Sarah's Library

7/12 - Hmm, not sure about this one so far (page 20). I don't want to say it's got plot holes (too early to assume), but it has got a bit of plot sieve action going on. So, you know how if you dump a cup of flour into a sieve a little sprinkling comes out immediately, but then it stops? As long as you don't poke at it, jiggle it, or breathe too heavily, right? Well, that's the stage I'm at in Full Blooded, the flour's in the sieve, a fine dusting leaked out, but it's stopped for the moment. I'm afraid if I poke at the plot too much the sieve will disappear and there'll just be a gaping hole where the plot used to be and a pile of flour on the bench.

You see, we've just been told that Jessica's father has been with his 2IC for over 100 years, that makes him well over 100 years in age. If he's that old why does he only have two children, 26-year-old twins? You would think he'd be sowing his seed wherever he could in order to prolong his bloodline (he's the North American alpha). Also, where's his wife? Is this going to be a 'mated/bonded/one and only forever and ever' kind of thing? Because I'm looking forward to reading a werewolf/shifter book where a spouse can die or divorce and the one left behind is allowed to move on, in stead of being permanently attached to the dead or ex (that doesn't happen often) spouse for all eternity. When is someone going to write a book with a werewolf/shifter who's had a life partner/spouse who died, but as they weren't 'mated/bonded/one and only forever and ever' they were able to move on and find another life partner/spouse? That's what I want to know. To be continued...

8/12 - I feel like I'm missing something with this book. It's as if the first 100 pages, where Jessica's back story is explained, has been accidentally edited out of the book. Jessica frequently talks about events from her time at the 'compound', but exactly what the 'compound' is, where it is or details about these events are never given. Something bad happened between her and Hank while she was still living there, leading to her needing to escape, but we have no idea what. This is all discussed, either via internal monologue or with other characters, as if there was a prologue that showed the reader what happened, BUT THERE WASN'T. It's really frustrating me! Plus, I don't understand why it took till page 150 to hear anything about Jessica and Tyler's mother. We didn't even know if she was dead or a woman who couldn't handle raising werewolves or just decided she hated Callum (J & T's father). Turns out she died during childbirth due to the strain put on her body from giving birth to twin werewolves. I would have thought that would have been mentioned in the 'introduce the MC' phase of the book in the opening chapter(s).

All this talk of events prior to the story was really bringing the rating down in my head. Every time something was mentioned without an explanation being given (which was pretty much every time) the rating got lower, I was even starting to think about not finishing it. Then a ray of light shone through the clouds of confusion in the form of Jessica's fight with Drake the paedophilic imp. After that the plot finally started to pick up and the past was no longer mentioned in EVERY scene, as it had (or seemed to have been) up until then. To be continued...

10/12 - I'm giving this 3.5 stars. I really can't say four because of the irritations I mentioned above, but it wasn't so bad as to be just 'average' (three stars). There were some things I liked, like Jessica and Rourke's interactions after he helped her escape and the fact that she's extra special (not just the only female werewolf, but a Lycan). I will definitely get the next book in the series, would have it on hold already but I've reached the limit of holds allowed.