Review: Lifetime meets werewolves in this YA/NA paranormal
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 19, 2013
I was given this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.Pack of Lies by Sara Dailey is the first book in the Red Ridge Pack Trilogy. It stars Allison, a girl who used to be a normal teenager, until one day it seems like she's always angry, and guys suddenly start acting like complete sex offenders around her. This isn't the case of her older brother, Aiden, who also seems to be going through changes of his own, but still keeps all of his friends. Their parents sit them down and tell them the truth. They are not exactly human, and they are moving where they can grow up with others of their own kind. The rest of the book dissolves into a Lifetime movie meets Werewolves, and that sums it up pretty nicely.Things I liked: There were a couple of humorous moments where I chuckled out loud-- and actually my favorite character in the whole bunch only comes in on the last few pages with her quiet and unexpected humor and grace. If you read the book, you'll know who I'm talking about.Issues I had: This book doesn't really bring anything new or unique to the wolf lore. I've read similar and much better books in the same genre recently, just to give you an idea where I'm coming from. Try Riley's Secret by Christina Smith or Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock.The characters overall are not very likeable. I know they are angsty and teenagers who are going through a hormonal period, but as readers, it's hard to like characters who are angry and hormonal all the time. Or, in the main male character's case, he's just a total douchebag. I can't imagine anyone wanting to date him, but it seems like everyone wants to. So the way this is worked around is that his girlfriend is even more horrible than he is, so that we want them to break up. I was really disappointed by the villains in this story as well, they were so two dimensional and nothing we haven't seen before. There were no surprising plot twists, and I had to struggle to read to the end. Alspo, I don't normally notice foul language, but there's a ton of it in this book, and just makes the characters even more unlikeable. I think that this tactic may have been to make the teenagers sound "real," but may have backfired in the end. Lastly, the change in POV was not very convincing and not really necessary in my opinion-- plus, all of the voices were very similar.Overall, this book was just not for me.