It’s been almost a year since Rylie Gresham was bitten by a werewolf on Gray Mountain. Now something is beckoning her back to the place she was attacked, along with every other werewolf in the world. But they aren’t the only ones heeding the call. A group of hunters notices them gathering and sees it as their chance to wipe out the entire species.Seth is about to graduate high school when he … when he learns of the final hunt. He secretly plans to save Rylie and his werewolf brother even though he has to play along with the hunters to do it. But Rylie doesn’t want to be saved. She’s already decided to solve her problems with a silver bullet if answers aren’t waiting on Gray Mountain.
Everything is about to end—whether it means Rylie’s liberation or the end of her life…
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2.5 stars
So I’ve read the first four books in this series over the last year, sort of in time with the seasons the books occur. They are all decent but I can’t say I love them. Riley is 16 at the end of this book and acts like it. This is one of those series where the idea behind the story is fantastic, the writing is excellent but the characters just don’t make me like them. I wish Riley was older at the start, or was a lot more mature for her age.
*** Spoilers after this point**
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The storyline with the worlds werewolves being called back to the mountain because of dreams or visions was interesting but also had me picturing Close Encounters in my head from time to time. Yep, I’m over 50 so perhaps only us oldies would get this reference and younger readers wouldn’t even know that movie or ever have seen it to get the similarity. That being said, this was well written but seemed to take far too long to “get to the good stuff” so to speak. Once you do finally get to the top of the mountain there’s no plan for fighting the Union that wants to eradicate all werewolves. There’s not even a plan on how to evade them… it’s all “well.. let’s just go in completely unorganized, see what happens and whoever is left is left.” Huh? THE ALPHA is supposed to be the protector of the pack. But everyone seems to be okay with the possibility of being cannon fodder because no one has a better idea. Or any ideas at all.
Again… SPOILERS here…
So Riley is THE ONE. She’s THE ALPHA. And somehow talks to “the ones” or whatever that created werewolves in the first place while she’s on top of the mountain. And comes away with the equivalent of “they said it wasn’t supposed to be like this and they’re sorry” and that’s basically it. How was it supposed to be? What words of wisdom do they impart to the new alpha to help her guide her pack? None. It was just “sorry.”
So they go back home and start a sanctuary for the remaining wolves. The story goes on from here in the next books but I’m stopping at book 4. Reading the blurbs for the future books makes me think of The Vampire Diaries with Riley loving one brother then the other then not knowing which to choose. In my head I’m picturing Seth pulling a Stefan and letting Abel have Riley. I hope I’m wrong but I won’t know.
I like this author, I’ve enjoyed other books by her so much. As I’ve said a few times already here, the writing is excellent. No typos, no grammar issues. You feel the draw to the mountain, you smell the pine, you taste the bite of cold in the air, etc. I just don’t care enough about any of these main characters to want to go with them any further in their adventures.