Monday 25 September 2017

OATH BREAKER by Shelley Wilson @ShelleyWilson72

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads


How I discovered this book: I know the author from the Twitter writers community but had never read her books.  I had, however, seen a few very good reviews for this one, and decided to cut my YA Fantasy teeth on it.
Please note: I told Shelley that if I found YA werewolves were totally not my thing then I would let her know, rather than write some bullshit half-hearted/dishonest review.  As it happened, although I doubt this will ever become a favourite genre (something to do with being over 40 years older than the target market, I imagine), I thought Oath Breaker was jolly good!

The story starts with motherless Mia's horrible father having been killed by a werewolf, Mia being shipped off with the cold, distant Uncle Sebastian, and madly missing her beloved brother, Zak.  Mia is most surprised to discover that Uncle Sebastian runs a school for werewolf hunters.  Enter evil bitch Felicity, new pals Lizzie and Adam, and a total hottie called Cody who Mia meets when out running a marathon.

She uncovers a truth about the (life and) death of her mother, hears strange rumours about what is really going on at the Hood Academy (and the odd mysterious scream), and know she must take the oath to become a fully-fledged werewolf hunter...

So why did I like this, much to my surprise?  I'm not au fait with the werewolf world (being more of a zombie sort of girl), but I was most interested to find out what it's all about!  Shelley Wilson writes in a great style that's so readable, and the characters all came to life with ease; I wanted to know about them.  Most of all, though, the atmosphere really worked.  There are no great pages of description, but this book is real proof that writing can be descriptive without being chock-full of adjectives and metaphors.  I could feel the still, dense, damp wood where Mia met Cody, see the quiet village with its tea shop, imagine the dark halls of the Hood Academy (not sure if they were meant to be dark, but they felt so to me!).  I wanted to be in the story ~ and any book that provokes that reaction gets a tick v.g from me!

Yes, I liked it.  And I imagine that if I was a YA who was into werewolves, I would LOVE it. 😀



2 comments:

  1. Yay!! I may not have tempted you to become a fully fledged YA fan but I am SOOO happy that you enjoyed the book. What a wonderful review. Thanks, Terry x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I really do think I'm too old - I've never been interested in teenagers! But I'm glad to have given it a go, and discovered how well you write. AND I can now say I've read a werewolf book!

      Delete