Review: Quick, light-hearted read (but had potential for lot more)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 9, 2012
I couldn't remember if I had ever read anything by Vivian Arend so got "Wolf Signs" when it was a freebie back in April (bypassed the Kindle version and downloaded a different format). I tend to avoid novelettes but after being disappointed by another book, this story was the perfect escapist feel-good pick-me-up--enjoyable so long as one keeps in mind the following: "destined mate/instant love" means near-instant sex; at less than 100 pages, the plot points have to arise and be resolved at hyper-speed; and the story is not intended to be a heavy, serious paranormal/urban fantasy. It is definitely "erotica" but considering that it's a Samhain product, I found the sex scene pretty tame and almost secondary to the overall story.The story is well-written and includes a fairly well-developed storyline for its short length (with enough tidbits for future books in this series). The characters, for the most part, are likable and memorable in that each deviated in some way from shifter/were stereotypes. I especially loved the walking disaster (in human form) that was TJ, the brother. In contrast, I tried to like Robyn more but for some reason, I found her annoying at times, and I just couldn't get over the deaf-person-going-backcountry-alone-is-not-TSTL hurdle. (Oh yeah, and that deaf person is a lone female staying at a communal cabin.)On the flip side, the alpha challenge? BOO! HISS! OK, maybe I'm a little bloodthirsty but it was described as "to the death" (*gasp*) and it turned out to be...not. Given how it occurred, the end result jumped the rails in favor of the story's funnier side. I also wouldn't have minded something at the end to address, however briefly, how much Robyn's adoptive parents knew about her wolf heritage (since her adoptive brother did).