Review: Slightly Dumb - Spoiler included
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 13, 2013
"Gathering" days are held once a year in the werewolf community.  It is an opportunity from packs all across the country to come together and meet potential mates that they may otherwise not meet.  Mackenzie has been forced to attend one of these for years, but werewolf Mackenzie is determined to spend her life in the human world.  Mackenzie had a very bad experience at one of the "gathering" days, and had made up her mind a werewolf mate was not for her.  She even has a human boyfriend.Drake, a Texas rancher, has been to many "gatherings" and two years previous he spied Mackenzie at one.  He immediately knew she was his mate, but lost track of her.  Thinking that she was now mated, Drake has decided he will probably be a permanent bachelor.Drake and Mackenzie finally meet up, and they both realize that their single days are over, even though Mackenzie drags her heels every step of the way.  The entire book is Drake getting past Mackenzie's road blocks, and getting her to accept the idea of mating with him for life.I like the plot of this book up to a point.  SPOILER - The event that happened at one of the previous gatherings was Mackenzie witnessing a rape, as a werewolf male claimed his mate.  However, Mackenzie WAS 19 years old at the time.  How silly she was to decide that this was "normal" for werewolves and she would never have one.  I would have understood her strange thinking if she had been the product of a broken home, but she had two loving parents to see as an example of a healthy relationship.  Did she think her mom was getting raped every night?  I also would have understood if she had witnessed the event and been only 13.  A person could be pretty traumatized at that age, and develop some wrong thoughts, but at 19, did she have no sex education?  Did she live in a cave?  A vacuum?  Therefore, the conflict in this book didn't ring true.  It left Mackenzie looking like a cut above the village idiot.The sex scenes were pretty graphic, but well done, and the writing was good, but I think the author is going to have to have more realistic problems for her featured couple in the future.BTW, the "book" is actually a short story of under 140 pages.  I am as dumb as Mackenzie for not noticing it.