Book Description
Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf?

Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He's fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would.

Vivian's divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either. What is she really—human or beast? Which tastes sweeter—blood or chocolate?


I got this book from the Book Depot (aka Book Closeouts) in Niagara while in Canada for the 2006 BookCrossing Convention. SandDanz picked it out for me from the young adult section so I probably wouldn't have come across it on my own. However it sounded like an interesting read, and for only $1, I couldn't help adding it to my cart. (But I still think she was trying to get my cart piled as high as hers. ;)

I really enjoyed this book and will agree with some of the other reviews I saw on Amazon that it doesn't really seem a teen book, which if anything only added to it's enjoyment for me. The characters were well drawn and the story line moved along swiftly.

Klause's take on werewolves, as a hidden sect living among humans, was fairly consistent with the way they're portrayed by most authors such as Kelley Armstrong. But one major difference with Klause's wolves is that, although they live among humans, they tend to prefer the company of their own kind in social circles. Though other werewolves from other authors might also display this pack-like behavior, it seemed more prominent in Klause's wolves because they looked down on humans as a weaker species, and prohibited any more than the casual acquaintances of the pack children with humans.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, and I would be looking forward to seeing the movie (out 1/26/07) if only it hadn't gotten such bad reviews, and I heard it deviated greatly from this book which it was based on. But I can't resist a vampire or werewolf flick, so I'll probably just wait for it to come out on DVD. More details on the movie can be found at The Unofficial Annette Curtis Klause Site, the director's site or the official MGM website.

This will be on it's way to midwinter shortly, who picked it up in the January Fantasy & Sci-Fi swap.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to midwinter on 13-Feb-2007 via First Class Mail (since it weighed only 5.5 oz). Enjoy!! :D