Unleashed (Wolf Springs Chronicles #1)

As a wolf-oriented YA paranormal, 'Unleashed' started out with a lot of promise. The prose is clean and the setting descriptions are vivid. Pacing begins at a steady clip, with a grieving teenage main character who is being shipped from California, the only home she's ever known, to the middle-of-nowhere Arkansas—which she spends most of the book bitterly referring to as "banjo land." Paranormal fans are likely to enjoy the enticingly eerie atmosphere of the forested rural setting, laced with small town secrets and a history of brutal deaths.

But then, through a good deal of the middle the story seemed to lose momentum. It felt far too long before there was any significant reveal. In fact, it takes until around page 265 before someone finally offers to explain anything of a supernatural regard. And by that point, I had difficulty caring as much as I would have liked.

My biggest difficulty with the book was the main character, Kat. Out of sympathy for her recent fall into orphanhood, I could ignore the over-privileged diva vibes she radiated for about the first 50 pages. But after that, it became difficult to endure her myopic and irritatingly judgmental internal narrative. She didn't seem to grow as a person throughout the story. In addition, I found the instantaneous carnal attraction between Kat and Justin to be perplexing and off-putting—especially after having been led on for over 100 pages over her faithful family friend and chauffeur, Trick.

On the whole, too many concepts seemed to go unrealized. So much emphasis was initially placed on Kat's training in gymnastics and love for the sport, but that detail about her identity and future potential seemed to peter away into nothingness. There's a big to-do made over Kat learning to shoot a gun almost against her will—a skill she eventually becomes competent in, but never actually uses. At times, it felt like insignificant things were being explained ad nauseum, while enormous issues were left untouched. Curiosity over peripheral characters drove me on through much of the book, but ultimately, their lack of exploration was a disappointment. And the ending offered little closure amid an attempted cliff-hanger. By the final page, the reader is left with far more questions than answers.