The Twins on Thursday: Ties to the Blood Moon by

"The Twins on Thursday" is reserved for the Twins' joint reviews. It is a special feature of our blog that discusses books that we either both like, dislike, or have mixed feelings about. This is also the day where we post reviews for books (and ARCs/Galleys) that have been sent to us by authors/galley sites/publishing houses. And because we don't believe much in uniformity, we'll be trying to mix things up a bit by adding random stuff in relation to our review (well, mostly for books we purchased anyway).

                                                         Title: Ties to the Blood Moon
Author: Robin P. Waldrop
Format Acquired: PDF

Publication Date: January 31, 2012

Publishing House: Createspace

ISBN: 9781467920650
Source of Copy: Sent by author for review

Summary: 

Genevieve is a teenage girl who moves in with her aunt in Alaska after the death of her mother. Soon after her arrival she learns the things she was raised to believe only existed in fairytales are in fact a big part of her history. When it gets to be too much she seeks refuge in the arms of her new boyfriend, William, only to find out he's not who she thought he was either.

            
 (Image and information courtesy of Goodreads; Summary lifted from actual book)

Review:

Following her mother's death, Gen is sent to live with her Aunt Bev in Alaska to contine on with her normal life. Gen thought that maybe she could make a few new friends, flirt with a cute boy... but find out that she's something else entirely? Definitely not what she expected. Gen turns out to be the Adlet princess that the Lycans, the Bloodsuckers, and the Adlets have been waiting for. 

We know that based on the summary alone, you can't tell what kind of book this one is. We were honestly expecting fae, or trolls, or other magical inhabitants of the deep woods. Well, save for the magical part, we got inhabitants of the deep woods alright - werewolves and vampires. There's no way around it - this one reminded us a lot about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight.  In this book, you'll find the new girl who transfers in from a different school, a werewolf and a vampire scrambling for her affections, bonfire parties, a scene all-too reminiscent of a certain sparkly vampire and his besotted prey, and random jet trips to wherever (because one of the guys is rich, and we all know who that is). 

Let's delve in, starting with the characters.

Gen, our heroine, is a brat, and hey, we get it - the teenage years are confusing years. But if you're overly whiny about not getting what you want? You're pretty much a diva. Gen often whines about how overprotective her Aunt Bev is, and how she can't bear to be apart from William. (Gee, Gen. You were doing fine for the past seventeen years, why start now when you've just continuously locked eyes with the guy for a few days?) The whole teenage romance thing with William was highly romanticized and it sent us reeling from all the insta-love. 

William, on the other hand, was not a credible love interest; it was hard to take him and his romantic notions towards Gen seriously. Who does cheesy dances on airplanes? This one apparently does. Joseph, a werewolf and one of Gen’s royal guards, is no different and we couldn’t comprehend his attraction to Gen since he barely spoke to her before she became princess. Both boys are totally devoid of any personality.

The book had quite a number of inconsistencies and the world-building, an essential part in storytelling, was mediocre. The lore regarding the Adlet wolves and the Lycans would have been interesting, if not for the lack of information and detail. It would have been more interesting if their history were to be expounded on and woven throughout the story and their powers explained better. One problem for us was Gen’s transition from supposedly normal girl to Adlet princess. How is it possible that Gen learned to use her powers so fast? Do we chalk it all up to being super strong and superpowered? We wanted to see the struggle Gen had coming to terms with her powers and how she would cope with them to make her seem more real but all we got was a whole lot of whining, foot-stomping, and crying. Later on when she had already accepted that she was the princess, she is sent to find the Crest, some super powerful and super important item that is not elaborated and explained at all. Details were vague at best. 

Aside from that, there were moments where we had problems with both the language and the grammar. Shifts in Gen’s perspective were sometimes abrupt and the inclusion of scenes that had no relevance to the story left us scratching our heads. The scene where Gen gets into a fight and bloodies another girl is another issue, why in the world did the guidance counselor just let her go with no repercussions whatsoever? Regardless of whether Gen was in the wrong or the right, we think that it's highly unlikely that educators would let go of something like this so easily. And right after the fight amidst the cheering crowd? Yeah, William flirts with her and proceeds to asks her out. Uh, that's kind of creepy, don't you think?

We also had issues with William and Gen’s relationship. How did it start? They were looking at each other in the cafeteria and then she proceeded to wax poetic about what a hunk he was and then decided that she was in love. They didn’t interact much and when they do decide to go on a date, they always have to cut it short, because of some conceived danger on Gen’s well-being. So William, if you knew she was being hunted in the first place and that there were people after her, why in the world did you not just stay indoors? It grated on our nerves how Gen tossed around her I-love-you’s so easily, she barely knows the guy and she’s obsessed with him then after a while we find her spouting I LOVE YOU and it’s only been what… a few days? And Joseph, where in the world did Gen’s attraction for him come from? Is it because Joseph, in typical male romantic interest fashion, is buff and possesses bulgy muscles, a pretty face and more bulgy muscles?

If edits were to be made, the inconsistencies smoothed out, and the characters given some dimension, hey, this might work for Twilight fans. But for now, we'll have to give this one nary a star.

Rating: