Blood and Chocolate (1997)

One of my favorite books of all time!

Even though it didn't end the way I would've liked, I was happy with the ending because it felt like it had a purpose. It didn't feel like Annette Curtis Klause ended it the way she did because she felt like it, or she wanted to please anyone, but because it was the deeper meaning she wanted to give the story. ( )

I didn't like how the author kept switching between telling the story through a third, then first person point of view. The plot was interesting and kept me going, but I felt like I was obviously out of the age reading group. I was a little concerned about the idea that this 16 year old girl ended up with a 24 year old guy and that was how it was supposed to be. ( )

Like I already said in some old reviews, I love reading about werevolves' packs dynamics. This book was full of them...so you can do the maths!!! Plus I always enjoy the bantering-type of love stories, and that's all I'm going to say...
( )

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Werewolves interacting in a human world is a wonderful premise. If there had been true growth on either side of the fence, I would have been happier. In the end, to the humans involved, werewolves remain monsters. To the werewolves, the humans are "meat" and best left alone.

There's also a level of creepy in this book. The sexual "heat" is less than appropriate with a mid-20s guy hooking up with a girl in high school. The werewolf culture is different from human culture, but I'm not sure that I like the storyline, especially with the underlying message that it's okay to be groped and kissed when the subject doesn't want to be.

I cannot recommend this book for its intended young adult audience. ( )

I honestly don't know what to say here besides this book is all kinds of messed up. This book had neither a great plot or great writing in my opinion. We also have a main character that has an issue with boundaries, stalking, and defends her pack that went around and murdered two humans.

The main character, Vivian, a sixteen year old werewolf moves with her pack to Maryland after the teenage pack members go and kill a human in order to get another pack member out of trouble for murdering a human. Due to Vivian's intervention the five members of the pack that call themselves 'The Five' were not killed for their actions. However, the pack is burned out of their home and this is why they move to Maryland to heal and re-group.

Vivian is apparently the most attractive female in her entire school and is often perplexed that no one wants to be friends with her. She also has long soliloquies about the moon, being a wolf, etc. The entire book is told from Vivian's point of view and she is one messed up teenager.

Eventually Vivian falls for a human named Aiden and she starts dating him over the objection of her mother and 'The Five'. Apparently Vivian's mother problem is not that she could be having sex but having sex with a human. That's the other thing Vivian is pretty much forced to accept gropings, people staring at her, and does her best to be seen as a highly sexually person at all times. She is sixteen. She has a 17 birthday in this book and the ending pretty much grossed me out when you have her being 'mated' to someone. She's 17 years old.

Besides Vivian dating Aiden we also have a member of 'The Five' and the new leader of the pack wanting Vivian and oh we also have some murders thrown into the plot to solve. I am not all for love triangles in novels let alone rectangles but I think if we had stayed on one plot point for the entire book it would have worked much better.

Also I think if the book had shown Vivian vulnerable or torn about being a werewolf, that would have resonated with me more. Instead we have Vivian being just as cruel as 'The Five' and when her relationship with Aiden goes threat level midnight and she decides stalking and trying to force him to be with her is the way to go.

If Vivian had been named Vic I think that a lot of people would have had a bad taste left in their mouth about her actions. Somehow her being a female maybe made it more palatable to a lot of people. ( )