Book Review: Unleashed by Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie

Title: Unleashed 

Author: Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie
Series: Wolf Springs Chronicles
Pages: 383
Publisher: Doubleday
Date of Publication: 8th December 2011
Source: Publisher*
Synopsis from Goodreads: Katelyn McBride’s life changed in an instant when her mother died. Uprooted from her California home, Katelyn was shipped to the middle of nowhere, Arkansas, to her only living relative, her grandfather. And now she has to start over in Wolf Springs, a tiny village in the Ozark Mountains. Like any small town, Wolf Springs has secrets. But the secrets hidden here are more sinister than Katelyn could ever imagine. It’s a town with a history that reaches back centuries, spans continents, and conceals terrifying truths. And Katelyn McBride is about to change everything.

Broken families, ageless grudges, forced alliances, and love that blooms in the darkest night—welcome to Wolf Springs.

My Thoughts:
Many people have compared Unleashed to Twilight, but with werewolves (as in, werewolves as the main paranormal creature). And in a way, I guess it is, but not really. At first when I was reading, I was thinking, 'This feels very familiar', but as a big fan of Twilight it didn't bother me too much... Anyway, after reading about a third of it, I realised that it was only the beginning that was similar, and that in a lot of ways it was completely different. And I've started my review this way, because I feel that this comparison to Twilight has put a lot of people off, and I want so many people to read it because it's a great book!

I really love Nancy and Debbie's writing! I've never read anything by either author before, but I really hope that this isn't the last book by the duo that I read! *makes note to get myself copies of their other books* I found it super easy to read and it sucked me in right from the start. I was in a little reading funk, but this pulled me out of it, and it's not just any book that can do that for me!

The characters, I thought, were extremely well written and fleshed out, and I felt I could believe in them. I really liked how the book itself is written in third person but it reads as if it was written in first person from Katelyn's point of view. It meant we got all of Katelyn's emotions in depth as well as a lot of the other characters. I really liked Katelyn. She seemed like a very normal girl, who was coping extremely well with everything awful that had happened to her. I think that because of the tragic events she had to go through, it was easy to relate to her and believe in her feelings, and I found I could forgive her a lot more for being shy and scared in a new school, even after she'd settled in, because sometimes it's unrealistic how long it takes new students to settle in to new schools, and it annoys me, reading about their moaning and annoyance at being new... ;)

I also really liked Trick, even though I really don't like his name. At first I thought he might be a bit of an idiot, and a bit of a jerk who would just spend the whole book trying to get Katelyn to kiss him, but he actually turned out to be a really sweet guy, and there were so many times in the book where I felt sorry for him, because he wasn't allowed to know what was going on or when something else happened (you'll know if you've read it ;P ), and it broke my heart to see him get so wound up and upset about Katelyn. I definitely can't wait to see where their relationship takes them in the next book - I do hope it's happy!

Overall though, I really really enjoyed Unleashed. There were a couple of things, minor things, that annoyed me, but they're not big enough of a deal to make a fuss about... Anyway, I would most definitely recommend this to all fans of young adult paranormal books, and it has just that little bit of romance to keep things interesting ;) It was also my 100th book of the year, and I wanted to make it special, and this definitely was a great book to pick! It comes out on Thursday, and I strongly suggest that you should go and buy it!

*Huge thanks to Random House Children's Books and Doubleday for sending me this in exchange for an honest review! In no way has this affected my opinion of the book!

My Rating:

I give it 5 Feet!

Challenges:
2011 100+ Reading Challenge #100 :D
2011 Paranormal YA Reading Challenge #52