DNF Review--Silent Cravings by Jess Haines & E. Blix

The Goliath werewolves, a California pack hoping to expand into new territories, made an extreme error in judgment when choosing Christoph to be their representative for negotiations in New York. After two fights in the open with another supernatural, Christoph orders a lower-ranking teenaged Were to take the downfall for his mistakes by serving in his place under vampire Alec Royce’s watchful eye.

When Christoph and another packmate try to save the girl from Royce’s clutches—never mind the inevitable war they’d start in the process—the two are outcast from their pack. The vampire once again demands servitude as recompense, and they soon find themselves magically “neutered” by enchanted leather fetish collars so they can’t hurt themselves or anyone else in the vampire’s entourage. Hey, the collars were all Royce had handy at the time.

Just when Christoph thought it couldn’t get any worse, a mute vampire named Mouse decides to claim him, taking him for her own. She has her own set of problems, what with being mentally damaged by her sire, Max Carlyle, who delighted in enforcing her monstrous nature. She hungers for Christoph, but can’t stand to see someone victimized or—even worse—afraid of her.

Christoph is taught the greater lesson of what it really means to follow the Goliath Code of Honor and Mouse narrowly avoids a nervous breakdown in the process of accepting her own predatory nature. The two must learn how to live together (and deal with his new accessory)—without driving Royce and the rest of his household crazy in the process.

I received this e-book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

Jess Haines' H&W Investigations series is one that I vastly enjoy! The characters are awesome and I enjoy Shiarra! Her character has done a lot of growing and she's getting over some of her prejudices regarding the Others.

So when I heard Jess was going to write a book regarding Mouse and the Weres that have come into Royce's home I thought it would be an interesting read! When I got a copy of Silent Cravings I was eager to start it and see a different part of this world that I have come to enjoy.

Unfortunately, for some reason I couldn't get into this one. I don't know why either. The characters were good, Christoph was kind of hard to like, but he grew on me a bit for the duration that I read. Analie is a young teenage Were who was with Christoph when they were trying to discuss relations with the New York Weres to see if they would allow their pack, the Goliaths to live in New York. But after two mishaps that had Christoph beating up Royce, their request was denied.

In order to gain compensation for his losses and damages done to him, Royce requires one of them to work off the debt at his house and businesses for 5 years. He wanted it to be Christoph as that's who he has the beef with, but Christoph takes the coward's way out and gives him Analie. But he and another Were, Ashi, soon become indebted to Royce when they make an attempt to kidnap Analie back.

Analie had it pretty good at the house, she was even enjoying herself and Mouse's company. But Ashi and Christophe weren't going to have that same treatment.

And that's pretty much where I left off. I tried skimming some pages afterward, but I still couldn't get into it. I didn't even really get to the point where Mouse and Christoph began having feelings for one another.

The pacing was a bit slow for me I suppose. I thought this would be a book that focused on Mouse and Christoph for the most part, but Christoph doesn't even become a "guest" at the house until 100 pages in. I just kept waiting for something to happen, but it didn't seem to be happening fast enough. I am not sure what was meant to happen either for I didn't really notice anything that could lead to a more concrete plot development.

My only guess would the Goliath pack getting mad that the vampires had some of their pack members, but I know the Alpha wasn't happy with Christoph and Ashi and pretty much exiled them, but Analie would be someone they'd want back, just because she was one of their own and a "child", but technically a teenager.

So I guess the major downfall for me was the pacing. I couldn't get into whatsoever and kept hoping and hoping something would pick up to the point where I'd be excited but it didn't happen.

I still love the H&W Investigations series and will keep reading that one, but I just wasn't impressed with this spinoff. It did have potential though. I'd recommend it if you were curious enough to read it, I don't want to dissuade anyone from reading or enjoying it, it just wasn't for me I guess.


Not going to do a rating on this one since I didn't finish it.