Genre: YA Paranormal/Supernatural Romance
Rating (Out of 5): ~2-2.5
Publisher: Penguin (Philomel)
Spoilers?: Minor, Very little to actual plot.
Calla Tor has always
known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be
the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by
side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But
when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out
for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the
very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she
might lose everything- including her own life. Is forbidden love worth
the ultimate sacrifice?
Review:
Contains a little bit of cursing, in case that bothers you.
When I first picked
this up, about the time that it first came out back in 2010, I expected to
really like it. And then I read ninety pages and didn’t like it, so I put it
back on the shelf and decided to finish it some other time. I finally picked it
back up, had to re-read those ninety pages, liked it more, understood what was
happening more, but still wasn’t a huge fan.
In my second read,
I caught a lot more, understood what was happening a lot easier, and that made
it a better experience. I still didn’t enjoy it too much, though, and I still wasn’t
a huge fan of the main character.
Sadly, the main
character, Calla, bothered me throughout the whole book. My main problem with
her is that she’s an alpha. And yet has practically zero qualities to being an
alpha. And I would argue that in an actual wolf pack, you don’t become an alpha
because your father was one, but this isn’t really a wolf pack. And they aren’t
werewolves.
Which, what? I was
sure they were werewolves. But they’re not. And so, if like me, you were
expecting werewolves and the general mythology that goes with them, get that
out of your head right now. Because if you’re picky with myth like I can be,
this will be a lot easier to read if you realize that those myths and
characteristics don’t apply here. They’re Guardians, not werewolves.
Which, also, they
could still have been werewolves but called themselves Guardians, which is what
I thought, until she made the actual distinction about it with Shay about 150
pages into the book.
Along with that,
there’s this whole clothes issue I had with the book. When they change from
wolf to human, they have clothes on. Because they come back in the same state
as when they changed and whatever, so they change back in clothes. I found this
out, before reading the book, from a review, so I knew this. But the book
doesn’t tell you that they’re dressed when they change back until about page
150 as well. So, yea, they’re not running around naked all the time, just to
let you know. This bothers me because of the fact that just one more word, in
the first chapter, and the whole thing could have been cleared up.
Okay, back to Calla
being an alpha: you become an alpha by your parents being the alphas. It’s
passed down, not fought over. So the fact that Calla is nothing like what an
alpha should be, doesn’t matter so much here.
She points out
she’s an alpha several times throughout the book, and even says at one point
that she doesn’t want to follow rules or whatever because she’s an alpha. Um,
no. You don’t want to follow the Keeper’s rules because they’re horrible and
suppressing and assholish. It’s not because you’re an alpha.
And the whole her
being an alpha thing, but how the male is the one with all the power drove me
crazy. I thought at first that the fact a girl was the alpha would be great,
but no, it’s until she gets with the male alpha. She has to stay some holy
virgin, isn’t even supposed to kiss the guy she’s being married off to, and yet
he can go fuck whoever the hell he wants to, because he’s an alpha male and it’s expected. That’s bullshit and sexist and I cannot stand it. It made
me want to scream and throw the book against the wall.
The whole Keeper
and Searcher thing also drove me crazy. Not particularly in a bad way, though;
maybe in the way intended. The one thing that surprised me, is the way all of
it is done, is in a way reminiscent to dystopia. How the Guardians follow the
Keepers’ rules without being told everything, and how that is going to lead up
to rioting.
I don’t like the
Keepers, and I don’t understand how none of the Guardians ever question how
things are done; although, really, maybe they do and we just haven’t found out
yet. Because the Keepers are obviously censoring all the information they get,
the Keepers control everything they do, and why would they believe that the
Keepers are protecting the humans? Because, according to the history they’re
taught, the Keepers and Searchers fought over the humans existence and the
Keepers wanted to help take care of the humans. Well, first of all, apparently
how long the Keepers have existed is a lie, but the Keepers also don’t take
care of the humans in any way that I’ve seen. I mean, it’s blatantly obvious,
because of how often the reader is told that the humans are afraid of the
Guardians and the Keepers, that they’re not taking care of them. The humans are
terrified of all of them. Which seemed a bit god-mode-y, but whatever. I don’t
understand how anyone could believe that.
I wanted the whole
pack, all of the Guardians to revolt, and I hope they do.
I’ve talked about
the Keeper thing, and the Calla, so: the romance. I was not a huge fan of the
romance.
First off, I
actually don’t mind either of the candidates all that much. I see potential in
Ren, and I even feel a bit bad for him. I mean, he stopped fooling around with
other girls and was ready to commit fully to Calla, but instead she fell for
someone else. Of course, he needs to get all that alpha male bullshit out of
his head so he’ll calm down and not be so domineering, but once he does, he’ll
be great.
Then there’s Shay.
And, while his personality actually falls below Ren’s, I liked how he thought.
He’s the only one who sees reason, who goes looking for information, and sees
that what’s happening with the Keepers and Searchers, and what Calla is being
forced to do with Ren, isn’t right. And I very much like him for that alone.
There was also this one big surprise with Shay, in like the middle of the book,
that I wasn’t expecting to happen until maybe the next book, if at all, so that
was a bit of a surprise, and I was glad for it.
I don’t think what
Calla does with Shay, how she kisses him, is right, comparing to how she’s
supposed to be with Ren. But then I don’t think that she should be getting
feelings for Ren when she actually likes Shay. Near the beginning, too, she
kept pushing Ren away, telling herself that she doesn’t like him very much,
then falling into a puddle when he pushes himself at her. All she was doing was
playing hard to get, and that’s just dumb.
Lastly, the other
characters. I actually found their group of friends interesting. Some of them I
didn’t like so much, some of them I wouldn’t mind getting to know better, and
some I liked quite a bit. From my first reading, I remember liking Ansel,
Calla’s brother, and Bryn a lot more. I still really like them, especially
Ansel, but they don’t make the series for me quite like they did at first.
When I first
started the re-read, I was expecting to like this book not at all. I was
expecting not to want to pick up the next one at all. Now, I’m thinking about
it. I’m interested to see what happens, the ending was not very nice at all,
wouldn’t mind seeing more of some of the characters, want to see a revolt.
Mostly, I’m thinking about this because of the last fifty pages, plus maybe a
couple parts throughout the book. A lot of the book was just ‘meh’, though. I
wouldn’t have minded putting it down, which is something that I did several
times while reading it, which is why it took me, like, three weeks to finish
this book.
Now, I’m just left
wondering if I actually want to read the next book or not. Because, while there
are several things I want to know, I don’t know if I want to read another possible
four-hundred pages of this, especially when so little of the book was actually
exciting.
Sidenote: another
thing that bothers me, is how nice the actual hardback book of this is,
considering how not-happy I was with all the words inside it. The pages are all
uneven to create that old look, with a very pretty purple binding, and the
chapter pages are inked black with a moon in some phase. It’s gorgeous, and yet
the book was not quite so deserving of it.
