Keeper's Book Reviews: Mini Review: Bloodmark (Bloodmark Saga #1) by Aurora Whittet

Sixteen-year-old werewolf princess Ashling Boru is different from other wolves—she was able to shift to wolf form at birth. Rather than bringing pride to her family, it brings fear, and as a result, she is forced to live in seclusion in Ireland’s countryside. Ashling’s reputation is further blackened when she refuses her betrothed and defies the ancient laws. When her pack’s oldest rivals begin hunting her, she finds herself in the small town of York Harbor, Maine—far from everything she’s ever known.

In Maine, she crosses paths with the dark and rebellious Grey Donavan, and something ignites within her soul. There’s just one problem: Grey is human. Their instant connection turns into a passionate romance, and Ashling begins to believe she can create her own life outside of wolf laws. When she begins to uncover long-buried pack secrets—secrets that threaten to destroy all she holds dear—Ashling’s courage and tenacity are tested. Will she choose her deep and enduring love for Grey, or will she follow Old Mother’s path to her destiny?

~A copy was provided by Aurora Whittet for review~

Everybody, let me introduce you to the werewolf version of Twilight! Before you ask, yes, Twilight was waaay better than this book, but people who hate Twilight might want to keep a distance from this book. That's just my opinion though. To speak against myself, I'll admit I absolutely adored Twilight, and this...not so much. This novel is easily readable in a day, and personally I think it's split into 3 different parts. First there's the super interesting part where every sentence is intriguing and seems to have a story behind it. This is when there are tons of possibilities going through your head about where the story is heading and who the love interest will be (I didn't read the synopsis before reading the book). Then there was the "boring to death" part which I literally felt was a huge waste of my time. Everything, especially the romance, just seemed so unreasonable, and guys, if you hated the romance in Twilight, you will abhor this one, or at least the start of it. Finally, there was the third part of the plot, which was back to being interesting, and since it contained some of the best parts of the entire book - especially the end - I'll keep the spoilers to myself. Just know to expect a love triangle in the next book;)

So still wondering why you'll abhor Grey and Ashling's romance? It's because this novel takes love at first sight to the extreme. I can understand Ashling falling in love, but Grey too?! That is nowhere near how I prefer my book boyfriends. And it gets worse. The two young lovers actually said they love each other the first time they ate at a restaurant together, which was basically the first day after they met! I think you'll understand me when I say, werewolf mating tendencies or no, this rough start to the romance sucked.

Though Twilight is one of my all time favorite books, it made me hate werewolves on sight. Surprisingly, this werewolf book was actually pretty good, and despite my squabbles about Grey and Ashling's relationship, I did like Grey much more than Jacob Black. I'll concede that I would have preferred vampires, but for a book like this, I supposed werewolves must be the next best thing. My main problem with this book, nonetheless, was not the romance, or even the werewolves, but the fact that everything was predictable, and almost nothing came as a surprise as I was reading. Still, I'll probably read the second book in the series, not because of the normal reasons one continues a series, but because I really want to read some love triangle action, and based on what I read, apparently the entire next book is a courting competition! I don't know if that's true, but I'm definitely willing to find out XD