Violet Vaughn

Katie and Brindle were high school sweethearts. He’s a werewolf and turned her into a wolf on prom night. Desperate to be normal again, she breaks up with him and runs away to college. During spring semester, it’s mating season and she’s in heat. Brindle shows up at her school to help her get through it but doesn’t expect her to accept him. She later reevaluates her choices and wants to rekindle their relationship. Problem is, he’s moved on to a new she-wolf and Katie is keeping a show more secret bound to hurt and anger Brindle to the extreme.
Though I think Katie stayed frazzled and stressed for too long, I understand why she ran away from the love of her life. She was scared and had no one to talk to, other than her mate who didn’t seem to understand why a human-turned-werewolf would be upset. C’mon, the girl’s 18/19 years old. Give her a break.
I didn’t much like Brindle. I did like that he gave her the time she needed to come to terms with what happened and who she is now, but he should’ve accepted her back into his life when she was finally ready. He still loved her and wanted her, but didn’t trust her. He slept with her but didn’t leave his girlfriend. This is totally unacceptable.
The time-period for this story takes place throughout the course of several months but the transitions from weeks to months confused me. In one chapter, Katie’s been home for her summer break for like three days and, in the next chapter, it’s fall time. There’s not much information about what happens off the page.
The whole story is very well-written and is told in Katie’s 1st person POV. I wish I could’ve seen more of Brindle and got inside his head to know his thoughts and feelings. I might’ve liked him better if I understood him. I downloaded this novella as part of the Lindholm brothers boxed set (Winter Valley Wolves Vol. 1). I liked this story overall and I’m anxious to read the other novellas in the series.
4 Stars

Disclaimer – I downloaded this book for free on Instafreebie and volunteered to review it. I am not compensated in any way, shape or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion. show less

Casey decides to head out to Colorado to get away from her ex-boyfriend, Jason, but not before sleeping with him again. She wants a family and he doesn’t so she decides the best thing is a change of scenery with a new job. She immediately lands herself both a job and room for the rest of the skiing season. One of her new friends hooks her up on a date with a gorgeous guy named Blaine, who also wants a family. They immediately hit it off and just as things start to get hot and heavy, Jason show more breezes into town. Casey is now in emotional turmoil and spends the rest of the book trying to decide who she really wants and what is more important to her.
I really liked this author’s writing style. I was able to get the imagery that was portrayed with no need to go back and reread sections to understand what was going on. I also liked the development of Casey’s character – you understood the indecision and the growth of her character at the end. I must say that Blaine’s big secret was alluded to but Casey’s friend was right; sometimes you blind yourself because of what you want to see. I would definitely recommend this book and others by this author. show less

Hmm, well what do you say about a novel that's free on the Kindle and features a shirtless man on the cover that looks like Smith Jerrod from "Sex and the City". I read this because I was thinking of writing a romance taking place at a ski resort. But this is not the kind of book I want to write. The biggest problem with the story is that the main character doesn't have a goal. The inciting incident is seeing her boyfriend cheat on her, and she drives off to Colorado because... I don't show more know.

And that's the problem. These characters don't exist beyond this book. They have no back stories. They didn't exist before and they don't exist after. They have no histories, and thus, no dynamics between each other. The first person narrative also means a lot of introspection into someone who's quite shallow. She has no thoughts other than which and what man is cute. The central storyline (concerning the hunk on the cover) is concluded 3/4 of the way through, which makes the story construction haphazard. I believe there are better books out there. show less

Loved the characters loved the story line in theory but the execution and writing style sort of made the whole thing fall flat for me. It was a rather choppy read and it over explained certain ares whilst simultaneously under explaining others. With better editing I think this book could have been a 5 star read.