Review: Army of Werewolves
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 25, 2014
Title: The Tempering - MacKenzie Duncan Series Book 1Author: Adrianne JamesPublisher: Star Bound BooksPublished: 9-11-2013ISBN: 9780615879741E-Book ASIN: BooF52ZXUKPages: 322Genre: RomanceTags: Paranormal, Werewolves & ShiftersOverall Rating: 4.5  GreatAll Mackenzie Duncan wanted was to leave her former life and family far behind.  She managed to get a scholarship to Harvard and obtain a job at the local coffee shop.  Deciding to do some kind of normal college activity she attends one of the football games, but is so bored she prepares to get away from the crowds and hole up in one of the darkened corners until the game is over and she can say she at least attended.  Remembering her scarf she turns back to her seat to retrieve it and literally bumps into Todd Nealy, one of the perfect crowd.  He comes from money and thinks all others are beneath him.When he insults Mackenzie she turns the tables on him and humiliates him in front of his friends and other students.  Todd grabs Mackenzie's arm in a bruising grip.  After an exchange of threats from Todd and insults from Mackenzie, she leaves the game and heads home through the park.  As she is walking in the dim light she hears something rustling along the tree line.  Suddenly a large animal comes out of the woods and stalks toward Mackenzie.  Terrified of what looks like a wolf with unusual yellow-green eyes she begins to walk backwards away from it when it quickly strikes her as she trips over a large rock.  As her arm is being savaged Mackenzie grabs the rock and hits the wolf on the head.  Then to chase it off the throws the rock and hits the dog hard on the snout.After painfully making it to the walkway, Mackenzie freaks when the heat from the lacerations on her arm spreads and she sees her arm begin to heal.  Talking herself into believing she has hallucinated everything she goes back to her apartment.  She awakes the next morning extremely ill.  She calls in sick to work and is told to show up or she is fired.  She calls a friend to take notes and prepares to go to work.  While she is washing off she becomes violently ill then passes out.  A pounding on the door awakens her.  She goes into the bathroom to wash her face and as she looks into the mirror and realizes it wasn't a dream or hallucination; because her eyes are no longer blue they are yellow-green, the same as the wolf that attacked her in the park.  How can that be there are no wolves in the area, are there?  What is going on?  Then her friend Jordan tells her Mackenzie called on Friday to take notes and it is now Sunday.  When she goes to the clinic to find out what is going on she finds she has grown two inches.  Mackenzie goes on a search to find out what happened.  What she finds scares her to her very soul.  She fears the wolf targeted her and may come back to finish the job.This novel grabs you from the very beginning.  We have all known a bully somewhere in our lives and can identify with the scene at the game.  How many times have we taken a familiar route home only to feel that we are being watched and hurried our steps?  The lure of the paranormal has teased many, myself included.  What would you do if you found out what you thought was just the fictional imagination of some author's mind or perhaps just plain myth was in fact true?  Do werewolves walk among us?  I started this book with a question as to whether it would appeal because it sounded so different from the other paranormal shifter books I had read.  I am please to say that it was completely enjoyable.  I loved Mackenzie Duncan even as she frightened me on where she might let herself go with her anger.  I look forward now to seeing where Adrianne James will take Mackenzie and I on the next installment of this series.  She has produced a character that you can watch develop and grow into herself and new abilities.  You will root for her even as you hold your breath over her outbursts.  Pick up a copy for yourself today.