fact.

I don’t know how Lauren Dane does it.  Every single time, without a doubt, she grabs me with the first sentence of her novels and keeps me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire book.  I found myself at first a bit agitated with the way Kari was brought into the werewolf fold.  I didn’t like the fact that she was not allowed to have a choice.  The further I read, the more I realized that my first impression of Andreas was false.  His faith in his cousin Michael was not his fault and so therefore I couldn’t stay mad at him. Besides, he has to be one of the sexiest werewolves I have ever read about.  I can picture him in my mind and make myself blush! Kari was strong, independent, and totally deserving of the title of alpha queen.  I think Ms. Dane did an excellent job with her characterization. She made her strong without making her a bully and I liked that.

Ascension was steamy, full of intrigue, and very much anticipated.  I perused Lauren Dane’s coming soon pages almost weekly and having had my eye on Ascension for months, I was desperately waiting for it to be released.  It was worth my wait and then some.  Total werewolf nirvana in one magnificently written novel that I have to joyfully recommend!  I can’t wait for more stories about this pack of wolves!