| |
 You
get a spoiler warning because I'm going to find it very hard
to talk about this book without giving anything way.
However, I don't think I'll be giving away anything people
won't figure out for themselves, so... You’ve been warned.
Gina "Red" Santiago is viewed with suspicion by most of her
colleagues at the International Police Tactical Team, and in
a world where anyone different is potentially dangerous,
this doesn't make her many friends. After discovering the
mutilated body of a young girl, Red puts her career on hold
to travel to the town of Nuria and track down the killer.
But Nuria is hiding plenty besides a murderer, and Red comes
face-to-face with her own life-changing secret while she's
there.
If pushed, I'd say this was more of a post-apocalyptic
romance than a werewolf novel. Not that that's in any way a
bad thing. Post-apocalyptic landscapes are awesome, and
Summers has created a very believable world that I'm excited
to read more about. War has torn apart the USA and most of
it is now divided into republics and off-limit "no man's
land" areas. These off-limit areas are home to the Others,
creatures left over from the war and capable of supernatural
feats. Towns like Nuria are on the borders of these areas,
and usually ignored by the IPTT.
Werewolves
and vampires are a big part of that world, though, and I
suspect we might see some other monsters cropping up in
future books. It's revealed fairly early on that most of the
town are werewolves, with sheriff Morgan Hunter as the alpha
male. When Red enters the town, she immediately attracts
attention as an "unattached female." So even though Red
doesn't know what she is, the reader will figure it out
pretty quickly.
Once the reader does know Red's secret, the dramatic irony
is sometimes too much to bear. Red seems pretty in denial to
me, given the evidence surrounding her. Her grandfather
frequently refers to her as his "special one," and she has
keener senses than the average human. Oh, and she keeps
waking up covered in other people’s blood. Don't get me
wrong - I think Summers handles Red's dual nature well, but
it's stretching credibility that Red could have reached her
late twenties without ever cottoning on.
I do like Summers' evolution process for her werewolves -
scientifically created super-soldiers are always going to
please me. And I like that she took the traditional
mythology and put it into such a dramatic new context. She
mixes Red's POV with that of our killer very effectively,
although again, it probably won't take the reader long to
figure out who the killer is. This doesn't really hamper
your enjoyment of the tale though, because as I said, this
is really a romance novel. And it's a hot romance. Morgan
and Red sizzle together. The fact that he knows she's a
werewolf adds to the tension between them, and I'm sure it
will be a point of contention in the sequel.
What I want to see in the next book is more pack-related
action. Morgan is the leader of Nuria's werewolves, and
there seem to be a lot of them. Therefore it would make
sense to open this world up a bit more, especially now Red
is in the thick of it. With such a fascinating backdrop to
work with, I'd bet Summers has plenty of new twists planned. |
