Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsSo wrong!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 12, 2011
The Kindle price for the book was $12.99. For $12.99 I would have liked an engaging and interesting story, with great characters, and good writing.
So...what did I get with this book...a long story, with fairly boring characters and so-so writing. If I were to grade this story it would get about a D+ ... and the plus is only because the premise of the story was interesting. A woman is accidentally turned into a werewolf when prying her teacup poodle from the muzzle of what she thinks is a big German Shepherd.
The story is horribly long and unnecessarily draws on in several parts. The whole conversation that Marty had with Nina and Wanda prior to her bite droned on and on. I wanted to bite myself at that point. The circuitous conversation about Bobbie-Sue Cosmetics, color wheels, color auras, sky blue convertibles, and lavender suits made my head hurt. As a reader, I COULD HAVE CARED LESS about any of it. This discussion was inconsequential to the story but it took up several pages. Wanda was spineless...Nina was über abrasive...and Marty was a color "whore" (according to Nina) who peddled makeup at the IHOP. Lovely cast of characters, right? Wrong! The characters had horrible on-page chemistry. The three ladies didn't complement each other at all.
Keegan was the alpha of his pack and PACK cosmetics...cliché, cliché, cliché! I wasn't impressed with his character as the "dashing" alpha male. He was rather mundane and ordinary. He was gruff during most of his dealings with Marty. Yes, Marty herself was a classic dumb-blonde (who was not so blonde after being bitten by Keegan). But her traits of dumb-blondism were evident even then. Her character was flighty, whiny in spots, and self-centered. There wasn't anything about either of these characters that made me have in any interest in them or in the story at all.
The other round robin conversation occurred when Keegan told Marty that he was the wolf/dog that bit her And, reader beware...this conversation happens first thing in the story so you've got a pretty strong constitution if you can make it to the rest of the book. The conversation went something like this and this is my version but it's very similar to the book:
Keegan: I'm a werewolf and I bit you.
Marty: You're a what?
Keegan: A werewolf...and I bit you. *Sigh...aargh*
Marty: A...a...were...what?
Keegan: W-E-R-E-W-O-L-F
My Kindle was in peril of being smashed to bits because of this nonsense. This conversation was redundant and absolutely useless. Several pages...and I do mean several...were devoted to this kind of chatter.
Furthermore, I was a bit insulted by Ms. Cassidy's take on a German and Spanish accent. The accented text was blatantly stereotypical and I found it offensive. I am neither of German of Spanish decent so if I was offended, I wonder how readers representing those cultures would have felt. I think she was going for funny.......but it wasn't. It really wasn't. You have to consider your audience.
And my last gripe with this book is the incessant use of the same words/phrases. I already mentioned that the word "lavender" was said over abazillion times in the story. But, Ms. Cassidy was also rather fond of the expressions: "Jesus Christ in a miniskirt", "Christ on a cracker", "Cheeerist" (an exaggerated form of Christ." All I can say for this is OVERDONE and OVERKILL.
I generally like Ms. Cassidy's work but this was not an engaging story. And for the price of $12.99, one of my most expensive books yet...even over Nora Roberts whose books command that price...I was not impressed.
