Early Review: The Thing About Weres by Leigh Evans

The Thing About Weres by Leigh Evans

Mystwalker #2

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER

In the never-ending saga that is my love-hate relationship with Robson Trowbridge, I, half-Were Hedi Peacock, have had a change of heart. Ever since I shoved Trowbridge through the Gates of Merenwyn, I’ve been the leader of the pack—hard to believe, right? The thing is: I’m half-Fae. So even though my Were side is ready to heed the call of the wild, the other part of me is desperate to take flight. And much as it pains me to admit it, life without Trowbridge is really starting to were me down…

I AM WERE, HEAR ME ROAR.

To make matters worse, the wolves of Creemore want my blood—and the North American Council of Weres wants me dead. So I’m just counting the days until Trowbridge returns from the other realm…and comes to my brave rescue…and becomes my alpha mate. Wishful thinking? Of course it is. But given all the mess I’ve been through already, what’s the harm in doing a little bit of daisy-plucking? Besides, Trowbridge owes me bigtime. A girl can dream.

Half-Fae, half-Were, Hedi Peacock doesn't quite fit in anywhere. Yet as alpha-by-proxy since she sent her mate, Trowbridge into the Fae realm to save his life, she's having to supress her Fae nature and embrace her Were one. Too bad she spent her entire lifetime doing the exact opposite, and now her Were side doesn't want to play ball. The pack is getting restless without a true Alpha to lead them and it's only a matter of time before they rebel. She'll have to remember the spell to bring Trowbridge back, and quick or she'll wind up being puppy chow.

Much of the same things that frustrated me from the first book were present in THE THING ABOUT WERES as well. Particularly, the romance and the lack of cohesiveness in the writing. The romance part I'll get into in a bit, but the cohesiveness I'll talk about now. After finishing this book, I realize that it may be less of a cohesive issue, but more of a genre bending issue. I honestly felt like this book is a pure fantasy trying to masquerade itself as an urban fantasy. Urban fantasy is supposed to be our modern world (or something similar) with supernatural elements or twists. However, the Mystwalker series seems to be spending more and more time focused on other worlds. I have to be honest that I found myself horribly skimming over the parts involving Threall as whenever I tried to follow them my eyes crossed, which is never a good thing when you are trying to stay immersed in a book. This honestly lessened my enjoyment of the book, but perhaps will work better for fans of true fantasy.

So if you have read my review of the previous book, you'll know that I never fully warmed up to the relationship (if you can honestly call it that) between Trowbridge and Hedi, at least until the end. And then of course that nasty cliffhanger ending with Trowbridge getting sent to the Fae realm kinda squashed all that. Now, what I'm going to talk about here might be considered a spoiler, something I usually avoid, but since it happens rather early in the book, I think it's okay and really warrants talking about. So, my bit of fair warning aside, getting into the relationship aspect in this book. I had really high hopes for Trowbridge's return, and frankly so did Hedi. Did I think all their issues would magically disappear? No, but I still thought the connection between them would have held strong. So imagine my dismay when he comes through and despite a near death episode on her behalf that leads him into a panic, he's all detached and secretive. And considering the circumstances, it really wasn't a good time to clam up. The conclusions she drew in his silence, well let me just say that I wouldn't have stuck around, life long mystical bond or not. To make matters worse, even when things are brought out into the open, I just didn't feel like they fully discussed things. It just went from both of them feeling utterly betrayed to physical intimacy, and yet nothing was fixed. Now I love a good sex scene as much as the next gal, but honestly this one just made me mad, because there was just too much left unsettled for me to "enjoy the moment." At this point, I'm pretty much resigned to just accepting that these two have a bond, even if I don't actually feel it. 

This series has been incredibly tricky for me. On one hand I really enjoy the premise and the really three dimensional characters, but on the other hand I find myself more frustrated than not with the stilted romance and the pacing/fantasy issues. In a word, I'm conflicted. So basically, I'm just going to boil down all my thoughts to one simple statement: Did I enjoy THE THING ABOUT WERES enough to continue onto the next book in the series? Yes, and in the end, that's all that really matters.

(Received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley)

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Previous Books:
     1. The Trouble With Fate