Hello everyone!
As promised last week I'm back with a review on the mirror image of the book we talked about that time.
If you remember, I'd fallen off the deep end and into the world of werewolves and very unspecified supernatural humans who seem to be able to either see the life force of others or make predictions or stuff like that.
It's one of those things that you either roll with, or you never get the hang of it I think.
Me?
I totally rolled with it.
I'm fine with paranormal and supernatural so long as there's some sort of arc to the storytelling, and this one was a kind of Beauty and the Beast one at that. And we all know how we feel about it!
So now we've heard all about what Beauty thought.
It's time to take a look at Beast in Clay's Hope.
The link to the previous book will of course be linked down bellow, as always.
Melissa Haag has written an entire series of SIX of these which I've yet to get to, but I'm working on it, so eventually you'll be able to see the lot of them on the blog here with hopefully cohesive and understandable reviews. All six of the books also have companion stories in the form of what the males involved think, which is also exciting to me, so much more now that we know Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer is actually getting published.
I can't wait!
But before that, it's time for Clay's Hope.
Clay, as you may remember from Hope(less), is a Forlorn werewolf, aka a werewolf that doesn't exactly live with the main pack, especially not on the Compound where most of them are, though he does of course live by the rules imposed by the Elders. His father never wanted to become as civilized as some of the other wolves are becoming, so what happened after the old man died is that Clay never did go back to the pack proper, and is much more comfortable in his fur than in his skin.
He's usually called up for Introductions to keep the peace between the unMated wolves waiting to see the female, which is how he ends up there when Gabby's there, too.
And this time we get to see him see her from HIS perspective.
And it's beautiful.
Here's the part of the book where you really need to not think like a human and how insta-whatever doesn't work, because the premise of this story is very similar to how Imprinting worked back in Twilight with the wolves - when Haag's werewolves feel the Pull towards their Mate, they belong to said Mate until the end of time and the rest doesn't matter.
Of course the story evolves just as it did in the main book: Clay pries apart the truck so Gabby can't leave, watches over her from afar, comes to her new place in his canine form so he can stick around, and gradually works his way into earning her trust so that they can be together.
The differences and the things I want to highlight is how we get to see some actions from his point of view and how things aren't exactly the way Gabby might have made them seem in her version of the book: for example, the buying of a car, which at that point Clay isn't as good with mechanics yet, but he sort of nods to get her to move away from the seller, but she takes it as she should buy the car upfront.
His deduction: she's much too trusting (and I kind of agree with him on that one!).
We also get to see just how he gets the job at the garage (after the owner approached Gabby to help her in a parking lot he mentioned she should send her boyfriend over, and Clay actually did it, to earn money and help around the house by buying some of the stuff she couldn't afford at the time), and the vet scene.
That vet scene is EVERYTHING because Clay is naturally not the dog Rachel and the vet think he is.
His extrapolating that the yapping chihuahua outside was initially trying to start a fight - but maybe shrieking for help instead is the best, although his reaction to the physical exam is even better.
You all know what happens when a dog gets taken in for shots. Well it definitely happens here and we see it first-hand!
Also apparently the drugs DID have an effect on him that he wasn't hamming up, but he toughed it out, which was interesting.
Mostly what we get to see is a man in love with a woman and trying to make her see he'll be what and who she needs him to be; we do realize the whole no talking thing is kind of an accident though since Clay is pretty convinced he'd been talking to Gabby but it turns out it was all in his head, so then he simply keeps his mouth shut until she bites and Claims him because he knows he's liable to beg her for just a scrap of affection or something.
Again, you need to suspend your "human" beliefs in this one and roll with the supernatural, or else the book won't work for you!
What I especially liked was a bit more insight into the wolves through Clay's head, because we get to see just what he thinks of the Introductions, how they work outside what we're told in Hope(less), and especially that Elders can communicate with any werewolf under the laws of the pack through a mind connection.
There's some more explanation about Elders at that - how they have to put the Pack above all else and can't have a Mate, actually, not that they're inherently single - and about the Introductions.
In Clay's book, we're immediately told he has six months to get Gabby to Claim him, which was unknown to us in Hope(less) and that when the time's up there will be other contenders again (not that he'll let them close but that's beside the point). More importantly, we get a much better feel for the werewolf community and what they're trying to achieve in this one, even if the Elder's motivations with Gabby aren't quite explained either.
They just seem to be pushing for her to get Mated, no matter the cost, which is evident during that second big Introduction scene when she faints, because the unMated werewolves are all staring at their leaders and wondering why the hell they're making this girl do it when she's so obviously sick.
There's definitely still more that we need to learn about these werewolves and their mates, and there's overlap with what I believe is the second book in this one so we may have to take a look at (Mis)fortune sooner rather than later, since I have no clue who Michelle is - other than she's the protagonist of this second book, and mentioned in Clay's Hope.
But with Gabby's bite, she and Clay are now a united team (they still have to actually Mate, but, ya know) and ready to take on the world together, since there's so much they still don't understand, including but not limited to how it's possible that Gabby felt the same Pull she felt for Clay with one of the wolves who have a different life spark.
All of that is bound to be revealed in subsequent books, however, and I'm actually pretty excited to read them!
Clay's Hope is a very good companion story to the main novel, and it gives us a lot of insight into the workings of the Pack and Forlorn wolves, as well as Clay himself, the man who loves the girl so much he's willing to do just about anything - and his journey to happily ever after, even if there's bound to still be some thorns thrown in their path together.
But that's what sequels are for, after all!
If you enjoyed Hope(less), or if you just want to hear what went on in Clay's head whenever he had to go potty like a real dog or got himself petted, this is definitely the book for you.
xx
*images not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment