I don’t want to come across as mean and unfeeling because, writing a book? It’s hard work.
This is a debut novel from a very small publishing company, and both those things together make me feel all warm and fuzzy. I love supporting new writers and indie companies, but in all honestly, I can’t rate this one any higher than 1.25 stars.
I love the premise, but this one needed a little bit more TLC in terms of editing.
The characters
They were very one dimensional, especially Jasper.
He had absolutely no redeeming qualities and acted like an asshole 95% of the time. He was purposefully cruel to Max and he seemed to enjoy the pain he inflicted on him.
There were no grand gestures and love declarations, only selfishness and a reluctant admission of the fact that they were mates. Lots of hiding too, he almost seemed ashamed of Max.
I hated it to no end. Max deserves better.
Max was just ok, somewhat bland and very judgemental. I didn’t enjoy being stuck in his head.
He also had no dignity. He was treated like literal trash by Jasper and he kept coming back for more. He was always the bigger person, reaching out and fighting for their ‘love’, but to no avail.
I had no respect for him, and neither did Jasper.
The cast of side characters were truly unremarkable. Some were introduced for no apparent reason (Troy, Olivia…) as they didn’t play a significant role in, well, anything.
The villain
I was midly surprised, so it had potential. But same old, same old. They were bland and that’s all I’ll say about that so that this remains a spoiler free review.
The writing
This book is meant for a very young audience, so I’ll excuse the cringey werewolf puns (“ladies and gentle-wolves”, “to be the bigger wolf in this situation”, etc) and overall light-heartedness; but still, it has undeniable flaws.
The dialogue was incredibly choppy and felt very clumsy at times.
The pacing was really fast, which I don’t mind, but the climax and ending felt very rushed and cut short just to have an excuse for there to be a sequel (unnecessary)
I could tell which scenes Penny Jessup included AFTER she finished writing the book, probably during the editing process. Max had 3 first kisses with Jasper. It’s as if the editor told her “hey, there’s literally no chemistry between these two, you have to include at least a kiss at the 30% mark, and then another around the 60% mark, before finishing with the movie scene kiss at 90%.
And Penny did as she was told and nobody reread the final version it seems because each time, Max thought “I can’t believe this is my first kiss.”
We do get lots of fan favourite tropes along the way:
✔️First love
✔️Enemies to lovers
✔️One bed
✔️Starcrossed lovers
But, disclaimer, none of them gave me any satisfaction because, again, they felt rushed, with many possibilities being left unexplored and just there for the sake of it.
Still, I am confident that Penny Jessup’s following books will be great, because the potential is there. It just needs a little shaping.