No Remorse by MaryLynn Bast Review

No Remorse

Author: MaryLynn Bast    

ISBN: 1470042223 (ISBN13: 9781470042226)
Release Date:   March 17th 2012
Format : Paperback
Pages: 250

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Werewolves,
Shapeshifters, Paranormal, Fantasy

Summary
Due to her unusual birth, Amber has abilities no other werewolf has ever possessed. On the run since childhood, the lone wolf avoids contact with other werewolves at all cost, continually moving, constantly looking over her shoulder and always alone.

Everything changes when Amber saves a werewolf from the mere brink of death, Blake, the only werewolf to ever protect her. Love blossoms, but not without tribulations when Amber realizes she must help her new pack rescue a member who is being held hostage by a rival pack.

Warring with emotions of going from lone wolf to the pack leader’s mate, Amber must decide if she is willing to risk Blake’s life to know true family and friendship despite the fact that the Council is hell bent on locating her and will stop at nothing until she is found. Will Amber’s special abilities be enough to keep everyone safe?

My Thoughts on the Book
This is yet another werewolf book that was rushed. It seems like werewolf writers are so focused on the action scenes that they leave out plot and character development. Things just...happen. For example, the bad guy very quickly stops being the bad guy. I did enjoy some parts of this book, like the fact that there are a lot of wolf scenes, and they're described beautifully.

The main character is Amber. She’s been on the run almost her whole life, half of that was with her mom. Her mom even told her to stay away from packs, since they may try and hurt her if they found out about her. (Her mom's a bit biased, as she admitted to Amber that she was raped by her werewolf pack the first time she changed. Perfect way to traumatize a child into having commitment issues, and this does create conflict between Amber and her mother later on.) Given her situation, I thought that she'd keep trying to run when she does run into an old friend (Blake), so she doesn't risk getting hurt. Nope, instead she pulls a complete character reversal and starts an immediate romance with him. I find it hard to believe that someone who's been on the run for so long would decide to sleep with and stay with someone. Even when she’s thinking about running away, it’s one sided as Blake convinces her not to right away. I did find that when Amber shows her new powers to Blake, it was well done. Who wouldn't want to show off being invisible? To have that in a pack can be a helpful if danger arrives or to use it like they did in the book. 

The idea for the plot was good, though it moved a bit too fast for events to properly develop. I enjoyed the background story of Amber and how she is in present day. I did find the beginning a bit confusing, as the first chapter's events jumped out of chronological order. One minute she knows the name of a camper she’s hunting, the next it’s before she met him when she was first coming up to him. Then she’s killing him and eating him, and suddenly it's back to where she met him and how they fought. It's as if someone copy-pasted the story out of order during editing. However, after the messy first chapter, events become slightly clearer. Amber meets Blake and the pack, becoming Blake's mate after meeting him for the first time in years. She also discovers things about her mother that shake up her world and her reasons for why she thought she did things. At the end of the book, the bad guy Isaac wakes up and decides to appear out of no where and go after Amber. This is odd, since when I watched the trailer it showed that the main bad guy who was after Amber is Isaac, but you don’t meet him till the ending.

Details are also added to the book that I don't think are needed. There's a small appearance of the vampire, and her powers are only briefly explained. Some of her powers aren't really even needed, adding to the redundancy of her character. I think this book could have been fine without there being vampires included in the book. The witches that appeared, that made sense. They were part of the reason why Amber was kept hidden for so long, but vampires did nothing for the story line. Even the inclusion of some of Amber's abilities didn't make sense.

As I mentioned before, I found that the romance happened too suddenly. In real life, people take time to get to know each other. Even friends who've known each other for years take their time when they move into the dating world. I did like the few sex scenes the the book. They were hot, and kept me interested. I don't know if others would agree with me, but I found the sex scenes to be among the few good pieces of the book.

I was looking forward to something epic, but was a bit disappointed by a filler in the middle of the book. Events jumped and took place too quickly. The middle filler was honestly just that, filler, boring and not very exciting. If there is a second book, I hope that it's better written and more flushed out. This one was anticlimactic. I'm hoping that the second book will be better and resolve things more clearly.

Design


As for the cover of the book I do very much like it, it's really well done. Though one thing confuses me, in the book she has black hair but in this picture of Amber she has brown hair. I know I'm just being picky but I think the designer could have done better in picking a model or at least using photoshop to change the hair color cause I know it can be done. The Title seems a bit plain and small but besides those small details I do love the cover.

Overall
This is an alright right read, I do recommend you try it out or read a few more reviews then decide.

Rating
3 out of 5 Howling Wolves