Unleashed

Warning: I thought the main supernatural creature in this book was obvious from the synopsis but if you haven't figured it out then DO NOT READ my review because you will be spoiled.


I thought Unleashed was a pretty decent read, not awesome or terrible, but decent. It was not what I was expecting in terms of mood, I thought there was going to be a lot more action and intensity than what was presented considering this was a werewolf read but it wasn't and in it fact leaned towards the mysterious, dark, and eerie mood you'd usually expect in a ghost story. There was an issue I had with how it seem to take forever for the actual supernatural to be revealed to our heroine, I mean before even opening the first page the reader knows what the supernatural creature is so it's just frustrating to watch Katelyn weave through clue after clue and interact with mysterious person one and mysterious person two and not have it automatically click in her brain why these people are so unusual.

It also didn't help that there were wolves mentioned everywhere – Wolf Springs, Timberwolves, Wolf Seminar – “Unleash Your Inner Wolf!”, and wolf legends. At one point I thought all the wolves were a red herring of some sort because nothing about werewolves were being mentioned and people kept warning Katelyn that there was something more than wolves in the forest and yet I don't get any hint of werewolves until after 50% of the book. Fortunately werewolves aren't the only supernatural element in this book to keep my attention, there was something else mentioned a few times that even have the werewolves spooked and I suspect there is another kind of creature in the series but I could be reading something out of nothing but I have my fingers crossed.

As far the characters they, like the plot, were OK. There were a few that I don't trust and will be keeping a closer eye on but I didn't find any of them irritating so that's a plus. Katelyn our MC dreams of becoming a performer, her ultimate dream is to be apart of Cirque du Soleil and swinging through the air as an acrobat but this takes a backseat when Katelyn's mom is killed in a fire and Katelyn has to go live with her grandfather in Wolf Springs, Arkansas where her gymnastics is referred to as “playing on the monkey bars”. There we meet her grandfather, who I initially thought to be distant is actually quite caring and sweet. Trick or Vladimir Sokolov the funny, charming, artistic too perfect guy, who doesn't waste time letting Katelyn know he's interested. Justin, the mysterious, older guy who rides a motorcycle who Katelyn can't stay away from. Yes, there is a love triangle, you can sigh, its OK. And Cornelia, Katelyn's quick and only friend who's hiding lots and lots of things.

In conclusion, this story was a set up to the series and doesn't answer many questions until almost the very end which left me feeling underwhelmed when I read the final page. There were a lot of flat characters in this one that I didn't see enough of to develop a definite opinion of, and there wasn't even a proper climax now that I think about it but despite all this I thought this book had potential and hopefully things will be a lot more intense and gripping in book two.