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A review by confessions_of_a_bookaholic
Wolf by Kelly Oliver
2.0
This book had a fairly promising start. I was intrigued to find out what had happened to the professor, and found jumping between Jessica's story and Dmitry's story kept me interested and wanting to know more. Unfortunately this didn't continue throughout the book. Fairly quickly the story starts to go off on several seemingly unrelated tangents. There is the college date rape drug sideline, the illicit poker game sideline, some missing paintings, Dmitry's family history and a half hearted romance all thrown in to the mix. Add in a lot of references to Russian literature, artwork and philosophy, and a fair bit of coffee jargon and there's just too much going on. It's almost as if the author couldn't decide what she wanted to include in her novel, so she brought in aspects of all of her interests. I also thought the whole poker game and several of the details about that were far too close to the real life story of Molly's Game for my liking.
Don't get me wrong, there was some good stuff in there. I think the college rape issue is something that needs to be challenged in as many aspects of life as possible, otherwise it will continue to be brushed under the carpet. I think Oliver brought that subject up well, without making the book too dark.
I also liked that most of the strong and leading characters in the book were female. I particularly liked Lolita, as a character who is fiercely independent and won't let anyone mess her around. That said I didn't really feel invested in any of the characters. I would've liked more backstory for Amber, and to learn more about her tech fascination before it became a necessary skill in the storyline. I also found it irritating that Jessica fell over as much as she did. That was totally unnceccesary and didn't add anything to the story.
Overall I started out quite enjoying this, but got more and more disinterested as it went on. By about 80% I kind of just wanted it to be over. 2*, and I won't be reading book 2.
Thanks to NetGalley and KAOS press for a free copy in return for an honest review
Don't get me wrong, there was some good stuff in there. I think the college rape issue is something that needs to be challenged in as many aspects of life as possible, otherwise it will continue to be brushed under the carpet. I think Oliver brought that subject up well, without making the book too dark.
I also liked that most of the strong and leading characters in the book were female. I particularly liked Lolita, as a character who is fiercely independent and won't let anyone mess her around. That said I didn't really feel invested in any of the characters. I would've liked more backstory for Amber, and to learn more about her tech fascination before it became a necessary skill in the storyline. I also found it irritating that Jessica fell over as much as she did. That was totally unnceccesary and didn't add anything to the story.
Overall I started out quite enjoying this, but got more and more disinterested as it went on. By about 80% I kind of just wanted it to be over. 2*, and I won't be reading book 2.
Thanks to NetGalley and KAOS press for a free copy in return for an honest review