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A review by rouxellereads
Wolves of Duty by Charlotte Murphy
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
If I were just rating the first 50% of this book, it would have been a two star read. However, I pushed myself to continue and I'm happy that I did. The story follows Aspen Anai who is the female prize the males of the triquetra would receive if they win the Mating Games. However, as the games continue she learns about the corruption going on in the world around her.
The first half of this book was a struggle to get through. From the first chapter, it was hard to get into because the writing was not the best. There were info dumps with the world, repetitive writing (especially with the dialogue tags), and points when I was left with questions that could have been answered in a sentence/paragraph since it was in Aspen's POV (mainly talking about one thing here that is a mild spoiler). There were also way too many characters to keep track of when they only played a small part of the story. Pair that with the fact that the story is written in a character's POV I hated made this a struggle.
Aspen was the one of the characters I would have liked to die and then we get another person's perspective as the story continued. I don’t think she was supposed to be a likable protagonist since no one in this world seemed to truly be her friend either, which I don't mind. However, this girl was just annoying. She's so immature for being 19-20 and she doesn't seem to have a brain for herself. She didn't really notice anything until another character gave a poor foreshadowing clue of things she should watch out for and potential deceptions from other characters. I wish she was more of an active character and that her growth as a character wasn't stemmed from other characters telling her what to do. It just seemed she did whatever people told her to do. I know that was the point of her character arc but even at the end she was doing what others told her to do. It could have been an amazing character arc to have someone that was so immature and ignorant grow but she's still pretty passive at the end even when she knows the corruption is the truth.
The other characters would have been a lot more interesting to follow because they were actually the characters in the action. While Aspen was just sitting home or in their town, they were the ones doing all of the political rebellions. It would have been great world building (more on that later) and it would have been more interesting than just having the characters relay information to Aspen who wouldn't do anything with the information.
As for the romance, I...don't know how I feel about it. On one hand, I really liked Caius as a character. He was the mysterious guy that was mean to the main character. Then there was Sabre who was the good guy dating Aspen. It presented as a love triangle but it wasn't really a love triangle. I knew from the beginning who the author wanted to be the love interest to be even if the main character was flipping back and forth between them. The one thing about the romance, though, was that I couldn't understand why Caius liked her. It's revealed what Sabre thinks of her but Caius only has the one reason I can't divulge because it is a spoiler. Like most of the other characters, it seems like they just put up with her because she is the female. No one actually likes her which made it hard for me to actually find out why they wanted her.
As for the world building, I was a little confused. It wasn’t the political structure that confused me, though. It was the time period that this world takes place. I knew it wasn’t a European inspired world because of the food they ate (plantains, cow foot soup, etc) and there’s a few Black cultures that eat food like that. But there were times that I thought we were in some historical inspired time because of the way they dressed, the lack of phones/electronics, and the use of carriages for everyday life. Then there would be times that I would be taken out of that because of the alcohol they were drinking (tequila?) and use of showers sometimes. It didn't bother me much because I usually read for the character anyway but those readers that need deep and consistent world building probably won't like this.
This was a lot about what I didn't like about the book but it ended up going up a star because the way that the author writes the drama and the tensions had me flipping the pages like crazy. It didn't get interesting to me until the second challenge of the mating games. It's spoilers if I say why, but OMG I was hooked from that point on. The tension and the reveals were on point! I cannot wait to read the second book despite the fact that I still hate Aspen.
Now for some spoilers. Don't read if you don't want to know what happens!
Why did Caius like her? I talked about this earlier but the whole mates thing is what I hated. I know it's a werewolf thing but does that mean that there can't be chemistry and other reasons that they like each other?
Also, how did she get pregnant by two different men? That's not even possible biologically, right? Is it a wolf thing in this world that she can carry more than one man's child?
Aspen's sister would have gotten these hands if I found out that she was having sex with my boyfriend. Actually, I would have killed her especially if I was the female and they couldn't hurt me. But I guessed that her sister was sleeping with Sabre in the beginning as soon as she was about to tell Aspen something and then changed her mind.
She'd be such a bad ruler as the true Alpha because she's so dumb. I feel so bad for the future of their world if it lands in her hands. Caius would be better. Caius deserves better!
But also, it seems like everyone and their mama knew what Goliath did to have both Caius and Sire be his son! I'm so blew! OMG!
The first half of this book was a struggle to get through. From the first chapter, it was hard to get into because the writing was not the best. There were info dumps with the world, repetitive writing (especially with the dialogue tags), and points when I was left with questions that could have been answered in a sentence/paragraph since it was in Aspen's POV (mainly talking about one thing here that is a mild spoiler). There were also way too many characters to keep track of when they only played a small part of the story. Pair that with the fact that the story is written in a character's POV I hated made this a struggle.
Aspen was the one of the characters I would have liked to die and then we get another person's perspective as the story continued. I don’t think she was supposed to be a likable protagonist since no one in this world seemed to truly be her friend either, which I don't mind. However, this girl was just annoying. She's so immature for being 19-20 and she doesn't seem to have a brain for herself. She didn't really notice anything until another character gave a poor foreshadowing clue of things she should watch out for and potential deceptions from other characters. I wish she was more of an active character and that her growth as a character wasn't stemmed from other characters telling her what to do. It just seemed she did whatever people told her to do. I know that was the point of her character arc but even at the end she was doing what others told her to do. It could have been an amazing character arc to have someone that was so immature and ignorant grow but she's still pretty passive at the end even when she knows the corruption is the truth.
The other characters would have been a lot more interesting to follow because they were actually the characters in the action. While Aspen was just sitting home or in their town, they were the ones doing all of the political rebellions. It would have been great world building (more on that later) and it would have been more interesting than just having the characters relay information to Aspen who wouldn't do anything with the information.
As for the romance, I...don't know how I feel about it. On one hand, I really liked Caius as a character. He was the mysterious guy that was mean to the main character. Then there was Sabre who was the good guy dating Aspen. It presented as a love triangle but it wasn't really a love triangle. I knew from the beginning who the author wanted to be the love interest to be even if the main character was flipping back and forth between them. The one thing about the romance, though, was that I couldn't understand why Caius liked her. It's revealed what Sabre thinks of her but Caius only has the one reason I can't divulge because it is a spoiler. Like most of the other characters, it seems like they just put up with her because she is the female. No one actually likes her which made it hard for me to actually find out why they wanted her.
As for the world building, I was a little confused. It wasn’t the political structure that confused me, though. It was the time period that this world takes place. I knew it wasn’t a European inspired world because of the food they ate (plantains, cow foot soup, etc) and there’s a few Black cultures that eat food like that. But there were times that I thought we were in some historical inspired time because of the way they dressed, the lack of phones/electronics, and the use of carriages for everyday life. Then there would be times that I would be taken out of that because of the alcohol they were drinking (tequila?) and use of showers sometimes. It didn't bother me much because I usually read for the character anyway but those readers that need deep and consistent world building probably won't like this.
This was a lot about what I didn't like about the book but it ended up going up a star because the way that the author writes the drama and the tensions had me flipping the pages like crazy. It didn't get interesting to me until the second challenge of the mating games. It's spoilers if I say why, but OMG I was hooked from that point on. The tension and the reveals were on point! I cannot wait to read the second book despite the fact that I still hate Aspen.
Now for some spoilers. Don't read if you don't want to know what happens!
Also, how did she get pregnant by two different men? That's not even possible biologically, right? Is it a wolf thing in this world that she can carry more than one man's child?
Aspen's sister would have gotten these hands if I found out that she was having sex with my boyfriend. Actually, I would have killed her especially if I was the female and they couldn't hurt me. But I guessed that her sister was sleeping with Sabre in the beginning as soon as she was about to tell Aspen something and then changed her mind.
She'd be such a bad ruler as the true Alpha because she's so dumb. I feel so bad for the future of their world if it lands in her hands. Caius would be better. Caius deserves better!
But also, it seems like everyone and their mama knew what Goliath did to have both Caius and Sire be his son! I'm so blew! OMG!