Book Review ~ Exhale By Joel Abernathy
BLURB::
Two men haunted by the same ghost…
Falling for “the other man” in my marriage was never part of the plan. Then again, according to Nicolae Ursache, I am the other man, and human wedding vows don’t apply. Not to werewolves.
Nicolae is a smug, arrogant alpha male stereotype--and I do mean alpha in the literal sense--but when the same people who killed my wife kidnap my teenage daughter, he’s my only chance at getting her back. The fact that Nicolae was my wife’s rightful mate means that we share a mutual interest in bringing Ellie home, but I never could’ve imagined how he planned to do it.
I will do anything to protect my daughter. Even if it means becoming the plaything, or worse, of the man I loathe most.
4 Stars!
A different take on Werewolves and much darker than I generally expect.
So here’s the thing. The writing was great and the story flowed quite well. My rating is because I think the story was well done. I don’t like to give negative reviews for a technically well-written story that I didn’t enjoy for personal reasons. I’m sure that many readers will love the story of Jack and Nicolae and their attempt to retrieve Jack’s kidnapped daughter.
Why didn’t I care for Exhale? Well, in a nutshell, I like romance and I like angst. I’m a huge fan of deep and heartbreaking stories and I don’t particularly go for saccharine sweet. But Exhale was darker than I care for. The Alpha, Nicolae is not a nice, gentle, yet rough around the edges' character. None of the characters are like that actually. They’re intimidating and borderline feral. The way Jack is treated throughout most of the story truly rubbed me the wrong way. It wasn’t what I wanted from a Shifter story.
Obviously, it was hard for me to connect with any of the characters and they pretty much made me dislike them from the start. Once things started to turn around, I felt a little like it was too late. I'd already checked out. I couldn’t decide whether Jack was likable or not, he mostly annoyed me. Nicolae was in my eyes a d*#k. I definitely did not find him appealing.
The idea that these two men could come together and be mates was ridiculous in my eyes. The whole idea of mates was kind of tossed out the window and new lore gave a completely different idea of what it entailed. It wasn’t my thing.
So the question now is, would I recommend it? Well, if like me you’re a fan of Shifter stories and don’t mind different and dark, I say go for it.
***Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by the author/publisher for my reading pleasure in hopes of an unbiased opinion, a review was not a requirement.***
I liked this book. If anything, I felt that it got too sweet after they fell in love and I missed the snarky banter.
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