For some reason, I thought this book was free when I bought it; and honestly, I really wish it had been. It's not that I think the story is bad, because it's not... really. The premise is good enough and I can see myself tolerating a story like this, as long as the writing is decent. I can get over a cliche teenage dramafest, a blatantly obvious need for an editor, and an average overall premise, but I certainly cannot get over terrible development and structure. Unfortunately, this book - the way it is - has A LOT of work to do in that arena.
For me, it wasn't developed well enough, if at all. I could tell things were happening just for the sake of the story and not in a natural way. It seemed forced and RUSHED! For example, how many times can Candra find out some valuable piece of information, discover a secret, or catch people doing nefarious things just by simply going on a leisurely walk? Maybe we can use the "walk thing" once, but almost every time? You have got to get more creative - and less predictable - than that. Especially when she's supposed to be on lockdown so she doesn't get killed, anyway. At one point, her aunt let's her go for a walk right when she gets home from the hospital after being attacked by the rival clan WHO IS STILL OUT TO GET HER, all while supposedly being grounded for getting into trouble while on, you guessed it, a previous walk. Who lets a freshly-discharged attack victim take a walk by themselves while grounded for doing that exact same thing? Not to mention, the offenders are obviously out to harm her and not afraid to bust into a locked public building and confront the people she's with to do so. Yeah, so why don't you just let her now-injured self walk around solo right out in the open. They'll surely never come after her like that. It would be so easy they'd think it's a trap. Ridiculous.
And conversations and situations have got to be more believable and sensible. I, for the life of me, could not believe that all Candra's parents had to say to her on the phone when she told them she was almost killed was "by who?" then "okay, we'll be there in the morning, love you." I don't know about you, but my parents probably wouldn't let me off the phone until they were by my side if I were almost killed. Those are just two examples of the many I could give you about how much this story doesn't make sense and isn't believable.
It's not just the plot and movement of this book that are underdeveloped, either. It's EVERYTHING. The characters are one-dimensional, the relationships are superficial, and the circumstances are befuddling. Candra and Ben are supposed to have this undeniable bond, but I don't remember anything happening to make me believe it. And besides that, where is the character build-up? Everyone is automatically one thing or another and then they just stay that way like robots for the entire book. They're either there to protect Candra or destroy Candra and everything they do or say is in accordance to whichever one they are. There's no real emotional struggle or personal conflict at all. Also, can Candra NEVER do what she's told? Her aunt and her friends will tell her multiple times to stay away from Ben, to not go near the Conway's house, to only go to work and school, and she'll turn right around - EVERY TIME - and defy them immediately, thinking she knows better than them even though she just found out about the whole situation yesterday and they've been living with it their entire lives. What a total dimwit.
I'm also not sure what the point of this particular book is... Basically, if you've read the product description, then you're up to speed. We find out everything in the blurb about 20% of the way through, then the whole rest of the book is just Candra almost getting killed by the rival clan a few times. That's it, we don't find anything else out. There's no other big discovery or turn of events, nothing. Then, the book just ends out of the blue, with no rhyme or reason. Candra goes on another one of her walks with a friend, talks about the woods "beckoning to her" and then BOOM, it's over.
Oh, and by the way, I kept forgetting this book is about werewolves because it isn't utilized in the story often enough. There is a total of two werewolf scenes in the entire book. Magic is a more prominent theme and probably should've been left at that, along with the getting powers at 18 thing. Also, Candra's dreams are useless. There are too many of them and whenever she would try to incorporate them with things that were happening in real life, I would get confused. I couldn't tell when something was from a dream or from a real-life encounter. Just... everything's wrong about this book. Too much for one review.
The first star is because this book exists at all, the second is because it has a semi-legitimate plot with unrealized potential. If I were you, though, I wouldn't bother wasting time to read it.
