Review: Encino Man meets Wolf Man
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 11 5, 2013
**Warning: spoilerish***I can't say this one impressed me. I really don't like having to be critical of anyone's work, but this one brought out all my snarky comments. Good thing I was reading alone, otherwise I would have sounded a little less than sane to the casual observer.I have three primary complaints: the writing was clunky, the dialogue was stiff and the story was full of holes--small holes that didn't undermine the actual plot, but were still irritants. Things like the time Cassidy suggested Edensaw shift to his wolf form so that the person he was speaking to could see that it was different that a modern werewolf's. Problem was, neither she nor Edensaw had ever seen a modern werewolf, so how did she know his form would be different? Or the fact that the 'wolf brothers' (I got seriously tired of that phrase BTW) had the ability to 'listen to the world' as they slept so they would fit in when they woke. This enabled them to speak fluently, with a large and varied vocabulary but then they randomly didn't know some words. Camping and money to mind. I would think money would have features in some of that listening they did.The book also featured a "PNR kiss". You know the one I mean. The one a woman is subjected to mere moments after meeting a man she is frightened of and then melts into. Yes, that one. In this case it came two minutes after Cassidy was tackled, then help against her will by a man who was speaking crazy mumbo jumbo and scaring the bejesus out of her. But worst of all, all I could think was, the man's been asleep for 10,000 years and hasn't brushed his teeth yet. He must have the worst morning breath ever. Ewww.I then spent a full 75% of the book waiting for the mysterious evil to show up. That's 75% of the book waiting for the plot to move past first love/lust. At 75% a challenge finally presented itself, just not the one in the description. That literally held off until the last page--seriously, the last page!Now, none of this is to say that the book is wholly without merit. I did appreciate the focus put on Edensaw's insistence that Cassidy have the control of when to accept him and become his mate. Similarly, Cassidy was given an unusual amount of control during the sex scenes. It all felt a bit clumsily done, but I really liked the sentiment. I also thought it was nice to see an Alpha male who wasn't al ALPHAed out. I actually found Edensaw quite pleasant. In fact most of the characters were really likeable, even if they weren't particularly fleshed out. I also thought some of the brother's adjustments to modern technology were funny, in a slapstick kind of way.So in the end I have to say that there is an interesting spark to this story, but the execution seems to have called through.