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A review by pipi2525
The Mercenary by Johanna Rae
4.0
Read it in less than twenty-four hours! Did not want to put it down!
I picked up this book and didn't want to put it down. Seriously. Even when I finally had to go to sleep I woke up three hours later and with still a little over half the book left, immediately jumped back into it and didn't stop until it was finished. I'll start with the cons, because there really aren't that many. Editing-wise there are several places that if you're an OCD editor will make your eye twitch. However after the first few chapters I hardly noticed them and when I did I was too engrossed in the story to pay them much mind. I could also excuse any overlooked edits seeing as how this is the author's debut novel and she self-published it. There were also a few times where certain things were alluded to as if it had already been explained, yet hadn't. Again, the author was very forthcoming in admitting that the passages where such things had been referenced had been cut in the editing process. But the evidences of this happening were very few and did not hamper the reading the experience at all. The only other very small thing I noticed was the terminology the author, who is a native New Zealander, used for various places or objects. ie. car park is a parking lot. Again, while it caught my eye it did not hamper the story at all.
The pros:
This book was a breath of fresh air in the seemingly overwhelming mountain of were/shifter stories being pumped out. The characters sprang to life, jumping off the page and pulling me into their world with such ease that I was soon smiling, laughing, gasping, and even crying as they whisked me through their story in a way that only a handful of books has ever done before. It truly made me enjoy having picked up a book again after way too long. Even the `secondary' characters managed to wrap me around their fingers, some from their very first introduction (i.e. Rufus *Grins and nods like a dork*). At first I did feel like the female lead (Jodie) took to finding out about were's/shifters way to easily and calmly (especially given the circumstances of how she finds out). However once I stopped and thought about it, in this day and age with so many books on such creatures, along with vampires, zombies, etc. I had to reassess my initial thought, realizing that if I found out someone close to me whom I had known for a long time was really a were-, would I really freak out and go crazy? Or would I accept it. Obviously since this is in the `pro' section, it would be the latter.
The history of the `Therian's' was very plausible and very easy to understand. It was so believable and well explained that I had to go look up `Therian' online to see how much of it the author came up with herself. Imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to find out that she had woven together such an amazing world based on the definition of Therianthropy (an actual clinical term) and a basic knowledge of lycanthropy. Yet she didn't just stop at lycanthropy. One of the refreshing aspects of The Mercenary was that it's not just your typical were's, i.e. wolves, leopards, brown bears (although each are represented). The author has expanded the were- genre to include boars, lizards, polar bears, falcons, Tasmanian devils and even house cats. (Yes it even made me stop and look at my own house cats with an arched brow for a moment.) One can only imagine how many more were-species this amazingly talented author will include in future installments of this series. I for one will be waiting (rather impatiently) to find out.
In conclusion The Mercenary is, in my very humble opinion, a must read and a must buy. And Johanna Rae is definitely an author to keep your eye on.
I picked up this book and didn't want to put it down. Seriously. Even when I finally had to go to sleep I woke up three hours later and with still a little over half the book left, immediately jumped back into it and didn't stop until it was finished. I'll start with the cons, because there really aren't that many. Editing-wise there are several places that if you're an OCD editor will make your eye twitch. However after the first few chapters I hardly noticed them and when I did I was too engrossed in the story to pay them much mind. I could also excuse any overlooked edits seeing as how this is the author's debut novel and she self-published it. There were also a few times where certain things were alluded to as if it had already been explained, yet hadn't. Again, the author was very forthcoming in admitting that the passages where such things had been referenced had been cut in the editing process. But the evidences of this happening were very few and did not hamper the reading the experience at all. The only other very small thing I noticed was the terminology the author, who is a native New Zealander, used for various places or objects. ie. car park is a parking lot. Again, while it caught my eye it did not hamper the story at all.
The pros:
This book was a breath of fresh air in the seemingly overwhelming mountain of were/shifter stories being pumped out. The characters sprang to life, jumping off the page and pulling me into their world with such ease that I was soon smiling, laughing, gasping, and even crying as they whisked me through their story in a way that only a handful of books has ever done before. It truly made me enjoy having picked up a book again after way too long. Even the `secondary' characters managed to wrap me around their fingers, some from their very first introduction (i.e. Rufus *Grins and nods like a dork*). At first I did feel like the female lead (Jodie) took to finding out about were's/shifters way to easily and calmly (especially given the circumstances of how she finds out). However once I stopped and thought about it, in this day and age with so many books on such creatures, along with vampires, zombies, etc. I had to reassess my initial thought, realizing that if I found out someone close to me whom I had known for a long time was really a were-, would I really freak out and go crazy? Or would I accept it. Obviously since this is in the `pro' section, it would be the latter.
The history of the `Therian's' was very plausible and very easy to understand. It was so believable and well explained that I had to go look up `Therian' online to see how much of it the author came up with herself. Imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to find out that she had woven together such an amazing world based on the definition of Therianthropy (an actual clinical term) and a basic knowledge of lycanthropy. Yet she didn't just stop at lycanthropy. One of the refreshing aspects of The Mercenary was that it's not just your typical were's, i.e. wolves, leopards, brown bears (although each are represented). The author has expanded the were- genre to include boars, lizards, polar bears, falcons, Tasmanian devils and even house cats. (Yes it even made me stop and look at my own house cats with an arched brow for a moment.) One can only imagine how many more were-species this amazingly talented author will include in future installments of this series. I for one will be waiting (rather impatiently) to find out.
In conclusion The Mercenary is, in my very humble opinion, a must read and a must buy. And Johanna Rae is definitely an author to keep your eye on.