Audiobook Review: Black Tie and Tails by Wen Spencer

Black Tie and Tails
Author: Wen Spencer
Narrator: Jennywren Walker et al.
Series: Black Wolves of Boston (Book 2)
Publication: Audible Studios (September 2, 2025)
Length: 16 hours and 56 minutes

Description: From the Romantic Times Sapphire award-winning author of the Internationally best-selling Elfhome series, comes the sequel to The Black Wolves of Boston

Joshua Tatterskein’s life has been strange. He's become a werewolf, lives with a three-hundred-year-old vampire named Silas Decker and a ginger kitten called Trouble. Then things get even weirder when he encounters a talking penguin who wants to hire him for a job. Joshua just wants to graduate from his new high school. The school is owned by Boston’s werewolf pack, and while the teachers might not realize the owners are wolves, all the kids with special abilities—the Goths—know. The good news is the Goths are happy to help Joshua, but the bad news is one of them has gone missing.

Silas Decker has been waking up earlier than normal—very odd after three hundred years of being dead to the world when the sun is up. He enjoys the change—but what does he have to do for it to continue?

Elise Grigori’s day starts bad: her angelic family has discovered that she’s dating Jack Cabot, Thane to the Wolf King. It gets worse when Central Office calls to say that her cousin Francis is missing from his Vermont monastic retreat. He’s a Power, God’s strength manifested in flesh, which means he’s a walking nuke. His car is in Boston, which is very bad news for Boston.

Seth Tatterskein is just trying to hold his life together until he’s old enough to leave the Wolf King’s castle in New York and return to Boston as its Prince. His departure requires keeping his emotions in check—not an easy thing to do when your brother starts texting things like, “What kind of penguin talks?”

My Thoughts: This multi-viewpoint novel is the second in the Black Wolves of Boston series. It follows the adventures a new werewolf named Joshua who lives with a three-hundred-year-old vampire named Silas Decker. 

Seth Tatterskein is Joshua's younger brother who is the Prince of Boston. Because he's only sixteen, he's under the care of the Wolf King and living in New York. He's trying to manage Boston from a distance and with only his cousin Jack, who is one of the Wolf King's thanes, to help him. 

Elise Grigori is the fourth viewpoint character. She is a grigori whose role is to battle monsters. She's assigned to Boston which has more than its usual number of monsters because of the lack of resident werewolves. It is her family that uses Decker who has a dowsing talent to help them find the monsters. 

Joshua is a high school senior with only a few months before graduation. He's been put in a new school in Boston that was founded and is still supported by his family. He finds a circle of friends who are also gifted but not werewolves. His status as a werewolf is unknown to most of the students. He is having some problems integrating with his wolf and managing his shapechanging.

Things start to go sideways when Joshua dreams of talking penguins that he meets at the aquarium. The world is new to him. His first thought is to text Seth to ask if talking penguins are real. Seth in the middle of things in New York too. The werewolf king has come back from Europe exhausted. His son Isaiah has always been jealous of Seth and has harassed him for years with the able assistance of thanes loyal to Isaiah. Isaiah's main complaint is that the Wolf King has not yet named him Prince of New York despite the fact that he's a decade older than Seth.

Seth is also making connections with his wife. The Wolf King insisted on the marriage when Seth was still suffering with alpha amnesia. Seth doesn't even know her name but needs her help rebuilding the pack in Boston. Getting to know his wife is just one of the moves he's making to transfer to Boston. After his family died when he was thirteen, the Court was burned down which leaves Seth nowhere to live in Boston or house any werewolves he might convince to join his pack. 

Elise has a problem too. Her cousin Francis has left his monastery in Maine and evidence indicates that he might be in Boston. Francis is a Power - a nuke in human form dispatched by God to solve problems in a drastic way. 

People and events are converging in Boston, and all the viewpoint characters have roles to play if evil is to be defeated. 

This was another excellent urban fantasy story. I like the worldbuilding. I also really like that characters. All the viewpoint characters are fascinating and the new characters - mostly Joshuah's classmates - are intriguing too. 

I bought this one on release day. You can buy your copy here.