Skye, Thane & Akar venture into a new place, leaving the traditional werewolves’ way of life in Alaska. The Koto Series is a Spin-off of the Howl series.
Title: The Koto Chronicles
Author: Jody Morse and Jayme Morse
Genres: Fantasy > Paranormal > Shapeshifters – Werewolves
Read Format: Kindle Edition
Total Pages: 1,141
Reading Date: 26th January 2025 – 05th February 2025
The reading order – How to Read The Koto Chronicles Series by Jody Morse and Jayme Morse
- 1 First Moon
- 2 Haunted
- 3 Midnight Kiss
- 4 Dark Awakenings
- 5 Last Goodbye
First Moon
After living in Alaska with the Koto pack for her whole life, Skye had determined long ago that things will just never change. The Koto are stuck in the old ways of doing things, where she, and the rest of her pack members, must follow the rules that they see fit. One of those rules entails avoiding grocery stores, malls, and other places where humans frequent, leaving Skye naïve to the ways of the human world—a world which she’d do anything to experience.
One night, Skye finally gets her chance to see things change when her Alpha calls a pack meeting with news that he’s establishing a new chapter of the Koto in New Jersey. Determined to explore the world and find her mate, she chooses to leave—but her best friend and the only guy she’s ever had feelings for up until now wants to follow her.
Skye is allowed to go to school for the first time in her life, but soon finds that making human friends and fitting into a world she knows little about is a lot harder than she thought it would be. She can’t worry about school too much, though, because her Alpha has decided to add new pack members who may or may not have murdered their own Alpha.
My thoughts…
I finished with the Howl series before reading this book, and I can say that I prefer this one. The fact contributing to the extra points is probably because it was written in first-person. It’s much easier to get into the story and connect to the main character, Skye.
Skye is headstrong but naive at times. She is desperate to fit into the human world and willing to do anything, including befriending the popular girls, resulting in her being ‘bullied’.
Thane is determined to follow Skye into the new territory as he strongly believes that Skye is her mate. Despite Skye openly trying to ‘date’ Gage, the male student in the school, Thane sticks by her side and is willing to compromise.
The Cameron brothers, Chance and Hunter, are the clowns in the pack. Their comments and actions are childish, but they bring humour into the story. I wonder who’s the wolf they rescued!
Meanwhile, Akar and Ashton are the mystery characters. Akar, especially, is their ex-alpha, and he is pretty much very reserved. I hope to learn more about them in the future books.
There are some secrets and love conflicts in the story and a few things that I want to find out. Who murdered Vinny and Amanda? Who is the rescued wolf? What will happen to Gage? Will they get along with the Shondi pack? Why does Charlotte harbour such animosity towards Skye? Will Akar reclaim his Alpha title from Johnny? And finally, who is Skye’s destined mate?
I may also discover Skye’s age as I go. Chapter one indicates she’s sixteen, but it’s later mentioned that she’s seventeen. It’s a bit confusing! 😅
Excerpt from Chapter 1
“I mean, we’re both sixteen, Skye. The Koto wants us to get married and start having babies in a couple of years. Why not just do it now?”
“Because I’m only sixteen,”
My sister shook her head at me, and I knew that she was frustrated. She was just as strict as my mother was, really. I was seventeen, and Kirima was twenty-two.
Haunted
Skye moved to New Jersey to explore the world outside of Alaska and to find her mate. Her dreams are put on hold, though, when everything in her new life changes and she’s forced to figure out who killed one of her best friends. She knows that she must search even harder when another one of her friends is pushed off a balcony and rumors that she’s the one who pushed her start to spread.
Meanwhile, she finds herself becoming acquainted with Milo, the cute guy who seems interested in her. The only problem? He’s a human and Skye’s new Alpha has made it very clear that she’s not allowed to date any humans. Is a shot at love worth putting both their lives on the line?
My thoughts…
So, the second book did answer some of the questions I had from the first one, but not all of them, and this book even brought up more questions!
We can pretty much forget about Gage being Skye’s mate after what he did to her because she’s moved on to Milo, Kristina’s brother. Could he be her destined mate since he’s got werewolf lineage?
I’m also looking forward to seeing Kristina more involved in Skye’s life, like how Samara is with Emma. But what about Jenny? Maybe some unfortunate event would befall Jenny, and she got turned too😅?
On top of that, I’m really keeping my fingers crossed that the Tala and Koto packs will join forces in the next book. That would be so much fun! I think Koto could really use the backup, given their current situation.
What I didn’t like, though, was how Skye handled Thane’s shooting – it was like she didn’t care! The lack of panic or urgency was just crazy. Instead of carrying him around like he’s a sack of potatoes, Skye should have treated him first.
Midnight Kiss
With the killer still on the loose, Skye and her friends venture to North Dakota with Samara, Declan, Emma, and Colby in tow to rescue Chance and Hunter from the Santos, the werewolf pack that’s taken them.
The only problem? Petro, the Alpha of the Santos, gives them a series of tasks they must complete before they can have their friends back—a series of tasks that are just as improbable to complete as they are deadly.
Skye’s decided to put her love life on the back burner and focus on getting the twins back, but when a witch tells her that she will be kissed by her mate at midnight on her last day in North Dakota, she has no other choice than to face it head-on.
My thoughts…
Book three takes us on an adventure where Koto and Tala’s pack work together to retrieve the five items requested by the Santos pack that held Hunter and Chance captive. If they fail to gather the items in a month, the alpha of the pack, Xavier Santos, will not hesitate to kill the twins.
Meanwhile, Skye continues her search for her destined mate, and by the end of this book, she uncovers a shocking truth about it. Interestingly, what we believed to be a unique event for Samara in the Howl series also happened to Skye. So, it turns out this isn’t so unusual after all!😅!
As much as I like the mission and the way they have been working together to accomplish the mission, the killer’s identity behind all the previous killings is still a mystery. Ashton’s weird behaviour is no doubt another aspect that needs to be looked into, but we gain some input on this issue, one that is a little shocking.
Anyway, the story takes place before the prologue in book six in the Howl series because Davenport is still not yet born. It’s a shame because otherwise, Vinny would have hit it off with Bennett, the spirit that often terrorizes Emma and Colby in book seven!
Now, I look forward to reading Gage’s motive behind the attempted kidnapping and who he works for, and if Milo and Katrina could join the mission, it would be perfect! In the meantime, I’m also wondering what the big secret Grandma Milo was keeping🤔.
Dark Awakenings
Skye’s body is alive, but her soul is stuck in the Other World — a place where werewolf souls go when they may not be recovered. She must fight against the cold water and the urge to let herself drown and remember that she needs to be there for the ones she loves. Skye still has to find the Jewel of Kate to get Chance and Hunter back from the demanding Alpha who has them. That’s not even to mention that she needs to get revenge on whoever has been hurting her friends, and find out, once and for all, who her mate is.
Will she be able to do it or will her soul be lost forever?
My thoughts…
Book four is short but compact with action. However, the rescue mission is yet to be completed because there are still two more things to be found. Yet, they have already lost someone in their team.
Meanwhile, Skye’s newfound joy of finding her mate is shattered by his disappearance. I wonder what happened to him. Now that we’re down to the last book, I cannot wait to read the explanations and the real identity of the villain in the story.
Before I start reading the last book, I just want to comment that the detail in this story about the barn does not match the story told in book seven of the Howl series. As we all know, after Davenport was born, Declan and Samara haven’t had the time to go on their honeymoon yet.
Colby was supposed to show Emma the barn when Samara and Declan go on their honeymoon, but it seems that Emma is aware of it in this book. So, it wasn’t a surprise for her!
P/S: Bennett did meet Vinny, but they didn’t hit it off like I envisioned, perhaps because Vinny found his mate! Besides, Johnny also materialised but, weirdly, Skye didn’t take the opportunity to ask him the identity of his killer!
Last Goodbye
Hearts will come together, friendships will be lost, and the things – or people – Skye thought were buried will return, bringing her one step closer to the killer.
With a deranged killer on the loose, everyone’s on edge – especially Skye, who is trapped in Bear Mouth Cave with Samara and Declan. She can no longer hear her mate’s thoughts, so she fears that he’s dead.
Meanwhile, Akar and the other werewolves are determined to open the cave. The only problem is that in order to do that, they need DNA from whoever locked the cave in the first place, which seems like it’s going to be a lot more difficult than expected.
My thoughts…
The biggest surprise was definitely the villain’s identity; I never would have guessed it. However, while the main story wrapped up, the solutions felt a little too easy, and I’m still left wondering about a few things.
Specifically, the motivation for the attempted kidnapping of Davenport remains unclear, as either the real or fake Gage has any connection to Samara and Declan.
Furthermore, Milo’s family secret, hinted at by his grandmother to Skye, remains unresolved and intriguing. I am particularly keen to discover its secret! Similarly, what’s in store for the new spirits, Johnny, Vinny, and Amanda, whether they move on is left hanging.
Those inclusions somewhat feel like filler is a persistent issue in this authors’ works, a pattern that regrettably keeps me from rating them more favourably. Despite this, I prefer the Koto Chronicles story over the author’s other series I’ve read. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the Briar Creek Vampires Series, which I’m reading next, will be enjoyable!🤞
