Emimar

• Rated 5 stars

“I must admit, after reading Shiver and the notoriously crap Twilight Saga, I thought that this would be more of the same. Thankfully, I found that it wasn't. Though there are a couple of flaws in the book. Dusicyon australis isn't a wolf at all - it's an extinct South American Canid from the Falklands Islands. The discription probably would have worked if the author had mentioned the Red Wolf, Canis rufus, but folkelore and fiction about wolves is bad for conservation. Next time, just stick to plain old werewolf and try to keep natural history out of it, will you?

The second flaw is that I find it hard to believe that Avery's Dad would have wanted to kill wolves - I got the feeling that he was a bit of a greenie/hippy (same with her mother and to some extent, her grandmother) and I wouldn't have expected a greenie to want to kill wolves - they would want to protect them.

Thridly, the author could have come up with a name for her grandmother other than Renee - bit too much of a Smeyerism there, don't you think?

Other than that, I found the book quite enjoyable and what's good about it is that you can sympathise with the characters. Some folks have reviewed this and said that the characters are cardboard cut-outs and I have to wonder if they have read the book. That would have discribed the characters from Shiver and Twilight perfectly, but not these as I found myself actually sympathising/relating to the characters which diffinately DID NOT happen in Shiver and Twilight. Of course, the book is not perfect and if there weren't worse books by far out there then it would have got a three, because it is pretty average.”

Emimar wrote this review Wednesday, April 6, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“The book is an eye opener, but I think it would be better if some of the points in the book were backed up by scientific studies as it relies heavily on one off observations made by the author, and while intriguing, I have to wonder if his interpretation is correct (and of course, needs to be recorded on film or observed by others). Scientific studies would confirm if his interpretations are correct. The author no doubt cares about animals and this comes across well in the book. But to do animals justice, espeacially when their welfare is at stake, we need to have confirmation that it is correct - if not, it can be just as damaging to animal welfare as hunting, animal testing, factory farming, and fur farming are.”

Emimar wrote this review Thursday, January 20, 2011. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 3 stars

“I liked Shiver more than this one. What I find confusing is that the book is split in the 1st person between four characters and this sometimes makes the character's vocies the same! Please, if writing from the point of veiw between different characters make it thrid person. Unfortunately, I do have to agree with other people about Grace being the weakest character (does this now have to happen with all books like this?) However, I like the way the book handles the werewolves and their transformations and although Grace's character is weak, she does not moan, whine or think that she's undeserving of Sam, unlike the main female character of a certain Mormon propaganda teenage paranormal series, and because of this is actually makes the book readable.

If the characters, espeaically Grace, had been more interesting to read about and if there had been more of a plot to the book, then it would have been better.

In short, if any future Young Adult UF/PR writers are reading this, make the characters more interesting and learn to write an interesting story. It can be done - look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gingersnaps, but don't make carbon copies of them.”

Emimar wrote this review Tuesday, August 24, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“I started reading it and like some of the others that have already read it, find it over-hyped for what it is. It reminds me of Resident Evil, but without the shooting up monsters part. There are parts of the book which could really have been edited out and do we really need to know that a certain character is a peado in the book? I don't think we do... As such, I think parts of the book is over-written and the author needs to study how to pace his writing so that you don't get bored in parts (i.e. don't repeat things - I found it distracting with the character called Carter - unnessary...) Also not having speech marks around dialogue in stuff which happened in the past is distracting and thoughts should be in italics, not in speech marks to distinguish the two.

The other issue with the book is that author doesn't write female characters very well - nuns and a whore (Amy's mother....) come on, women can do more than that these days. I don't know if I'll bother reading the rest of the books in this series - it depends on if I like the rest of the book.”

Emimar wrote this review Monday, July 5, 2010. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 1 stars

“I got into the Twilight Saga after seeing the film and as it was better than I thought it would be, I decided to read the books. I'd like to say that I was impressed by the series, but I can't. Meyer is good at drawing you into her world, but I found the whole series boring to read. Nothing really happens in the books other than the whole "I love Edward" from Bella (or is it Jacob?!) and "I love Bella but can't be with her because I'm a vampire and will hurt her" from Edward and that's about it from the main characters. The only saving grace of the series are Jacob and the rest of the werewolf pack and the Cullens (aside from Edward...) as they are at least somewhat interesting. Shame that they aren't what the series focuses on, asotherwise, the series would be worth taking the time to read. At the time of writing this, I'm about halfway through it (at the point where Bella's daughter is born) and gave up reading the rest, as it felt like that should have been the end of the book. If there was a character in all the books that I have read that I would consider a Mary Sue, then Bella would be it - she's uninteresting as a character and she's weak-willed and whiney throughout the first three books and then turns into this super-heroine in Breaking Dawn. My advice to people, stay clear of this series as you'll be vastly disappointed by it.”

Emimar wrote this review Thursday, September 3, 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“I was presently surprised with this book. I read a lot of urban fantasy which just turns out to be a paranormal romance in disgise - this one turned out to be the oppersite. You can see why I had low expectations for the book before I read it - the main character is obsessed with her wardrobe and I thought that it was going to be one of those books were the heroine is a frivolous air-head and she wasn't. I like the fact how it get the mixture of the supernatural and romance just right - although it says that it is a paranormal romance on the back of the book, the romance part doesn't derail the story like it does for example, in L. A. Banks' Bad Blood, or others that I've read. The only critisim I have about the book is that the author seems to get mixed up with the stake through the heart and suggests it as a way to kill werewolves when really it's vampires - whoever proof read the the book before its publication should have pointed this out to the author and had it edited. I found the references to designer clothing a bit repetitive as well and I think that it should be played down a little when marketing the book and mentioned less - I read urban fantasy books for the supernatural content - if I wanted to read about designer clothing I would read a book about a spoilt brat heiress young woman living in the normal world, which I don't. Aside from those too factors, I look forward to seeing more from this author.”

Emimar wrote this review Saturday, May 23, 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 1 stars

“I'm reading this one at the moment I'm writing this reveiw. I decided to buy it after seeing the film adapation, otherwise, I wouldn'thave bothered with it, as I enjoyed the film. I gave it a four because although I think it's well written, (in comparsion to the awful paranormal romances I've read in the past that bookshops and publishers try to market as Urban Fantasy when they are clearly not) the character Bella is in writer's terms, a bit of a Mary Sue, but once you get past that, the book is very enjoyable and mature, for something that is obviously written for teenage girls and by that I mean the quality of the writing, not the subject matter. It's a welcome change to come across a book with a supernatural theme that has a romance where we actully see the relationship between the two main characters grow and not a "love at first sight" Sherrilyn Kenyon/Christine Warren kind of way, followed by twenty chapters of them having sex, or like Kerri Arthur's work, where the main female character just sleeps around with men just for the sake of it and the readers are then tortured with every intimate detail of it. So please, lay off the critisim of this book.”

Emimar wrote this review Saturday, May 16, 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Normally, I would give these books a five, but I couldn't help but feel that it either should have been longer, or that it and the next book in the series, Kitty Raises Hell should have been part of the same book and they were split to keep with the 300 or so pages long like they usually are. Balthtazar and his minions weren't really much of a challege, and neither were the werewolf bounty hunters and the Vegas mob. Still, because it stayed away from the paranormal "romance" theme which you usually get with urban fantasy these days, it's better than most.”

Emimar wrote this review Monday, April 13, 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“I found the writing in this book to be a little sloppy to begin with, but it gets better as it goes in. I found the Christian refs to be distracting though. Do we really need quotes from the Bible while you're trying to read a story? I don't think so. If I wanted to read rubbish, the Bible is what I would read! Because of this, I give it a four when otherwise, I would have given it a five. I find the book intreging because the dragons in it are actuall characters, rather than just monsters, which is unusual, though I think if you want to read a book about dragons, then Temeraire would be better.”

Emimar wrote this review Tuesday, March 17, 2009. ( reply | permalink )

0 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“I'm about half way through this book and as other people have noted, it is well written but the gay element of it is completely distracting in what would otherwise be a brilliant book. I ended up giving it a 4 because I like the idea of a wolf companion, and that element of it is really what I wanted to read it for. The Norse/Anglo Saxon flavour to it came as a bit of a surprise and a welcome one. However, it didn't get a 5 as it would normally have done because of the gay element - I'm not against having gay characters in stories, as I've read books with them before (Tanya Huff, Keri Arthur, Kim Harrison...) but do we really need to have it constantly shoved down our throats? As another person pointed out, it would have been better if the main character was female, or if there were females who bonded with the wolves in the story. (This might happen, because as I've said, I'm only half-way through it!) Also, the behaviour of the wolves is off somewhat as the alpha male and female mate for life - wolves which are lower ranking members do not mate. Also, there is the the gang rape scenario which another reveiwer has already pointed out. Is it more acceptable if the character happens to be a male? Still leaves one cold...I can't help but think that the authors were getting off on it and there should have been a warning in the synopsis of the book so that people who don't want to read explict gay material can avoid it.”

Emimar wrote this review Saturday, November 29, 2008. ( reply | permalink )