Review: great characters
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 8, 2012
I really loved the two main characters here. They were strong, engaging, appealing, and unusual.I can hear you asking me -- oh? what's so unusual about an ex-military assassin type in a romance? -- but trust me, Jed isn't any typical ex-military assassin type, not at all. Instead, he is desperately and often masochistically repressing his nearly terminal misery under a camouflage of confident cockiness and callousness, hiding it from himself as well as others. In fact, Jed is repressing his vulnerability so much that Redford is the only one who sees it at all. It's a joy to see some of his camouflage *and* some of his misery break down over the course of the book. And of course Jed is also naturally off-the-wall, and that's also a lot of fun to see. ;)And now I can hear you asking me -- oh? and what's so unusual about a werewolf in a romance? -- and again, trust me, Redford isn't *anything* like a "typical" werewolf. This kid has been locked up and isolated his entire life. He doesn't know how to be a human *or* a werewolf out in the world. I thought the authors did a great job of playing up his wolf-like behaviors -- unease in crowds, sensitivity, skittishness, and so on -- and I loved seeing him grow.Oh, and the prose -- the prose throughout Blood Howl is definitely a cut above the norm. Good, strong prose that really grabs you and throws you into the action. Good stuff there.But, of course, nothing can be perfect. First, the title. Sorry, folks, but that's a really dumb title. Please ignore it completely when you're considering whether to read this.And then the plot. Sad, but true. There were several times throughout the plot where the characters did REALLY DUMB THINGS. It was annoying, it was distracting, and I hope the authors improve with subsequent books.BUT -- overall -- did I mention that I loved the characters? I really did. And despite the dumb plot, I'm gonna rush over to the Amazon page for the sequel (Blood in the Sand) -- and I'm gonna buy it, and I'm gonna read it right this very minute in order to find out what happens next. Loved those characters.