448 pages
English language
Published Sept. 7, 2004 by Plume.
An addictive, deeply enjoyable thrill ride on the frontier of the feral and feminine...a debut novel of astonishing imaginative power from the future queen of suspense.Elena Michaels slips out of bed, careful not to wake her boyfriend. He hates it when she disappears in the middle of the night, and can't understand why any normal woman would crave the small hours of the morning, the dark unsafe downtown streets. But Elena's skin is tingling, the pent-up energy feels like it's about to blow her muscles apart — she can't put it off any longer. She loves to run at the edge of the city, but she doesn't have time to get there. She has to slink into an alley, take off her clothes and hide them carefully, and make the Change.Elena's trying hard to be normal. She hates her strength, and her wildness, and her hunger for food, for sex, …
An addictive, deeply enjoyable thrill ride on the frontier of the feral and feminine...a debut novel of astonishing imaginative power from the future queen of suspense.Elena Michaels slips out of bed, careful not to wake her boyfriend. He hates it when she disappears in the middle of the night, and can't understand why any normal woman would crave the small hours of the morning, the dark unsafe downtown streets. But Elena's skin is tingling, the pent-up energy feels like it's about to blow her muscles apart — she can't put it off any longer. She loves to run at the edge of the city, but she doesn't have time to get there. She has to slink into an alley, take off her clothes and hide them carefully, and make the Change.Elena's trying hard to be normal. She hates her strength, and her wildness, and her hunger for food, for sex, for running in the night, for the chase and the kill. She wants a husband, children...even a mother-in-law. Or at least that's what she tells herself.And then the inevitable happens. The Pack needs her. The Pack she loves and hates is under siege from a bunch of disreputable and ruthless mutts who are threatening to expose them all, breaking all the rules that have kept them safe. The loyalty of her nature calls her home, and into the fight, which tests just who Elena is: the wild woman or the wistful would-be human.
I did not like this book. Maybe it just wasn't for me. When you get into the details of being a werewolf, the pain, the tearing of clothing and the wild hunger, it just puts me off. Maybe I don't like shapeshifters at all.
This one didn't sit well with me. It's too rapey, too obedient, too much "what will other people think of me?".
I expected a strong female character, but to me Elena wasn't so convincing. Maybe it was the "look at me, I'm the only woman here", maybe it's the all too familiar "female character who isn't allowed female traits". Might even be that shape changers aren't exactly my favourite type of "monster". I don't know, but this one isn't it.
Well werewolf romance. A first for me definitely. Bonus points for not being vampire romance (I do like vampire romance but ...) After just finishing Allegiant a refreshingly more grown-up story. Lots of blood and gore among the romance or should I say lots of romance among the blood and gore?
Of course I liked Clay ;) Who wouldn't. As if what's-his-name ever had a chance.
A bit on the expensive side considering it took me all of two days to read. But I did order the second one in the series.
Hah! So, in a CRAZY coincidence, it turns out that book one is really a better starting point than book six. I know.
I really liked about this book that both the hero and heroine were mildly fucked up, and the book and most of the characters knew that, and lived with it. Elena, the POV character, is a werewolf who's been passing as human. She was bitten some years ago by Clay, the man she once thought was the man she was going to marry. (At the time, she thought he was a man, that is, as well as that she was going to marry him.) She's pretty pissed at him for the whole "turning her into a werewolf" thing.
Which is why she's living in Toronto and shacked up with a nice mild-mannered accountant. Okay, I don't think he's actual an accountant, but he's everything "accountant" is …
Hah! So, in a CRAZY coincidence, it turns out that book one is really a better starting point than book six. I know.
I really liked about this book that both the hero and heroine were mildly fucked up, and the book and most of the characters knew that, and lived with it. Elena, the POV character, is a werewolf who's been passing as human. She was bitten some years ago by Clay, the man she once thought was the man she was going to marry. (At the time, she thought he was a man, that is, as well as that she was going to marry him.) She's pretty pissed at him for the whole "turning her into a werewolf" thing.
Which is why she's living in Toronto and shacked up with a nice mild-mannered accountant. Okay, I don't think he's actual an accountant, but he's everything "accountant" is shorthand for, so go with it. But she goes back to the pack when she gets a call that they need help.
It's pretty evident from pretty much the beginning that Elena is going to end up with Clay, which bothered me; he turned her into a werewolf without her consent! I mean, we don't have a human analogue, but he radically altered her life without asking or even warning. It helps that Elena is mad at him for that, but at one point she says something like "I didn't want to talk about it, because I might have to listen to him, which meant I might have to forgive him."
The thing is, I don't see why listening to Clay entails forgiving him, it's not like he had a really good reason: "I had to turn you into a werewolf to save the last unicorn!" The book is maybe a little coy on his reasons, but it's suggested that it's because Clay can't always control his animal instincts, and some werewolf-y part of him wanted Elena for his werewolf-y mate. Now, for the most part, Clay is not an abusive control-y sort of person; in fact, he's rather desperately trying to make up to Elena for his mistake those years ago. And yet, it's a pretty big mistake, I'd say!
However, if I have given the impression this is going to be about men who cannot control their passions and the women who surrender to them, that's very inaccurate. Elena can certainly control herself well enough, but she's inherently a violent and aggressive personality, so when she suppresses instincts, they're generally the more tender ones. Unlike some supernatural books when sort of defang the creatures of the night, Elena slaughters her way through this book, never killing people without a reason, but killing willingly enough when a reason comes up. Clay and Elena are well enough suited, I just uncomfortable with the fact that it's treated like Clay has suffered enough from seven years of Elena's rejection, and it's time she got over it.
A different take on the werewolf myth, the Anne Rice of werewolves!
