Review: Hunting Human
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 19, 2011
Beth has been on the run ever since she was on vacation with her best friend in Europe and was attacked by the werewolf, Markko Bolveks.  Her friend didn't make it, and Beth has not felt safe in any city she has chosen. Having once gone to college with high hopes to be an architect, that is all history after the attack. For the past few months she has been working in Portland at a local coffee shop. She has finally found real girlfriends, and although still on edge, she can take a deep breath and appreciate where she is. But Markko is not happy Beth escaped him, and caused harm to his family. And he is on the hunt.Braden Edwards who works for his family's construction firm  just also happens to be a rival family of Marrko's, He meets Beth by chance and there is instant chemistry. It takes Beth a lot to overcome her nervousness and go out on a date with Braden. All goes well until Marrko arrives in town. Not only is Markko hunting Beth, but the bad blood between these two clans leads everyone to be suspicious.Hunting Human is the debut book by Amanda Alvarez. For the most part, I enjoyed this one. In this world, being a shifter is not the end of the world. Besides Beth not knowing a lot about the lifestyle, when they shift, they are not out for blood. They come across more as big dogs. Now, if you are violent and evil in real life, of course you can use that when shifted for your evil cause. But it is not emphasized in here that just because you are a werewolf, you must live in a pack, or you must live under alpha control. It is a nice change from the strict worlds in other books.For the first few chapters there is a lot of mystery surrounding the characters, and what exactly happened the night Beth was kidnapped by Markko. Through flashbacks, we slowly learn all of the events of that night. While the prologue (which is a flashback) is very creepy, I think the other ones lose some of that steam. At one point, as Beth and her friend are running from Markko, Beth even makes a joke about needing to go to the gym more. I wanted more terror and biting my nails action, and instead while there is a violent moment, it comes across a bit too easy for me.I do like this author's writing style. This story is really easy to get into and flows nicely. Beth and Braden get together pretty quick, which I like - but then doubts and possible treachery come into play which throws their relationship into the dumps. Once in a while Beth felt a little too "woe is me." I get she has a lot of crap going on in her life, but I wanted her to trust the Edward's family more.There are great supporting characters in this book. The entire Edwards family made me smile - and I of course fell in love with Chase - Braden's brother who is more of the bad boy. I hope he gets a book!Overall, a nice start to what I hope becomes a series.