13 To Life Book 50

First of all, look at that heading. Book 50, I might make it through this project after all! YAY!!!!

Okay, I'm okay now.


No joke, I like romance, especially that of the paranormal/magical variety. I just really do. Very few books really do it for me: Twilight, Shiver (Book 1), Shade (until she jolted me at the end) and The Iron Daughter (Ash really manned up). I looked at the title and assumed the girl was 13 and that it just wouldn't do it for me. But my friend and CP kept going on and on about how great it was and sent me a battered copy from where she had thorougly read it more than once, so I thought I'll give it a try. I'm glad I did.

So what do you get when you throw hot guys, werewolves, the Russian Mafia, Cold War Politics, and the CIA together? Defintiely not Forks. The answer is 13 to Life. There is so much more to this book than werewolves. And occassionally the author throws in a little tidbit that really reflects on issues but it's just enough to give the book a taste of the real world and hopefully make people think about things without being preacy. I really enjoyed that. (There is a brief discussion about health insurance and a one liner about justice for immigrants).

Now I can't lie. This book isn't perfect. I felt there were some serious problems with the pacing for the first 150 pages. It would get really good and then just slow almost to a stop. Beginnings of books can be hard (not just for the reader, but the writer as well). There is so much to set-up. But 150 pages for the pace to really pick up is a bit too long for a 300 page book. The good news is that once the pace does pick up it doesn't stop until the last page. And then you're screaming for the sequel.

The other problem I had with the book was the MC, Jessie. She just never seemed quite believable to me. She has a best friend who did something so horrible, she should probably be in jail and though the book doesn't say this I'm guessing she would be had she not been a rich kid.(But that's the law school drop out coming out). Jessie was way too forgiving of this. At first, I really liked her, liked that she could overlook that. Then I realized they were never friends to begin with and I was just like wow. She needs to be institutionalized.

But all in all it was a good book, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.