Review: Setting It Aside...For Now
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 31, 2014
I usually give any book I purchase until the 50% to pull me in, grab my attention, and keep me reading.  While Ms. Oliver is obviously a talented storyteller, the writing in this effort needs a lot of work.  I'm not calling this a DNF review...it's more of a "DNF yet" one.  The reason being is I'd really like to find out happens to these characters.  I just need to step away before the flaws in the book completely overwhelm me.Before I get to the flaws...some bright spots.  As I said above, the story Ms. Oliver is attempting to tell is pretty engaging.  Shaun's backstory parallels with that of a lot gay teens even in this day and age.  He seems the most thought out and well developed character, and it's quite easy to empathize with him.  In addition, the world-building is a fresh take on traditional werewolf lore.  Though the logic falls flat sometimes.  For instance, Shaun's magic seems really advanced (i.e. able to materialize objects out of thin air, healing, etc.) so I couldn't understand why he wasn't able to dispatch the hunters without breaking a sweat.  Despite this I thought, overall, the myths and paranormals within the book weren't all that bad.As for what stopped me reading at the 50% mark...first and foremost is the dialogue.  I think another reviewer has mentioned that the story is set in the American west, but the characters speech patterns, dialect, and slang are decidedly British.  The disconnect is jarring and will cause you to do a double-take.  For a while I tried to internally translate every "arse" into an "ass"...every "lounge" into a "living room"...every "mate" into a "whatever?!?", but it just got really tiring.  Also, the conversation between the characters doesn't flow naturally, and comes off a bit stilted and simplistic in some place.Another point is the editing.  While I applaud anyone with the guts to write a novel and put it out into the world for consumption, some thought to editing must be paid before doing so.  For every grammatical and punctuation error that can be skimmed over while still staying within the flow of the story, there are 5 that hit you over the head and cause you to re-read whole passages for clarity.Finally, it seemed every chapter began and ended with a sex scene (with another thrown in the middle for good measure).  I'm all for some hot man-on-man humpin', but the sheer quantity (paired with the aforementioned mental gymnastics in translating some of the slang) got to be tedious.  Also, some of the sex scenes just didn't make sense considering the events that bookmarked them.  For instance, the pack finds out a gang of hunters is trying to kill Shaun (after having just shot him), and Shaun and Kane decide it'd be a great time for a bike ride and romp in a mountaintop field?!?Like I said, I haven't finished reading The Reluctant Wolf yet.  Please take this review for what it's worth as you're deciding whether to dive into it or not.  I can say that this is the first book I've ever purchased that made me research Amazon's return/refund policy.  The major reason for that is I believe this book is EXTREMELY overpriced at $5 (Kindle version).  Ms. Oliver should consider lower the price tag to $2.99 to make it more palatable.