Friday 27 January 2017

REVIEW - WOLF DAUGHTER BY G.A. RAEL

Title: Wolf Daughter
Author: G.A. Rael
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Werewolves, Romance
Release Date: 14th September 2016

BLURB from Goodreads
Emery is a smart and driven college student whose upperclass world is turned upside down when her mother's engagement party is attacked by werewolves. Even more shocking is the revelation that Emery herself is a human-werewolf hybrid. After being shipped off to the country to live with the father who abandoned her, she finds herself at the center of a decades-old conflict between two werewolf families as well as a rivalry between her father's trusted beta and the black sheep of the pack. All Emery wants is to get back to her boyfriend Lawrence and her life in New York, but her father and her unwanted suitors have other plans for her future. When Lawrence becomes entangled in the world she wants nothing more than to escape, Emery will have to embrace the new normal or risk losing everything she loves. 


PURCHASE LINKS

REVIEW
It took me a while to decide what I wanted to read when choosing this book. I decided I wanted to continue with a shifter/werewolves theme. I've had this one waiting on my kindle/tablet waiting for me to read it for a while, so decided to go for this one.
 The cover features a female I would say is Emery. I like the font and placement of the title and author name, though I am not so keen on the "A contemporary fantasy" being printed on the cover, I like to discover the genre of the book by reading the blurb rather than needing it to be stated on the cover. Personally I think the genre description of paranormal, fantasy romance fits the book rather than the contemporary label.
I am finding the dynamics of the North East pack interesting. It seem's that Emery's father and Alpha Rick, is a more forward thinking leader than some of the other packs. In fact Rick is a powerful Alpha as is "The Alpha" or the whole of the north eastern region. Which probably why he has so successfully kept Emery hidden from all the other werewolves so well. The only reason emery is being taken to her father's and pack home is because there was a very public wolf attack, which occurred at her mother's engagement to new partner Robert. Emery has led a fairly modern life, her mum had her young and as far as emery is aware has brought her up single-handedly. Emery is settled in her own life, is independently minded, and has been dating psychologist Lawrence for three years now. Lawrence also has a rather feminist ethic. 
Emery is really pleased her mother, Beverly has found a partner in Robert, someone she can have fun with and at the same time will take care of her too. 
The attack happens as Emery has just finished her speech at Beverly and Roberts engagement party. The first clue anything is going on are the loud growls, then there's shattering glass and wolves! It's decided by her parents after this attack the safest place for Emery to be is with her father Rick, whom she has no memories of at all. Rick and the pack are taking care of the upset/trauma caused by the wolves attacking so blatantly in a public place. Rick sends one of his best wolves, Tucker, to collect Emery, and escort her to his home, which Emery has taken to calling "the compound". In her mind she is being taken away to some strange culture and she mentally shudders as she the majority of women she see's as her and tucker enter her fathers estate are all pregnant! It's not a big leap that Emery thinks her father has brought her here to be some sort of breeding machine to further increase his pack and power. 
It seems that Emery is somewhat of an anomaly as she is half human, but the differences don't stop there. Emery ends up with two of her fathers pack imprinting on her. There's Mitchell who acts as second in command and is a stable, reliable wolf. Then there's Dane, a more impetuous wolf who goes off on his own and does his own thing. Naomi the elder has never known such a thing as two wolves imprinting on one female. Imprinting is quite a complicated thing and once started cannot be stopped. If anything should happen to Emery those that imprinted on her will go feral. Ferals have to be put down as they are a danger to everyone, both human and pack. 
There is such a lot going on in this book, there are so many plot lines within this book. Emery being at the centre of most of them, there's the whole imprinting, so a love triangle between Emery, Mitchell and Dane. There's the fact that Emery has a human boyfriend Lawrence, and the whole attack/incident that needs to be covered up. There's the odd relationship between Emery and her mother Beverly. Also there's the old vendetta between a rival pack alpha Jeffrey and Emery's father Rick. There's an incident where a human is bitten, which usually ends with the human being immediately killed, but there are even more complications in this case, so the plot goes in another direction. I also adored all the usual pack politics and bickering between the wolves, as well as the easy camaraderie with each other. I would have liked to read more about the other pack members too. 
I of course loved Emery's character, all she has to adapt to, at first digging in her heels, and then eventually being actually eager to have a pack life. It was interesting how her opinion and thoughts about her mother change throughout the book. 
I loved both the characters of Mitchell and Dane, the two wolves that imprinted on her. Their characters as different as chalk and cheese, they fight like two kids over the last chocolate in the tin. (Emery being the last chocolate in the tin that they both want all to themselves). Though when events take a dangerous turn they manage to pull together for the sake of Emery. 
I admit that I did kind of see the whole Tucker/Lawrence story-line a little before it was revealed in the book. I really enjoyed the book, don't get me wrong but it could have been so much more. For example, I would have liked to have met some of the council members that Rick had to deal with too. There were also a couple of mistakes with wrong names being used, for example to begin with I thought Emery's mum was called Vanessa, but Vanessa is the maid at Ricks cabin. However Vanessa is then called Gretchen a little further into the book. I did auto correct this myself and I certainly wouldn't let a couple of typos put you off reading this book. I really didn't want to put this book down. I did feel that when the imprinting situation finally comes to a conclusion within the hunt. The steamy scene of Emery finally marking her mate, seemed a tiny bit "awkward", it all felt a little too rushed. I think this book could have maybe been longer or even made into two books there was certainly enough going on in it. The hunt itself wasn't as specific, or detailed as I expected. Though the scene around the river, is well written and detailed too. 
My final thoughts are that the book could possibly just end where it did and that be all for the story. Then again with all the other pack members and Emery, Dane and Mitchell's new way they will be running the pack, I think there could be so much more to read about. Either way I was fairly happy about how things ended. 




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