Review: 2 1/2 stars - Spotty Debut With Some Bright Patches
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 29, 2012
I think I heard about this book through a book blog, saw the initial reviews and downloaded a sample.  This book has an interesting premise and, although it started out slow, I wanted to read more.  Unfortunately, the writing was inconsistent throughout the book.  There were some promising and surprising moments, when a couple characters reveal their true nature, another character reveals how you think in "wolf," and some intriguing twists that make some characters unique even in this world.Unfortunately, some of these brighter moments, were diluted by a number of areas that took me out of the story.  I was distracted by multiple instances where someone thinks something and then repeats it in dialogue, which slowed down the action for me in order to bring everyone along.  I was also pulled out of a scene every time Aurelia went into an internal monologue.  I don't mind internal monologues, but there was so much of it, that I found myself skimming ahead just to get back to what was happening in the scene.  Then there was the relationship that was developing between the love interests, Aurelia and Ceithin, which seemed abrupt.  I never had a chance to even get to know either character or why they even care about each other before they were professing undying love, so I couldn't make any emotional investment into their romance.  Lastly, Aurelia is surrounded by a loving family and close friends, but it was almost as though they were pushed into the background the moment Ceithin shows up, and they let him.  This was a bit hard to believe given how theoretically possessive her brothers are of her, and that they would just let Ceithin into the life of their sister without seeing some of the protective brotherly behavior.  Finally, I think that Aurelia herself comes across as a weak character for most of the book, you spend most of the time hearing her self-pity.  While you understand why she feels that way, I reached a point where I just wanted her to move on.  She was about to turn 30, but her thoughts reminded me of someone much younger.  It made it difficult to empathize with her character after a while.Overall, I think this book offers some interesting twists and perspective on the "wolf" world.  However, I just didn't enjoy this read because of the inconsistent characterization and situations and number of areas (extensive internal monologue, repetition, etc.) that took me out of scene.