My Grade

Plot: 4

Setting: 5

Writing: 2

Originality: 4

Characters: 2

Passion: 3

Overall: 20/30 = 66 %

Cover/Title Bonus: 2

Overall

A tad bit boring, could have been better read. I would have enjoyed more lore, a better relationship with the parent and less of a mystery feel.

I think since I’m an avid reader of adult shifter books that this one just fell short of being awesome compared to those books. 🙁

If you follow me on Goodreads and notice how long it takes me to finish a book it usually corresponds to how much I’m liking it or not. It took me over 7 days to finish this book.

Summary (Amazon.com)

Torn between two destinies?

Claire is having the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and gorgeous Matthew keeps chatting and flirting with her as if she’s the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: she’s a werewolf.

As Claire is initiated into the pack of female werewolves, she must deal not only with her changing identity, but also with a rogue werewolf who is putting everyone she knows in danger. Claire’s new life threatens her blossoming romance with Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt. Now burdened with a dark secret and pushing the boundaries of forbidden love, Claire is struggling to feel comfortable in either skin. With her lupine loyalty at odds with her human heart, she will make a choice that will change her forever?

First Line

The smooth mirror of the pool’s surface shattered as three boys cannonballed into it at the same time.

Plot

You can see from the summary above that this is a werewolf tale about a teen girl who’s falling in love with the son of the man who’s trying to rid the world of werewolves. The rogue werewolf is a huge topic of this book. It’s more of a mystery than anything else.

Setting

Hanover Falls is a small town near a heavily wooded area.

The general detailed descriptions in the writing made all the scenery pop. The majority of the story takes place in Claire’s home and the nearby woods. It’s summer so there’s no school. I don’t remember a school any way.

Writing

The writing fell short for me because as I’d mentioned before it was basically written in the form of a mystery. I didn’t read it as a love story or even a coming of age or dealing with a tragic event kind of story.

It was written in third person narrative. I’m thinking that might be why I didn’t enjoy it much. I really hate it when a book is written in third person but never switches to another characters point of view. It was always “Claire this, Claire that”.

I did enjoy the snippets from the rogues point of view. It was weird but an interesting take.

Originality

The most original thing about this book was that the werewolves are only female. The only issue I had with learning that though is there’s not much detail or lore to back it up.

I’m a huge fan of shifter books and the one thing I love most is learning the details that the author puts into the story to back up the reasons why the people are shifters. This book fell waaay short in that area. I’m not sure if it was only glanced over because it was a YA book or if the author just didn’t think that information was important.

To me it’s extremely important.

Characters

Another area that I didn’t love. I wasn’t a fan of any of the characters except Matthew. He seemed the most real to me.

Claire and her relationship with her mom really got on my nerves. The nanny, Lisbeth, was just awkward at times. I didn’t really think she fit in very well and that maybe her only role was to confuse the reader concerning the mystery.

Passion

This book isn’t a romance. It’s a mystery so the very little romance passion we see is not enough to really make me even consider the passion in this book. 🙁

Cover/Title Bonus

I’m really not a fan of the cover or the name actually. They both seem to represent the easy way out. There’s nothing original or spectacular about either of them.