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A review by naiapard
Hunger by Christie Goldenwulfe
4.0
Ah, the sweet pain of writing reviews retroactively. There has passed such a long time (almost a month) since I read this book. I am on a reading spree, from which I can hardly come down. That is why I am devouring my books, fearful not of an indigestion and not stopping to asses and make observations upon these materials, I so eagerly digest.
Let us see what is going on with this one.
This book was reprinted after being first published in 2016. The reason for that (my guess is) that the next book has been just released in what appears to be a duology and it maybe was favorable to have the first book published again, so the readers would have better access to it.
Good for them for doing that. Because in 2016 I would not have been able to even stumble upon this gem by mistake. To be honest, in 2016 I was still too new to this Goodreads thing and even Goodreads as a site was still crude and slightly inefficient for book searching (it has come a long way, but it still has to make a long and fruitful journey).
I have to say that I liked this book because it inspired me such a breath of fresh air. This author did not seem familiarized with the “standards” of the paranormal genre, and such it did not aim to follow tropes that might guarantee a bestseller. It truly felt like a debut, with all the good aspects of one: a fresh voice, an eager pen and an interesting take to a love story between a werewolf and human girl.
From the starters, we have two PoVs: his (the big, bad, non-committed werewolf that mesmerizes every creature he encounters) and hers (unimpressed, a bit flushed at his attention, a woman with a business and a house, someone with stars in her eyes and determination).
I liked that he did not have it in mind from the beginning to make her his forever partner (mate it is the word I am tip-toeing around). I can no longer take it seriously each time I see a werewolf romance and the leads are from the first caught in this battle of wills, trying not to cede to the “bond” that tugs at them. C’mon.
I like how wrong he proved to be.
Remember the part where I was saying that it was good that we had refreshing new voice, that this author is a debutant (she was for this book)? Well, that might be a problem in the terms of proportions.
In this game of courtship between the main characters, at some point it dawned on me that were it not specifically mentioned that this is a fantasy romance I would have been greatly concerned for the life of this girl. The way he goes around to woo her it is a bit more than creepy.
He relays a bit too much on his werewolfy senses. He finds her house. He follows her, unbeknownst to her…hmmm. And then something bad happens, but only he knows what is that. So we have this moment in which he suddenly jumps on the girl and tells her to run because something evil is coming for her and he will protect her from it.
My eyebrows were so up into the sky at this point. Bless her tender soul that she took him by his words and she did as she was told. By that point, I had to double-check that this is a fantasy book. This could have quickly turned into a crime documentary type of book in which we see how a girl gets gaslighted into thinking she is in grave danger. That her salvation can come only from this stranger with which she had had a night stand. And now they are together on the run from the police, which mind you, has been chasing him from the beginning of the book!!
The keyword for the entire operation should have been “keep Autumn” safe. It appears that many times. There are some cringe parts, yes, but overall I think it was a decent book that is worth a shot.