When I think of a strong female lead, I won't be thinking of Jessica McClain. The premise of the story was actually quite fascinating, even if it isn't unique or original. I was very interested to learn how a girl would handle being "The Only One" of her kind. A female werewolf. While the story had merit, Jessica ruins the book completely. In the end, I had to grit my teeth and just read to finally cross the finish line.

What makes me want to throw this book out the window? Well, it's not just Jessica, but she's a start. I read quite a few 4 to 5 star reviews praising this novel. It was supposed to be up there with Mercy Thompson and Kate Daniels. I feel completely misled. I didn't find Jessica to be an independent strong woman. I found her whiny and cowardly. Her wolf had *****, but she rarely let her wolf have her way. Always backing down from a fight or running away. That was tedious and annoying. She grew up living with werewolves. Yet she knows next to nothing about them. They are so secretive that the Alpha's daughter is left in the dark. It seems highly improbable that she wouldn't know anything useful at all.

Another thing that got me? It was okay for other wolves to openly abuse Jessica while growing up. It was okay for wolves to mistreat, verbally and maybe even physically abuse, The Alpha's daughter. Am I the only one who thought that this would never fly? What kind of overprotective father lets those he's supposed to be in control over do this? The openness of it bothered me quite a bit. The implication, that is never really gone into, that she had to physically fight her way out of the compound, when she isn't even a werewolf (at the time) seems odd to me. I could see quiet discontent. I could see ostracizing her. I could see many minor ways to let her know that they do not approve of her but in the end I had a hard time thinking the most powerful Alpha in the world would let open abuse of his human daughter go unchecked and unpunished.

Trash talk. Most books have it. I appreciate good trash talk. This book was flooded with tons of it. It was no longer something to be amused by. By the end of the book I wanted all the talking to end. It seemed that the author was incapable of showing her readers what was going on or leading up to it so it all just clicked. Instead, for every fight scene we have a Scooby Doo villain break down of what they are doing and why they are doing it. We don't get the good and bloody fight scenes, we get a full confession right before the fight. All that did for me was to kill any sort of anticipation of the fight or scene. Killed it.

I'm glad to see that I'm a minority in thinking this book wasn't up to snuff. I really am. There are very few good werewolf books out there. I'm still seeking another good series to follow. This, for me, was a complete and utter dud. While I feel I have completely wasted the last few days reading this, I'm glad there are others out there who like this one. I won't be trying this one again.

Full Blooded - Likewise Book Reviews

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