Review: Epilogue would have made it 4 stars
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 13, 2013
I actually liked the characters in this novellette. There was just not enough story to make it to 4 stars.Anne is a self-professed "chubby" 30-something mom, with her own business as a baker in NYC. Two adorable sons, Newton, 6, and Zackary,4, from a previous marriage-gone-wrong, a grandma that helps when she can, all delightfully pasted over a background of the "The Lifting of the Veil" as the paranormal world of Fae, were-folk, vamps, demons, trolls, etc., is referred to in this story.The character of Anne is very plausible in this day and age of "thin is in" and, just like a lot of us, her self-image is distorted by the what marketing campaigns tell us is beautiful. When she gets unknowingly hauled off to a werewolf strip club by her pretty, young, party-til-dawn co-workers on her birthday, she meets gorgeous stripper Thomas, the werewolf hero of the story.We don't learn much about Thomas at first. He has a Russian werewolf friend, Sasha; an obnoxious werewolf woman, Iliana, who wants Thomas so badly that she'll even destroy his happiness to get him; a lot of werewolf rules that we readers get hints of throughout the story, but barely get the gist of by the end; and, obviously, Thomas falls in love with Anne the minute he meets her, which, according to most romantic werewolf lore, is what happens between true mates.The conflict between Anne and Iliana is well written, for what little there is of it. I liked that Thomas is originally from 1840s Ireland, that he was not born a werewolf and that there are references to Anne being able to choose to live as a werewolf forever. However, we readers never really find out if Anne would choose to live forever... as a werewolf.I won't spoil the ending, so here are some of the things I liked about the story:I liked the relationship Thomas starts to develop with Anne's sons. The boys are quite smart -- Zackary is reading already and Newton is hyper-aware of how much of an a-hole his father is. Thomas steps in when Newton falls short on his school fundraising sales and Thomas enlists all his buddies at the strip club to put Newton's sales over the top instead of just handing him cash, which is what Newton's father gives him for a month-late birthday present.Although I hate to sound snarky, I liked that Anne's younger, thin and pretty co-workers are shallow, vain and ignorantly insulting, and then who are  passed over by the men because they are shallow and vain. Makes my day when that happens! Too bad reality is never the same...The Lifting of the Veil is a nice touch, and those humans who don't want to find themselves prey to the Other, stay inside at night. A curfew bell, morning and night, reminds the Other when it is time to get there collective butts home for the day or risk a fine, jail or other intangible penalties. But, as with anyone human, the risk-takers can go to nightclubs, restaurants, the movies, etc., and mingle with the Other. And, the Other may choose to ignore the curfew and risk meeting with humans during the day.All in all, I would love to see this book turn into a series, but Ms. Roseland needs to write some epilogues and, perhaps, embellish her secondary characters a little more to fill in the story arcs.In a perfect e-reader world, I'd love to see Ms. Rosalind UPDATE this story by adding a little more to it and definitely adding an HEA epilogue to the end... with reactions from Anne's sons to Thomas being in their lives (as Newton says about Thomas being a werewolf, "Cool!") and what it might mean to them to one day be werewolves themselves. Another part should include the reaction of Anne's mom to all the changes to her daughter's life, and whether or not she wants to join them -- werewolf love after 50 anyone?Good luck, Ms. Roseland, I will definitely take a peak at your next effort, and if it is as good as this one, even with all its tiny drawbacks, I'll probably buy it.