"Pride, love and... fear. There was an undercurrent of deep, deep fear."
The thing that managed to grasp my attention about this book was in the very beginning within the first few words of the prologue. The story begins with Miri's grandmother hiding out in Vienna during the 1940s whilst the Nazis raided the house, looking to capture them. This high tension and historical setting set the scene for a truly spectacular narrative and left me eager for the rest of the book. As I paged through the first couple of chapters though, I found that the repetition of words that worked so well in the prologue began to lose some of their effect. It was unfortunate, as this was a technique that complimented the beginning of the story perfectly and became worn out soon afterward. However, this did not stop me from enjoying this novel.
The prose used for this novel is written in a traditional storytelling style of which I am quite fond of, whilst this simplistic style of writing did seem a bit started towards the beginning of the novel, I found that soon enough I was enveloped in the story line to the point where the narrative was able to flow seamlessly later on. Although this may seem like an issue for readers who have just started the novel, I can assure you that this will pose no problems as you continue reading. It is a minor issue that I can look past in the scheme of things. In fact, as the story progresses, you find that this particular writing prose works perfectly for this kind of novel in which world building is prominent and rules and lore need to be established and instilled rather effectively.
Often in this novel you will come across chapters that refer back to individual characters' pasts, it is these flashbacks that were able to envelop me into the story and the world of this particular book so much. I loved these chapters and found myself delving into them wanting to know more and more about these characters, even the simple side characters of whom I didn't garner much attention to in the beginning can quickly become a couple of my favourites thanks to these chapters. The flashbacks fleshed out the pacing in this novel; something of which I found very unique in this novel. Truly something that Debbie Manber Kupfer should be commended on, especially considering this was both her debut novel and written during NaNoWriMo.
Bringing us back again to the world building in this novel, there is no doubt that the concept of shape shifters and werewolves certainly isn't something new, however, this does not mean that these concepts cannot be revamped. This is exactly what Debbie Manber Kupfer does as she sheds a new light on myths such as vampires and the concept of immortality, instead linking immortality with werewolves and the way in which they gain strength and power over their pack. I feel that this fresh take on old themes brings a new depth to this novel and makes room for some elaborate world building of which is executed well here.
As I was reading this novel, I consistently found that not only Miri's, but other characters such as Mandy, Cynthia and David's thoughts were communicated very clearly throughout this book. This is not so easily accomplished using third person retrospective narrative stance and was used sparingly enough for the reader not to be bombarded with several of the characters' inner thoughts. The romance in this novel was confusing at times, our protagonist not meeting her main love interest until half way through the novel. Once we are introduced to Danny, he is shown as a distant character of which Miri is barely able to approach and is often spoken of as someone of whom Miri wishes to know or is going to become friends with later on. It is for these reasons that Miri's abrupt attraction to Danny bothered me a little for a good portion of this book. I only wish that their relationship could have been developed for a little bit longer, or Danny was introduced to our protagonist earlier, so we are able to clearly see a definitively fleshed out development of this relationship. Otherwise, I found the initial attraction to Danny to be entirely superficial and possibly linked to the fact that they were both feline shape shifters. Nonetheless, their relationship was a bit of a sore spot for me in this novel.
The elaboration of alchemy and ancient magic, whilst seeming to have been written too late in the novel, serves for a fantastic battle near the end of the novel which establishes a good set up for the second novel in the series, Argentum. This epic battle was captivating, and was part of the reason why I found the ending somewhat lacklustre compared to how I initially thought the novel would end.
Despite this, I would have to say that this novel is definitely worth the read, especially if you are an animal lover.
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars
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