God's Play by H.D. Lynn

Goodreads

"Sixteen-year-old Toby was trained by a family of hunters to kill shape-shifters — but he has a unique weapon in his arsenal. With a touch of his hand, Toby can lift the magical protection shape-shifters use to disguise themselves as human. It’s an unusual skill for a hunter, and he prefers to kill monsters the old-fashioned way: with a blade.

Because of his special skill, Toby suspects he may be a monster himself. His suspicions deepen when William, a jackal-headed shape-shifter, saves him from an ambush where Toby’s the only survivor. And Toby doubts William helped him for purely altruistic reasons. With his list of allies running thin, Toby must reconcile his hatred of shifters and the damning truth that one saved his life. It’ll take both of them to track down the monster who ordered the ambush.

And Toby needs his unlikely ally because he has a vicious enemy — the infamous Circe, who has a vendetta to settle against the hunters. Toby has to unravel the mystery of his dual nature. And he has to do it on the run — before Circe finds him and twists him to her own ends."

I Received this book from NetGalley for review

There's a lot than can be said about this book. At the same time, I don't even know how to properly praise this book. It did take me a little while to really get interested in the characters, and the story itself. There was a bit of buildup, and that slowed down the first half of the book for me.

Once things got going, I read this book in one sitting. Toby and William are great characters. They are perfect opposites to each other. The start of their "relationship" is biased only on Toby wanting revenge for his mother's death, and William just wants to get rid of someone from his past who wronged him as well as many other shifters.

This book is about more than just "werewolf hunters", there are many kinds of shifters, and as the story progresses and we learn more about The Veil alongside Toby, we meet people that are connected to some of the popular myths. Meryl is the most interesting of them, and Terri is still a mystery of who/what he was.

The most basic plot of this book was revenge, but as we delve deeper into the magic of it all, it's about so much more than that. Learning the secrets of his past Toby has to face some tough choices about who he really can trust, those he calls family, or those he calls monsters.

This book was really well written, and it makes me a little sad that it's a stand-alone book. I would very much like to read more books set in this very interesting world.