Review: Great start to the series!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 18, 2013
Review:Disturbing, violent and raw Shadow of Wrath is an extremely well crafted story. While the book panders to fans of The Hunger Games, I believe Shadow Of Wrath reminds me more of movies like Sin City and Gladiator.One of the best things about Shadow Of Wrath was the amount of gore and violence. I know that sounds weird but, something seriously lacking from others books in this genre is the violence. While other authors shy away from damaging their main characters to much, L.W. Patricks revels in it. Some of the most intense brutal scenes happen in the Arena. While the violence inflicted on these poor souls is repulsive every death had meaning and drove the main character DOG closer to the edge.Speaking of the characters, I really loved Dog. Awful name but great character. He accepts his fate in the Arena and does what he must to survive another day. I also liked Tiberius, he reminding me a lot of  Thresh from The Hunger Games. Strong, silent but deadly. I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of him. Lastly, I have a warm spot in my heart for Garrett. He really tried to do well by Dog and was probably the most compassionate out of all the guards. Without him, Dog might never have been able to survive so long.Now even though I loved Shadow Of Wrath it did have some faults. In fact, I nearly deleted the book 3/4 of the way through just because Dog pissed me off so much.If you do not want to be spoiled, stop reading now!!What the hell was up with Dog. You spend hours hiding under corpses in a body bag, kill two guards, rescue Allegra and then just feet from safety you decide you need to kill Ryker. Holy moly, I was so enraged when this happened. I felt like this was completely out of character for Dog, especially considering he had Allegra with him. But do you know what was worst of all? The complete obviousness that they would get caught at Ryker's and there would be hell to pay for his disloyalty. Dog turning around was bad, what happened to him afterwards was worse. Total character slaughter in the span of a few pages.The other thing that really bothered me was the ending. The journal notes from an unseen character until that point just seemed so random. I also didn't quite understand who the woman in black was meant to represent. Was it Allegra? Or yet another unnamed character? The ending for me was just a bit too confusing and I personally think it felt disjointed from the rest of the book.Overall, Shadow Of Wrath was a great action packed thrill ride. I would of loved to rate this book a full 5 Stars but my annoyance with the character Dog 3/4 of the way through combined with the ending really put a damper on things. However, I still highly recommend picking up a copy of Shadow Of Wrath. The characters for the most part, writing and world building were fantastic and I am extremely pleased to learn this is the first book in the series. The ending at least is a bit more tolerable knowing there will be more. With that being said, I will be rating Shadow Of Wrath by L.W. Patricks ★★★.