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elyana's review
3.0
L'évolution de leur relation et leur dynamique à la fin du livre ??? *chef's kiss*
linda_1410's review
3.0
Boogie finally gets some page time! Yay! And even a heroic moment! You go, Boogie! (But seriously, why does Cooper have this cat? He does not give her nearly enough attention. 😠) I liked Eli too. He makes quite the entrance. 🤭 I think he should adopt Boogie and they should go have adventures together.
Everything else... let's start with the "mystery" since that's less complicated. I figured thatwhatever was going on, Stuart, Marcus and Daisy were all involved somehow. I did think that it was Daisy orchestrating everything behind the scenes, but she just ended up being a dupe in Marcus's schemes, and Marcus was just capitalizing on Stuart's scheming to work that into his own shenanigans. So that was a good twist. But I'm baffled at the point of Raymond's character coming along with that one ominous line never to be seen or heard from again. Pretty convenient for the plot, there, author. And I did have to roll my eyes at the drawing room reveal scene straight out of an Agatha Christie novel, and the entire pack literally standing by Cooper. I wonder if this scene was highlighted in the outline as "Big Dramatic Moment!" or something. It felt rather forced and quite a bit unearned, though I suppose they were siding more with Oliver than with Cooper, but it wasn't written in a way to give that impression. At least it wasn't a magical bandaid that made everything okay between Cooper and the family, so that was nice. Although, I have to say, though I do not agree with Marcus's methods at all, I do agree with his assessment of the situation, and I'm glad that Cooper's realized that the limited scope of the BSI is problematic at best.
As far as the pack politics, I do like how the author is handling all that stuff. It's different enough from the usual that it feels fresh, but it's still pack politics. I'm still finding myself not giving much of a crap. And I wonder if the elitist and privileged life of the Park family has finally highlighted the reason why I find this stuff so underwhelming. It's pretty much the same plotline as the domineering dad forcing his son to go into the family business and continue to grow the empire and all that nonsense. I just don't care. It's so far out of my own experiences that I can't relate to it in the slightest.
Then there's the romance. Park doing the Incredibly Stupid Thing was finally put into perspective and ironed out fairly well and it's almost understandable. Except for one thing. Like, bro,tell Cooper that your family doesn't know he's human. Don't let him walk into that blindly. Jeez Louise. I'm still irked over that and I'm not convinced these guys are anywhere close to having a strong enough relationship to be talking about moving in together, and possibly even joining the Park pack some day. On the one hand, the author can't exactly have all these important relationship developments happen between books. On the other hand, they've been together for MONTHS and still are working this stuff out? Cooper might be a mess but at least he talks to Park. And I really have a hard time buying Cooper as an alpha anything when he's constantly letting things like this slide.
Oh, and AQ? 🙄 I think my eyes rolled into the back of my head once I worked that one out. Besides which,being incapable of feeling all the pack mojo that the wolves feel doesn't exactly make Cooper better at being a leader. It just makes him incapable of feeling all the pack mojo. Though I do like that "alpha" doesn't automatically mean who's the toughest/best fighter/most intimidating.
Oh, and one last thing: Helena going on about the women who were basically used for breeding stock to make more werewolf children without their knowledge or consent, then being accused of ignorance when said children shifted for the first time and those women naturally freaked the hell out...Um, yeah, what other reaction exactly were you expecting in this scenario? Keep people ignorant, then they're going to react with ignorance, and it really grates me that the blame is never once set on the werewolf men who did this to those women. Nope, it's all just "those evil humans trying to kill us" and not "maybe we should have been more forthcoming before the truth inevitably made itself known." Because that could have been prevented if those men had either told their partners the truth at any point in the intervening YEARS or absconded with the children before their first shift happened. Or, you know, just not sleeping with human women. It's not like the female wolves are incapable of reproducing, so this is a problem that doesn't need to exist and it's solely the fault of the wolves. 🤬🙄
So there is stuff that I like, and Adhara's writing is very easy to read, but I'm finding myself having diminishing returns with this series. I think I'll step back and give myself some time before deciding to continue or not. The fact that most of my friends seemed to have issues with some development in the last book doesn't exactly inspire me to go forward either, but we'll see.
Everything else... let's start with the "mystery" since that's less complicated. I figured that
As far as the pack politics, I do like how the author is handling all that stuff. It's different enough from the usual that it feels fresh, but it's still pack politics. I'm still finding myself not giving much of a crap. And I wonder if the elitist and privileged life of the Park family has finally highlighted the reason why I find this stuff so underwhelming. It's pretty much the same plotline as the domineering dad forcing his son to go into the family business and continue to grow the empire and all that nonsense. I just don't care. It's so far out of my own experiences that I can't relate to it in the slightest.
Then there's the romance. Park doing the Incredibly Stupid Thing was finally put into perspective and ironed out fairly well and it's almost understandable. Except for one thing. Like, bro,
Oh, and AQ? 🙄 I think my eyes rolled into the back of my head once I worked that one out. Besides which,
Oh, and one last thing: Helena going on about the women who were basically used for breeding stock to make more werewolf children without their knowledge or consent, then being accused of ignorance when said children shifted for the first time and those women naturally freaked the hell out...Um, yeah, what other reaction exactly were you expecting in this scenario? Keep people ignorant, then they're going to react with ignorance, and it really grates me that the blame is never once set on the werewolf men who did this to those women. Nope, it's all just "those evil humans trying to kill us" and not "maybe we should have been more forthcoming before the truth inevitably made itself known." Because that could have been prevented if those men had either told their partners the truth at any point in the intervening YEARS or absconded with the children before their first shift happened. Or, you know, just not sleeping with human women. It's not like the female wolves are incapable of reproducing, so this is a problem that doesn't need to exist and it's solely the fault of the wolves. 🤬🙄
So there is stuff that I like, and Adhara's writing is very easy to read, but I'm finding myself having diminishing returns with this series. I think I'll step back and give myself some time before deciding to continue or not. The fact that most of my friends seemed to have issues with some development in the last book doesn't exactly inspire me to go forward either, but we'll see.
raveturkey's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
emuhly's review
5.0
RE-READ JUNE 2024 — i’m here again
RE-READ JUNE 2023 — obviously my original review holds true since i’m rereading only four months later
FIRST READ FEB 2023 — i can’t get enough of these bastards!
RE-READ JUNE 2023 — obviously my original review holds true since i’m rereading only four months later
FIRST READ FEB 2023 — i can’t get enough of these bastards!
randalena's review
4.0
I swear if these guys do not start talking regularly in the next book I’m gonna quit the series. That was a completely empty threat. But just talk dudes. This book could have had all the same drama even if they talked to each other about what was coming. It didn’t need to be so unnecessarily frustrating. But I’m still giving it 4 stars so maybe don’t listen to me.
bookswithleigh's review
3.0
Hm. I lost a bit of steam with this one, that's for sure.
While I liked the glimpse into the wolf-heavy world the Parks live in, I still don't think the worldbuilding was up to par from what I've come to expect. I, of course, enjoyed the further development of Cooper and Oliver's relationship, but I just didn't feel as satisfied by this one. Maybe it was extenuating circumstances, maybe it was the fact that even with my horrible track record for guessing the murderer, I still didn't think the leap of logic Cooper took made sense...
I think that of the three I've read in the series so far (not counting [b:Pack of Lies|58958235|Pack of Lies (Monster Hunt #1)|Charlie Adhara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1656345287l/58958235._SY75_.jpg|92921660], which we all know is my favorite), best in show still goes to [b:The Wolf at Bay|39675787|The Wolf at Bay (Big Bad Wolf, #2)|Charlie Adhara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528870436l/39675787._SY75_.jpg|61270807].
...I did like finally meeting Eli, since I'm very fond of his POV, so it was fun to see how he interacted with Cooper given their dynamic in Pack of Lies. Other than that, I think this installment in the series just sits at average for me.
While I liked the glimpse into the wolf-heavy world the Parks live in, I still don't think the worldbuilding was up to par from what I've come to expect. I, of course, enjoyed the further development of Cooper and Oliver's relationship, but I just didn't feel as satisfied by this one. Maybe it was extenuating circumstances, maybe it was the fact that even with my horrible track record for guessing the murderer, I still didn't think the leap of logic Cooper took made sense...
I think that of the three I've read in the series so far (not counting [b:Pack of Lies|58958235|Pack of Lies (Monster Hunt #1)|Charlie Adhara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1656345287l/58958235._SY75_.jpg|92921660], which we all know is my favorite), best in show still goes to [b:The Wolf at Bay|39675787|The Wolf at Bay (Big Bad Wolf, #2)|Charlie Adhara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528870436l/39675787._SY75_.jpg|61270807].
...I did like finally meeting Eli, since I'm very fond of his POV, so it was fun to see how he interacted with Cooper given their dynamic in Pack of Lies. Other than that, I think this installment in the series just sits at average for me.
claudiavk's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
kaitlin_durante's review
4.0
4.5 stars.
Cooper and Oliver head up to Canada for his grandfather's wake and end up in the middle of a mess.
Cooper goes through an emotional roller coaster in this book because not only does Oliver really keep everything about his family and life before they met a secret, when it comes out it completely obliterates the trust that was there before.
I felt awful for Cooper through a majority of this book and kept getting angry at Oliver's family for making it so Oliver couldn't open up. Some of it was totally Oliver's fault but there was so much ingrained behavior that was keeping him so closed off.
This being said I very much enjoyed this book and can't wait to see what else these two get up to.
Cooper and Oliver head up to Canada for his grandfather's wake and end up in the middle of a mess.
Cooper goes through an emotional roller coaster in this book because not only does Oliver really keep everything about his family and life before they met a secret, when it comes out it completely obliterates the trust that was there before.
I felt awful for Cooper through a majority of this book and kept getting angry at Oliver's family for making it so Oliver couldn't open up. Some of it was totally Oliver's fault but there was so much ingrained behavior that was keeping him so closed off.
This being said I very much enjoyed this book and can't wait to see what else these two get up to.
nevclue's review
4.0
I really enjoy how closely these books tie the emotional arc of Cooper's and Park's relationship to the mystery at hand. This time we learn about Park's family and how he became who he is.