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A review by tiffanytcole
Tamed by Douglas R. Brown
5.0
*Giveaway Bonus*
If you enjoy the review below and would like to win a bookmark and either a print copy of Tamed by Douglas Brown or Legends Reborn (The Light of Epertase, Book One) by Douglas Brown, all you have to do is comment by February 25th, 2012 at Reader's Den (http://www.readers-den.com/2012/02/tamed-by-douglas-brown.html).
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It all started in 1993 when Bernard, a young, ambitious CEO, brought a team of mercenaries to a small village with only one goal in mind - bring back one male and kill everyone else.
Eighteen years later, Bernard's merciless massacre has made him a billionaire. The one male he brought back was all he needed to start a whole farm of werewolves, or wergs, that he could sell to the public as pets or guard dogs. The werepets are on commercials, discussed on late night shows, and in people's homes. They're more powerful than a dog, yet less beastly than a werewolf...well, at least when they've been trained and reprogrammed, and being trained doesn't always mean they'll remain domesticated.
The public has no idea that the wergs are humans.
Christine, a devoted paramedic for the fire station who originally wants no involvement with werepets whatsoever, soon finds out the hard way about all of the WereHouse's lies when she is attacked by a rogue werg on what she and her partner figured was just a routine EMS call. Though the werewolf didn't bite her, enough of its blood mixes with hers for her to feel all the tell-tale changes of transformation.
The day she transforms, her world changes. It's up to her and her new rogue hunter companion to put an end to Bernard's crimes and bring those crimes to the light, but Bernard is forever the survivor. The goal will be far from an easy one.
When I do book reviews, the stars don't really mean anything to me. I generally give all my reviews a 4-star because I generally like all the books I review. If I don't like the book, I'll give it a 3-star. I've just never been a 1-2 star person because I haven't read many stories that I feel are that terrible. Plus, I'd rather people focus on my review and not the stars. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I haven't clicked 5-stars in a while, but I knew I'd give this book 5-stars when I was about 50 pages from the end.
Tamed is a story that jumps between four interconnecting POVs. It's a good balance that serves the purpose of showing the story from a variety of different angles. We get to see the rogue hunter lifestyle, the training and reprogramming lifestyle, the mastermind's lifestyle, and the lifestyle of a normal, hard-working woman who gets dragged into the conflict by chance. When POV switches are well-done, all the plots foreshadow and complement each other until, at the very end, they've all matched up and ended. These POV switches were masterfully done.
I despised, yet even felt sorry at points, for the characters that Douglas wanted the readers to despise. I cheered for the protagonists, my favorite being rogue hunter Aiden. He became one of my favorite characters soon after he was introduced. I don't know what it is with rogue hunter characters and me, but ever since Pip became my favorite character in the Hellsing OVA, I've just had a soft spot for these rough hunters whose lives only revolve around murdering their targets even though they would like something more. My second favorite character was Billy, Christine's humorous partner.
The whole story was wonderful throughout, but the climax and ending was awesome! I loved how the villain was taken care of. As much as I disliked Bernard, I had to give him kudos for being such a damn smart survivor. I'm tired of stupid villains. Sure, I want them to get what they deserve, but I love it when the protagonists have one hell of a job getting him down. Oh, speaking of protagonists having one hell of a job....
Douglas Brown was not afraid to harm his characters, both mentally and physically. That's also an extremely refreshing sight. I felt genuinely like the protagonists' adventure and journey was an arduous, deadly one and I respect them all the more for getting through such an ordeal.
In fact, I've come to respect Brown's skill as a storyteller altogether. I will definitely be reading his other books, that's for sure.
If you enjoy the review below and would like to win a bookmark and either a print copy of Tamed by Douglas Brown or Legends Reborn (The Light of Epertase, Book One) by Douglas Brown, all you have to do is comment by February 25th, 2012 at Reader's Den (http://www.readers-den.com/2012/02/tamed-by-douglas-brown.html).
*************************
It all started in 1993 when Bernard, a young, ambitious CEO, brought a team of mercenaries to a small village with only one goal in mind - bring back one male and kill everyone else.
Eighteen years later, Bernard's merciless massacre has made him a billionaire. The one male he brought back was all he needed to start a whole farm of werewolves, or wergs, that he could sell to the public as pets or guard dogs. The werepets are on commercials, discussed on late night shows, and in people's homes. They're more powerful than a dog, yet less beastly than a werewolf...well, at least when they've been trained and reprogrammed, and being trained doesn't always mean they'll remain domesticated.
The public has no idea that the wergs are humans.
Christine, a devoted paramedic for the fire station who originally wants no involvement with werepets whatsoever, soon finds out the hard way about all of the WereHouse's lies when she is attacked by a rogue werg on what she and her partner figured was just a routine EMS call. Though the werewolf didn't bite her, enough of its blood mixes with hers for her to feel all the tell-tale changes of transformation.
The day she transforms, her world changes. It's up to her and her new rogue hunter companion to put an end to Bernard's crimes and bring those crimes to the light, but Bernard is forever the survivor. The goal will be far from an easy one.
When I do book reviews, the stars don't really mean anything to me. I generally give all my reviews a 4-star because I generally like all the books I review. If I don't like the book, I'll give it a 3-star. I've just never been a 1-2 star person because I haven't read many stories that I feel are that terrible. Plus, I'd rather people focus on my review and not the stars. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I haven't clicked 5-stars in a while, but I knew I'd give this book 5-stars when I was about 50 pages from the end.
Tamed is a story that jumps between four interconnecting POVs. It's a good balance that serves the purpose of showing the story from a variety of different angles. We get to see the rogue hunter lifestyle, the training and reprogramming lifestyle, the mastermind's lifestyle, and the lifestyle of a normal, hard-working woman who gets dragged into the conflict by chance. When POV switches are well-done, all the plots foreshadow and complement each other until, at the very end, they've all matched up and ended. These POV switches were masterfully done.
I despised, yet even felt sorry at points, for the characters that Douglas wanted the readers to despise. I cheered for the protagonists, my favorite being rogue hunter Aiden. He became one of my favorite characters soon after he was introduced. I don't know what it is with rogue hunter characters and me, but ever since Pip became my favorite character in the Hellsing OVA, I've just had a soft spot for these rough hunters whose lives only revolve around murdering their targets even though they would like something more. My second favorite character was Billy, Christine's humorous partner.
The whole story was wonderful throughout, but the climax and ending was awesome! I loved how the villain was taken care of. As much as I disliked Bernard, I had to give him kudos for being such a damn smart survivor. I'm tired of stupid villains. Sure, I want them to get what they deserve, but I love it when the protagonists have one hell of a job getting him down. Oh, speaking of protagonists having one hell of a job....
Douglas Brown was not afraid to harm his characters, both mentally and physically. That's also an extremely refreshing sight. I felt genuinely like the protagonists' adventure and journey was an arduous, deadly one and I respect them all the more for getting through such an ordeal.
In fact, I've come to respect Brown's skill as a storyteller altogether. I will definitely be reading his other books, that's for sure.