Review: Snooze.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 09 20, 2013
Gone with the Wolf is the story of highly-strung CEO and Alpha Wolf, Drake Wilder, and Emilia Hudson - a temp secretary at his firm with an ulterior motive.When I picked this book up, I didn't have high expectations but tried to get into it with an open mind. So many romance writers are scratching their itch for some hot CEO on secretary action at the moment, and I was ready to find out why. Suffice it to say, this book didn't really go in that direction at all, despite what the blurb would have you believe.At the beginning of the book, Emilia is almost single minded in perusing Wilder for the wrongs she thinks he's done her - his company, Wilder Financial, seems to think they own the building she bought years ago; the one where her beloved bar is already struggling to stay afloat. This issue, which is given so much attention in the first part of the book, promptly turns into a subplot, then dies in the arse (pardon my French) when Drake's romantic intentions begin to consume the author's attention. Emilia's whole crusade with the bar just sort of fizzles out - though admittedly, the author does make some attempt to show us she hasn't forgotten.Miller goes to great lengths to describe her heroine as a no-nonsense, wild kind of gal. My question is; what does she actually do that's considered `free spirited'? There's not enough evidence of this, except for the fact that Drake keeps saying it. Over and over again. In my opinion, a good writer can illustrate a character without directly labeling them, as the author has done here. Emilia struck me as a poorly written character, and it was incredibly distracting. One minute she's super mad with Drake, then she's madly in love with him. There's no transition between her moods - like a flip of a switch her feelings change for seemingly no good reason.As a whole, the story-line was predictable and generic. I felt like I'd read it a million times before, and done so much better too. Honestly, it read like a twilight fan fiction. Seemingly, Miller wanted to further explore the whole wolves-mate-for-life concept, but there just wasn't enough content to justify the length of the story. It could've been condensed into a short story, but was instead drawn out unnecessarily.The character of Silas was under-developed as a villain, and though his motivations were made clear, it was done too briefly to be believable. I believe that the insinuation of a bad-guy was just the author's attempt to add some meat to a bare-bones story, in order to draw it out into a novel.I did not like this book at all. I could forgive a flawed romance story if it was sexy or gave me an `AW' moment, but alas - no. Though I read the whole thing, it was more out of stubbornness than interest. I found characters are shallow and the plot disjointed. Here's the rub though: amazon reviews seem generally positive about this one. Damned if I can figure out why though... I'd recommend prospective readers think carefully and read the blurb before picking this one up, but even then - the blurb didn't have a whole lot to do with the book. Pursue at your own risk.