Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

So, here's the disclaimer: I review all books that I finish.   Sometimes samples, whatever, but all books that I finish.  I  was friends with Nenia, although I consider her an acquaintance now.  I won't bore you with that story.   I'm also pretty sure she doesn't think of me unless I comment on one of her posts.  That being said, I don't believe in thinking about authors when you review.   At least not when I do; I review for myself, and other readers, not for authors.   So I'm going to review this with the same blunt honesty that I would with any other books.   I do hope it means that Nenia and I can be cordial to each other in the future.   She's been sweet to me, and to many other readers, and I really like her as a person.   (And I like her kitteh fixation.  It's super awesome.)

That being said, there were some positives and negatives to this book.   I liked it enough that I warped through it.   The characters and world were compelling enough, and I like how the shape shifters really thought like animals, especially Catherine.   (Of course, Catherine is the only shape shifter you get the first person perspective from, so you don't really get a feel for how the other shifters think.   Maybe that just makes it seem like she thinks more like an animal than other shifters, or maybe it's due to other differences.)

So, let's go over negatives first.   I didn't like the formatting in the PDF from Smashwords.   It was massive letters, all in italics, and I don't particularly like reading a whole book in all italics.   (No way was this a thousand page book, either.   According to my file, it was, but I read it all in like half a day.)   The italics go away for like two sentences.   It needed better editing. 

"'I'm more concerned about you'll do to them.'"

"With the detached serenity that only comes in dreams, Catherine flex her arm..."

"When his parents had kept her from speaking to her..."  (One of the hers should be a him.)

"It had her feel ill."

There are more, but they were few and far enough in between that I'm not going to go over them.  I also don't really want to have to scroll through a thousand pages.   

The climax felt anticlimactic.     After a strong, dramatic start, the climax has nothing to do with the main focus, the main threat, and actually feels minor in comparison.   That was kind of a let down.   

If the shape shifters are so intense - they can hear everything, and smell everything - wouldn't they be able to hear the kitten Catherine sneaks in?   I get it, they'll think she shifted to a kitten if they smell it, but if she's not home and it's making sounds - actual mewing, etc, scratching at the rugs/wood, etc, playing in the litter - wouldn't they be able to hear it?   Or smell the litter?   True fax, Ianto wasn't stinky in the litter box area, and then my sister got Dean.  He can stink up a whole house in a day.   No clarification on how stinky the cat's crap is.   (< -- classiest way I can think of to put it now.)   And this bothered me.

I didn't like the relationship between Catherine and Sharon (was it Sharon?) because it didn't feel realistic.   Also, Catherine's only female friend, and she's dumped when she's not useful to the point where I questioned where she went.   Not only that, they constantly call each other bitches, and Catherine seems to look down on her a bit.   I get the feeling Sharon? feels the same way about Catherine.   I want more healthy, well rounded girl friendships where the friend of the main character isn't dropped as soon as the main character finds something better - like a boy, right? - to focus on.

On the other hand, I did like the world that was set up, even if some of the information that I got felt a little like info dumps.   The villains felt like people you loved to hate.   (And I love those characters.)  I liked a lot of the characters: I liked Catherine, I liked her family, and I liked other characters you don't see that often.   

But the strongest element in this story is the world building.   It's a new take on shifters, on witches and on vampires, whom we don't see that often, if at all.   (A lot of things aren't fully explained - although I expect they will be in later books.)  It's intriguing enough that I didn't want to stop reading this, even when I was just taking breaks to read while some art dried.   I kept creeping off - bad, bad me - to keep reading this.   I'm going to bump up more of Nenia's book on my TBR list.   This was a quick, fun read, and I'm looking forward to more from her.