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Book Review of Howl at the Moon (Others, Bk 12)

Howl at the Moon (Others, Bk 12)
PengQueen avatar reviewed on + 114 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


I have to confess, right from the beginning I found this series to be disapointingly average. I think it's a stylistic issue. The author spends an awful lot of time telling instead of showing and that is frustrating to me. This book was not exception.

The premise is that Noah, a human soldier in the US army, has been charged with the task of attaining scientific secrets from his friends in the Other community--specifically the werewolves. He lies and says he's recruiting for a new team, and the Others are eager to help him with this task. In his 'recruitment' effort he ends up sharing an office with Sam, personal assistant to the pack's alpha and woman who Noah has had a thing for from the time they met. Sam just happens to be the best friend of the scientist who's research the military is after. When Sam and Noah become involve, and his lies come undone, Sam must deal with her feelings and questions of whether or not what they share is real.

Now, unlike with some of the previous books in this series I can honestly say that I liked both main characters. Sam is pretty much a place holder with no notable memorable personality traits, but thats fine because at least she's not annoying. Noah shows at least superficial character developement, and his personality is very likeable. He's loyal, tough, and loving. As is typical of Warren the premise is very interesting, even if the execution is sloppy.

I have several issues with this book, mainly surrounding the plot. Now, I haven't looked ahead in the series to see if Annie the scientist eventually does get her own book and I don't really care. I just seriously have to question why a book who's main plotline surrounded her genetic research was not actually about her. She makes few actual appearences and there are no scenes from her point of view. So we are told that this research exists and that its a problem, that Annie is in trouble because of it. But that conflict is just kind of there and most of the action takes place "off screne" and the reader is told about it after the fact. I have a sneaking suspicion that the author either didn't want to go into the science/science fiction details or doesn't know enough about genetics to b.s. something halfway reasonable. But if thats the case, she should have picked another conflict, one that actually took place directly between the couple of interest. I felt like I was reading about secondary characters rather then central all important protagonists.

Will I continue with this series? Yes, eventually. I really do like some of the characters and, as previously stated the premises are usually decent. I just hope for something more impressive in the future.