She’s on the run. She’s being hunted. If only she knew why.
Trey’s only goal is to protect his pack. When a young shifter female moves into his territory, it raises a million questions. Who is she? Doesn’t she know how dangerous it is to travel alone and unprotected? Where did she come from and what kind of danger did she bring with her?
Time is running out as Gabby’s first transformation nears. Trey must walk a knife edge between protecting her from harm and convincing her of what she is. He also has to convince her she isn’t going crazy so she will give his pack a chance, and maybe give him a chance. After all, shifter females are scarce. They have to be protected at all costs.
Failure is not an option.
But will the rabbit hole she's tumbling down prove too much for her to handle?
The idea of this book was good but the execution left A LOT to be desired. The characters lacked dimensions, the chemistry between the hero and heroine wasn’t there for me, and the dialogue/writing didn’t feel natural, it needed editing and to feel more fluid.
Too much telling and not enough showing in this book.
Repetitiveness is another nail in the coffin – I just couldn’t continue any more.
Freebie on Amazon that I am now deleting from my kindle.
Gabby had the potential to be a good book. Unfortunately, the storyline just stopped. The author built up the main characters and set the platform for a nice romance and then stopped. The build up was there and then poof, nothing. The book comes to a conclusion with a rushed HEA. It was lacking in my opinion several key ingredients that could have made this book lovely.
I always try to give authors that I haven't heard of a fighting chance. But, Good LORD, seriously... This was really put into the world as a serious attempt at writing/publishing?
The characters were so immature. For someone that was mated and 21 years old, the sister (Willow, maybe) was so immature and I HATED her. The main character wasn't any better.
The writing was very juvenile. I honestly found nothing redeeming about this, unfortunately. I tried, I really did. I pushed through hoping the writing would improve with experience and time, but it just kept sinking further and further into Nopeville.
I really enjoyed reading this story, it had twists and turns and has a ton of action so it keeps you turning the pages and wanting to read more.
Gabby was a fearful skittish character but you could tell she had an underlying strength well she had to have really after being able to survive alone for 5 years without family or friends, on streets in motels and grotty apartments and even just camping. When you found out what was chasing her there was no surprise that she kept running what was a surprise was that she'd not been captured and I loved the idea of her Go Bag that made her feel safe and secure. She had no real clue what she was running from or why they were chasing her she just knew she needed to keep moving and not be caught and all her experiences of smells and feelings yet she had no clue what she really was. At times she was very childish which I found a little annoying although I think it was meant to be an endearment in her character.
Trey was an alpha robotics businessman and pack leader who had the responsibility of keeping his whole town , pack and community safe from not only discovery but from any threats from them. He was dominant with the right amount of hesitancy to make him seem more human, his little doubts and admittance of only using guidance not his alpha authority on his pack was a great indication of his respect for everyone in his extended family.
Overall I liked this story but it wasn't what I was used to in shifter reads, it was take in comparison but an easy read.
So...Where to start? Okay, the IDEA for this book was a good one. BUT the writing for it was just bad. I found this book incredibly frustrating. Because I knew if written correctly it would have been a fantastic read. But the writing was just horrendous. No real plot, character development, action making, nothing...It was confusing, dull and dragged on. And if i ever read the words "rabbit hole" again I'll probably poke my eyes out. Those 2 words were the only constant in this book. I really and truly hate leaving negative reviews but this is sadly the worst book I've read this year and this will make book 56.
Gabby is a young girl in the run and adds up at Treys pack. Females are scarce and protected and mated at 21. With a birthday coming up things are hearing up in the pack.
I have spent so long looking at my screed and trying to decide how to word this review. The plot for Gabby had an immense amount of potential and while parts met that potential, other parts did not.
The story was a little confusing in parts and it took a while for the story to fully draw me in. Now don’t get me wrong. When the story got going I was drawn in and really enjoyed it. There are some interesting characters and I really was rooting for Gabby to wise up and blossom as a character.
Trey is pack alpha and he and Gabby meet when she is on the run and does not realise the danger that she is in. She has no clue what she is running from or why. Trey is walking a tightrope, trying to protect Gabby.
One of my favourite genres is paranormal romance, especially shifters, I am pleased to have found this new series and hope to pick up future additions that come to audiobook.
Jacq Ainsworth’s narration was fantastic. With clear character differences and vocal acting that drew me into the moment.
My Thoughts: A promising start to a new-to-me series! The wolf theme has been used several times already, so the story is not that original. However, I like the premise and the way the author tells a story is not bad either. The world building is beautiful! The character development is quite good, except the main heroine. For some reason she feels stupid sometimes. **sigh!** Anyway, for an audiobook which is 5-hours long, this ought to be a short book. However, it took me longer than I expected to finish the book, even with the convenience of the audiobook format. The plot is quite straightforward, but at least there is a plot! It seemed to me that I have been reading urban fantasy books lately that did not have any which is sad. And of course it ended in a cliffhanger pointing to the story of the next book. However, there was a resolution to the plot in this book. Kudos! This is my first Jacq Ainsworth audiobook listen and I like the way she reads. another Kudos for this book!
Empirical Evaluation: Story telling quality = 4 Character development = 3.5 Story itself = 3.5 Writing Style = 4 Ending = 3.5 World building = 4 Cover art = 3 Pace = (5 hrs and 42 mins listening time) Plot = 3.5
The narrator does a good a great job. One of the characters is really hyper and loves to talk, which comes across exceptionally well. The voice range from old to young, male to female is wonderful. Gabby is on the run. She doesn't know why she is being chased. She also doesn't k ow she is.a.wolf shifter. Trey is an alpha. Females are rare and have to be protected from forced matings or kidnappings. They dont turn into a wolf until they are 21. When he finds a female in his territory he will do anything to protect her until her birthday. Even when he realizes that she is his true mate. Gabby and Trey get a happy for now ending because she is still.searching for her missing family. I am excited to listen to more! I recieved a free copy of this audiobook and I choose to leave my honest opinion.
Umm... While I have a giant soft spot for this kind of sappy 'rescue' comfort books...the writing and story flow here is so weak it turned out mostly impossible to enjoy. The main character...is a mess. She supposedly survived for 5 years hiding on the streets on her own since she was 16, but it was probably a fluke. The way she acts in this book, you'd think she was just a sheltered kid who then had 5 really scary days on the streets. She behaves like an infant. All the weeping, sobbing, fidgeting, hiding, moaning... There is hardly a single thing about the behaviour of the main character that makes the fact that she could have survived for years on the streets on her own believable. There also an abundance of details that seem overly naive and childish...even though these comfort books are supposed to be a little naive, here it's taken completely overboard. How they grew up without leaving their house once. How they own all these money and land all over the world and don't need to take care of it. The bad guys in the governments and master hacking. The females who can't even become wolves without their mates...and how their wolves would be dead forever if they 'mate' before 21. Then there are long, incredibly boring, condescending monologues that go over and over exactly same details...
...and then it all just cuts off in the middle, skips right over the important things that were supposed to be the culmination of the story, says 'and all this happened, the end', and leaves you wondering what the hell.
Where is Gabby's growth? Where is the mating/wedding ceremony? Where is her moving in and making her own home? Where is her first shift? For this book to have any substance, these should have been the climax.
I continued reading, torn between wanting to love my sappy comfort book, and being completely floored (in a bad way) by the childishness and inadequacy of the writing, but when I got to the end I realised that I had laboured through most tedious parts of the book completely for nothing, because all the things I was actually looking forward to are not even there.
Gabby’s been on her own since her early teens when her family disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
Driven by the strange, troublesome scent of young males who’d harassed her earlier, Gabby lives life on the run, supported by an emergency fund set up by her aunt and uncle. She never understood why they had an emergency plan, but she was grateful for it and hoped it would help her find her aunt and uncle one day… and her twin sister.
Gabby’s journey leads her to a town that gives her a sense of calm she hasn’t felt since her family disappeared. The skittish young woman rents a secluded cabin, still ever vigilant of those around her. The town belongs to wolf shifters and a single female with no family or pack attracts major attention from everyone, especially, Trey, the local pack alpha who may or may not be Gabby’s fated mate.
As Trey and his pack try to get close to Gabby, family connections and secrets are revealed, and Gabby has to acknowledge who and what she truly is, and that the danger that stalks her is a bigger threat to her and the shifter world than anyone realizes.
Gabby is a good introduction to the Safe Haven Wolves saga. Characters are well developed and the plot is suspenseful enough to keep you in the story. Narration is good but the story loses a star for me because I felt humorous and sarcastic dialogue was too quickly glossed over. Also, I didn’t connect with the narrator’s voice for the older males in the story.
Readers of paranormal romance and romantic suspense will enjoy Gabby (Safe Haven Wolves, Book 1). I’ve already downloaded book 2!
DNF 93% I tried so hard to finish it, but nothing happened until I was 75% through the book and even then it took the next 15% for then to almost stop talking about it and at that point I just gave up. So much of this book was telling me what happened rather than showing me. For example, instead of a conversation with dialogue there would be a paragraph paraphrasing what the conversation was about and the character's thoughts/views on it. That type of writing is the most irritating type of writing IMO. It took until 80% through this book for Gabby to finally think about demanding answers and at that point it didn't matter that she was THINKING about it because the others already decided they were going to tell her. If the entire series was her story then okay, I could understand taking your time with this because you would have other books to speed it up. But nope. Gabby gets only this one book where nothing happens. Not to mention, Trey is supposed to be her true mate and yet there is only one scene in the book (to the point where I read) where they had a conversation, and most of that conversation was paraphrased too. I just felt as if the author spent so much time describing things when I could have been shown those things through the actions of the characters as well as their actual conversations.
Gabby is the first book in a series, so there is a lot of world building. This is not your usual shifter world. This book is more about feelings and less about action but it fits with the storyline well. The book is light on romance, but that fits the plot as the two main characters get to know one another.I
Gabby is a girl on the run. Raised on an isolated farm with her twin sister by her aunt and uncle, she longs to go to a real school. Unfortunately her plan backfires and she loses her family and has to go on the run in a world she doesn't know at 16. Now she's almost 21 and she finds a cabin to stay in for a while.
Trey is the alpha of his pack and trouble just moved into town. An underage inmates female has moved into town and he has to keep her safe while he tries to find out what she's running from. When he realizes Gabby is his mate his problems multiply. Gabby doesn't know she's a shifter or even that shifters exist. Trey has his hands full trying to calm Gabby's fears while dealing with shifter politics and trying to find out where Gabby came from.
>Book review – Gabby >I am an independent reviewer. This book is the 1st in the Safe Haven Wolves series and ends in an HEA. Gabby doesn’t know she is a wolf shifter. A trip to the outside world starts a string of events that causes Gabby to be on the run, alone, for years. She doesn’t know why she is being chased. She runs to Trey’s area and feels calmer. Trey is the alpha of his pack and realizes Gabby is his mate. He protects her from afar. >The attitude of unmated pack males to unmated females is a new one. The females are kidnapped until they are of age and then forcibly mated. The plot is exciting and suspenseful, but there is no romance. There are hardly any scenes with Trey and Gabby together and none with them learning to be mates. The book is G rated, but to go from Gabby being afraid of Trey to Gabby and Trey being married seemed weird. >This book is appropriate for a young adult (16+)audience. I am giving this story 3 stars. Large chunks of this story were repeated in the book, causing a lack of flow and a lot of confusion.
I enjoyed the storyline, but the writing was very choppy. It made me think of an old, bad voiceover movie where everyone seems stiff and the words forced. Because of that, I had a very hard time relating to and liking any of the characters. If the writing had been a little more fluent and the characters a little more 3d, it’d have been a great book. OH! I also could not stand the fact that all the women were SOOO emotional and childlike and none of the men ever seemed to know what to do around a crying female even though most of them had been mates to their women for decades. Like come on, by know you should at least not be terrified of her emotional outbursts because you’ve dealt with them for FOREVER. And that’s another thing, all the women seemed to have a childlike state of mind, yet all of them were over the age of 20. Having said that, I did like the actual story enough to want to read the next book to find out what happened to Gabby’s twin.
Was the sister in law meant to be special needs? Because a lot of questions are raised in terms of her being mated if so. If she wasn’t, then...wow. The whole book reads like an exercise to get as many words as possible on the page. Repetition of words and sentences 7 times per paragraph, incorrect grammar, slightly rephrased sentences following one another. Why? Has this author been hurt by an editor when they were little and now they cannot work with one? “Do you know how to bake cookies? I want to come back and bake some cookies. My nanny taught me to bake cookies when I was younger, but I haven’t felt like baking cookies much these last few years. I was hoping, if you want, maybe we could bake cookies later.” So many questions, such little time. Too bad for the idea, which was decent.
wanted more . . . full world, full characters Overall 4 out of 5 stars Performance 4 out of 5 stars Story 3 out of 5 stars
I want more. Questions. Answers. More. Gabby was strong, resilient, young, lost, confused, consumed. This was titled right. This was all about Gabby. Her young life turned upside down. Left int he dark. Lost. Found. Saved.
This was a quick read and getting to know you of the Safe Haven Wolves. To be so short there was a lot here.
Jacq Ainsworth did the job of giving life to each of the characters and making them feel more real. The audio brought this to life but the story felt rushed.
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Sherry Foster. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
If you like paranormal romance and wolf shifters, than you’ll likely enjoy this story. Gabby, our female lead, is on the run but we don’t know who is hunting her. She’s made it to a cabin to rent and the community she has come into needs to know more. There is a problem with their race and female wolf shifters are in danger. Connections are made and hints of something larger and more ominous come to light.
It sounds like the author has made several revisions to the story over time since it’s original publishing. I thought the story carried along ok. The first person POV was occasionally confusing (to know whether it was Trey or Gabbie), but not so much that I ever truly got lost. Overall, this was an enjoyable, quick read.
I was intrigued by the characters and the story line, but the book is full of errors that could be taken care of with a quick read through. I have to say, I was a little disappointed with the last 10-15% of the book too. The author spent a great deal of time building what could be a great story only to brush over all the detail and skip explanations when the story hits its peak. It almost felt like the author gave up when it came to the ending. At this point, I’m interested in the sequel just to see if the gaps are filled in by the new characters.
Gotta say despite being an adventurous sensual older woman who LOVES shifter stories I tend to be embarrassed when I read the ones that are very adult rated scenes that take many pages. This was NOT that. It's a very sweet shifter romance with a great back story. I didnt need to basically skip pages to on end to avoid lengthy sex scenes that embarrassed me cause there weren't any. WTG dear author for sucking me into the characters and the story. I'm so excited to see where the series goes!!! You definitely earned the 5 stars and a review which I rarely leave most books despite reading several each week.
Gabby by Sherry Foster is a paranormal romance that I listened to on audio narrated by Jacq Ainsworth. This is book one in the Safe Haven Wolves Series.
This is the first book of Sherry’s that I have read and it definitely won’t be my last. The story does end on a cliffhanger but that’s no surprise since its part of a series. I cannot wait for the next book in the series Trina to be released on audible.
Jacq did an amazing job on the narration. She really knows how to bring a story to life. I can’t wait to listen to more of her work in the future.
I would highly recommend this book if you love paranormal romances.
This book desperately needs a developmental editor, a content editor, and a copy editor. With stilted dialogue, far too much information dumping, lots of telling in lieu of showing, and grammatical errors galore, this book would normally have been summarily deleted from my Kindle. However, there's a decent story buried amid all the extra verbiage and lousy punctuation. With proper editing for brevity and some revision, the author could have a much better book. As it stands, she's got a decent draft that shows good potential.
Lots of typos, sometimes names were wrong. I think this book could have spent more time on the couple and how they got together and “love”. The story has lots of potential, but I feel like it was cut too short, wondering if I should read the next book even though I want to know what happens. The cover makes you think this is a romance..it’s not really. And can the sister/best friend not talk for 5 minutes straight before someone can answer her??
I really did enjoy this book greatly. However I have to give it a 3.5 star rating. My reasoning is, there seemed to be some parts missing near the end of the story that would have made it make a lot more sense. Everything was going well until I got to this part and then it felt as though the author had had enough and it needed to end. Besides this I am looking forward to finding out what happens next 😊👍
this book had WAAAYYYY too many run-on sentences. The book repeats itself a lot, which is extremely annoying. Along with that, everybody sounds like there are fifteen, six or have no brain at all. The story is told from two different views, the main guy and the main girl, it changes every other chapter; I do not like at all. I like a book that has one view or every so often a different point of view. But NOT EVERY CHAPTER.
Loved this book! So much intrigue! This book brings so many interesting characters to light. Gabby has no idea she is a wolf. She will not change until she is 21. Trey is the alpha of the pack where she finds haven from the men that are chasing her. Who are they? What do they want with her? Will she ever finds her twin? Will they ever be safe. To find out the answers and watch Gabby and Trey find each other, stay tuned! Enjoy!
I started Gabby on Sunday early evening - @ 2:45 A.M. Monday morning - I HAD to quit with 20 pages left (SOME people have to work on Monday mornings) that was the 3rd time I had tried to quit. I really wanted to know what happened. It's a great story. A writing style that keeps you enthralled and moving along. Thank you, Sherry Foster for your time, talent AND THE STORY!
I loved this book! I have reread all books as the next book is released as there is just soooooo much storyline hidden between each couples story that I have to go back lol but this new republished version is awesome the editing is much much better and we see more of the building relationship then the original manuscript. It does have a fairly slow pace but trust me its building everything up for the books to come so dont give up on it xxx
A girl on the run for almost five years has found safety.
Gabby has found a pack, the pack Alpha is her mate, so everything should be peachy, but it's not, because she has no idea she is a shifter, and the pack smells a lot like the guys that have been chasing her. So how are they to explain what and who she is? How can they keep her safe til her wolf rises , how can they find the rest of her family, including her twin?