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~ A Writer's Thoughts and Reviews

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Tag Archives: werewolves

Book Review: Rogue Huntress by Thea Atkinson

30 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by MBenson in Reviews

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amblogging, amreading, books, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, inspiration, pack struggle, review, reviews, Rogue Huntress, Rogue Huntress Chronicles, Thea Atkinson, thoughts, update, Urban Fantasy, werewolves

Author: Thea Atkinson
Publisher: Thea Atkinson
Series: Rogue Huntress Chronicles
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: July 6, 2016
Rating: 4 Stars

Find Rogue Huntress on Goodreads

Brief Synopsis

Shana, an assassin for the Beo pack, has been taken hostage by her foster brother, Caleb, after he kills her father, the alpha. By pack law, Caleb is now the alpha of the pack, but Shana and her brothers are a threat to his leadership and he’ll do what he can to force Shana into submission with the lives of her brothers.

Can Shana fake submission long enough to turn the tables on Caleb and take her pack back? Or will the human mercenary Caleb’s brought in be too much of a distraction that she’ll lose it all?

Review

The book starts off right in the thick of everything. We don’t start before Shana’s capture to get to know any of the characters, but with Shana already captured, trapped in the manor she called home. Caleb, her foster-brother turned captor wants her to submit to him and be his mate, but naturally Shana doesn’t want to mate to the man who had killed her father and put her essentially in a cage, even if her wolf thinks the idea of mating to such a powerful wolf isn’t a terrible idea.

A lot of the backstory about Shana and Caleb comes to us through Shana reflecting back on the past and both who she thought people were coupled with what Shana has gone through to make her the woman she is today. She thinks several times that she’s not sure who this Caleb is, because he wasn’t the man she’d grown up with, trained with, and knew as a brother. Though short of those comments we aren’t ever shown that juxtaposition against the Caleb we see keeping her captor and wanting her to be his. It’s a lot of telling in that respect.

Throughout the book, we’re teased back and forth with Jeb, the human mercenary that helped Caleb take over the pack and had been helping keep Shana captive. He seems cold and calculating, but then there are glimpses where we think we can maybe trust him, that he’ll be there and come through to help Shana take Caleb down and free her pack from his influence.

The worldbuilding that exists is good, because we’re mostly kept at Shana’s manor and the surrounding woods and ravine around it there isn’t too much to have Shana describe or see to us. But the descriptions of the old trees, the roots that in some scenes are large enough for Shana to duck under or around, the bramble bushes with their pricklers are described nicely to be able to visually see what Shana is going through. Even the description of the halls of the large manor as we’re taken through it in the different scenes left me fairly confident I knew about where things were from walking the halls with Shana.

The characters are mostly well thought out. Shana, being the main character feels the most alive, and her inner thoughts, motivations, and drive are well written. She’s very much a well flushed out character. As were the others over all. I don’t know if I’m over thinking it too much, but the only piece of the puzzle I feel like I’m missing is Caleb’s motivation for killing Shana’s father and taking over the pack.

Throughout the book Shana’s telling us that this isn’t the man she grew up with, and yet Jeb mentions at one point that this had been years in the planning. And Caleb didn’t take the pack over by way of the normal trial by combat normally associated with an alpha battle but crept in the shadows and took the wolves he knew he couldn’t beat fairly by deception and blind surprise. It leads well to why some of the pack wouldn’t follow him because it reeks of cowardliness despite the strength Shana’s wolf tells us Caleb has.

While I liked the book over all, it’s the lack of understanding Caleb’s motivation for turning on the people that had welcomed him in as a family for centuries if Shana’s offer of growing up with him is caught correctly is what leaves this more at a four star read. The story does hook you, and I followed it happily. I am also considering picking up the next book to see where Shana goes. However, even after I read it, I still have the serious, but why did he do it, nagging at the back of my head. There were also quite a few noticeable errors in spelling and punctuation being funky that while it didn’t completely pull me out of the story, were distracting.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout in exchange for my honest, unbiased opinion. All thoughts are my own, and were not colored for receiving a free copy.

September Wrap-Up / October TBR

02 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by MBenson in reading, TBR, Writing

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amediting, amreading, amwriting, balancing, books, creativity, discoveries, dragon stories, dragons, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, NaNoWriMo 18, NaNoWriMo 2018, online presence, original fiction, original work, possible wip, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time, update, Urban Fantasy, werewolf stories, werewolves, what do, WIP, word count, writing

So, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. I went through a stage where I hadn’t been reading as much, and when I was it tended to be absolutely nothing off my TBR list. And so doing the lists fell by the wayside for a while.

But.

and I do mean BUT!

I’m picking them back up again. Dusting them off gently. And refreshing them so they are 100% doing well again.

Now, not to date my poor TBR list, but back in May *coughs softly* I had set myself a list to read. And SOME of it ended up being read. About 50% of it if we’re being honest.

The books I finished in August and September are:

  • Twisted gifts by Jessi Elliott
  • The Elite by Kiera Cass
  • Dividing Eden by Joelle Charbonneau
  • Doppelganger by Alyssa Drake
  • Daughter of Persephone by Helen Scott
  • Vicious by VE Schwab
  • Tasting Gretel by Lidiya Foxglove
  • Prisoner of Silk by Lidiya Foxglove

Three of those books were on my May TBR list. But overall seven books is nothing to shake a stick at for reading purposes and all. And to be fair to me, Stalking Jack the Ripper would have been read if I could have found the book. I remember finding it when I was cleaning, but I was reading something else so I put it aside for later. After finishing the book, I went back to grab Stalking and it was gone. -_-

So, the May TBR that was not complete was:

  • Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
  • An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
  • Chosen by Harlow Thomas & Anastasia Jones

For An Ember in the Ashes, it was less I didn’t want to read it and more, my Mother has a kindle that’s attached to my library and she’s currently reading it (63% done with it) so I’m going to wait until she’s done before I try and read it. If that happens in October and I am doing good on my TBR list I may dive into it. Otherwise, it will be back on my list in November.

For October I only have five books on it officially, and then there are two that are on it, if I finish my list early and still have some October left.

  • Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
  • Hope in Paris by Donnalyn Vojta
  • Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart
  • The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
  • Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco

The two maybe’s are:

  • Escaping From Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco
  • An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaar Tahir

For Stalking, I’m planning to borrow it from the library so I can read it if I can’t find my hard copy. I don’t want to have to buy it again if I don’t need to, and I already know that the moment – and I do mean the moment – that I purchase a new copy and get three chapters in the original copy will magically appear and be all ‘what, I was just chillin’ next to this chair you checked by seventy times’. Because that’s always how it goes. The dragons and/or the ghost of my dad – or both teaming up together – have a very twisted sense of humor.

Writing wise, I have two shorts that I’d like to get finished, one a dragon story and one a werewolf story. As well, I have my Prep’Tober work to do so I’m ready and Prepared for NaNoWrioMo in *checks calendar* 30 days.

Currently, my NaNo project has the main characters name, nickname, minor description, her two brothers have names, and the town has a name and the center of town has a layout. oh! and the series itself (it’s a collection of 12-13 shorts) has a name!

I have a vague idea of where I’m going to start for plot and the like for each short, but nothing concrete, nothing set in stone, and nothing that will make sure I can get myself through the month with actual words on the page. But, I have a few weeks to get it there. I have goals! And they shall nay be ignored! =)

What are you reading for this October season? Are you participating in NaNo next month? Are you ready for NaNo next month? Leave me an answer in the comments below!

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