Review- Blood and Chocolate (Annette Curtis Klause)

Synopsis

Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf?

Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He’s fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would.

Vivian’s divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either. What is she really—human or beast? Which tastes sweeter—blood or chocolate?

                     - Goodreads.com

Review 

As far as werewolf books go, Blood and Chocolate is one I can read again and again (and indeed I have). Written quite some time ago (1997), long before the hype of Twilight and other supernatural books like it. Blood and Chocolate follows the typical path of werewolf girl falling for a human boy, but it’s not all candy and roses.

Our main character Vivian finds kinship in a male teen, Aiden, from her high school, after she reads a poem he’s written for their school newspaper. The poem speaks to her wolf side on many levels and shows an understanding that she would never expect to find from a human. Teen romantic escapades ensue, and Vivian begins to believe that she could actually reveal her true self to Aiden and have a somewhat normal life.

“It's only a game, she told her herself, to see if I can snare him. But she wanted to know what was in a human head to make him write that poem, and she wanted to know why he'd stolen the breath from her lips"

- Annette Curtis Klause (Blood and Chocolate)

Vivian is hard character to empathise with. The author did a great job of giving her a lot of ‘canine’ traits that I would expect to see in a werewolf; aggressive, hyper-sexuality, conceited and drop-dead gorgeous. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make for an easy character to like. There are a lot of instances where her dominant wolf-side comes out and it’s not necessarily pretty or nice. 

“I'd like to feel my teeth in her throat, Vivian thought. I'd like to slit her gullet"

- Annette Curtis Klause (Blood and Chocolate)

Aiden on the other hand is your typical teen boy, who falls for a mysterious, beautiful girl. While his character loses some esteem in my eyes, I really can’t blame him for his faults. A teen boy can only accept so much.

I have a feeling there will be many ill feelings regarding the ending, but for me it makes perfect sense. I don’t want to spoil it, but Vivian learns that having someone who truly accepts and understands you as a mate is better than hiding who you truly are. Unfortunately, this may disappoint some people who were hoping for a romantic ending about love overcoming all obstacles blah, blah.

The wolf pack itself and all the main players really gave off the vibe of a pack. There was hierarchy, fights for mates, dominance, and a hell of a lot of misogyny going on. Which while may be difficult to read in this day and age with equality between the sexes as the ideal, it pretty much nails the principles of pack and canine behaviour on the head.

Overall an enjoyable re-read, that I will more than likely come back to again in the coming years. Definitely one of my favourite romance werewolf novels that appears to grasp the morals and conventions of a wolf pack, without any of the ‘sparkles’.  

My Rating 4/5

Review - Linger (Maggie Stiefvater)

 

Synopsis

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole. 

 - Goodreads.com

My Review 

So this is Maggie Stiefvater’s 2nd book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. In all seriousness I think she could have stopped after book 1. The ending to Shiver, was perfect (big fat full stop). However I am truly glad she decided to continue with this series. While this book was not as good as its predecessor- Shiver. It was still a great read which kept me engaged throughout and wondering what the hell is going on with Grace? 

The ending was what really struck me the most. Throughout the whole story I had convinced myself that something bad was going to happen to Grace, but honestly didn’t think that the author would be so daring to go there...but she did. She really did!

With only one book to go, Miss Stiefvater is going to have to pull one hell of a Houdini act, to get out of that one.... and I can’t wait for what she comes up with.

Overall Maggie Stiefvater, has a beautiful way of narrating the story. The prose is delightful, and opens the imagination wide to all the senses around you. Personally I get restless, when there is too much description and not enough action. But in Linger it works well adding dimension to the world that’s been created. 

Overall 4/5

 The main thing that let it down, nothing was really achieved in this book. It was more of a lead up to the big finale in Forever #3

My Book Boyfriend #1

My Book Boyfriend is a weekly meme hosted by The Unread Reader , in which we swoon over boys in books! This week my Book Boyfriend is Sam Roth from the Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy.

Sam Roth: 

• Tall and lanky, with a ruffled mop of black hair with yellow eyes.

• He plays the guitar and writes his own songs. He is an avid poetry fan, Rilke is among his favorites. 

• As a wolf he is large and long-legged with gray fur and has the same distinctive yellow eyes. 

• During the winter he is in wolf form and then reverts back to human in the summer...this summer is his last.

"If he'd gone to my school, he probably would've been dismissed as an emo kid or maybe a long-lost member of the Beatles"- Grace Brisbane (Shiver)

"I don’t want to do this anymore, Grace. It’s not good enough any more to watch you from the woods, not now that I’ve been with you - the real thing. I can’t just watch any more. I’d rather risk whatever could happen-" - Same Roth (Shiver)

"I remembered the pain as clearly as if I were shifting - the pain of loss. I felt the agony of the single moment that I lost myself. Lost what made me Sam. The part of me that could remember Grace’s name."- Sam Roth (Shiver)

I do not own any of these images. All images should link back to the original source from which I found them.