TBR Challenge: JR Ward - Claimed

Lydia Susi is passionate about protecting wolves in their natural habitat. When a hotel chain develops a tract of land next to the preserve, Lydia is one of the most vocal opponents of the project - and becomes a target.
One night, a shadowy figure threatens Lydia’s life in the forest, and a new hire at the Wolf Study Project comes from out of nowhere to save her. Daniel Joseph is both mysterious and someone she intrinsically wants to trust. But is he hiding something?
As the stakes get higher and one of Lydia’s colleagues is murdered, she must decide how far she will go to protect the wolves. Then a shocking revelation about Daniel challenges Lydia’s reality in ways she could never have predicted. Some fates demand courage, while others require even more, with no guarantees. Is she destined to have true love...or will a soul-shattering loss ruin her forever?

Comment: One more year of the TBR Challenge begins!

For the month of January the theme is "still here", which didn't make me think of anything specific at first, but then I remembered I could pick something that still lingers in the pile but that I haven't been in the mood for. With the challenge's prompt, I went for this book by JR Ward, the first of a spin off series which would feature werewolves, thus quite a transition from her usual vampires.

Lydia Susi is a behavior biologist who feels deeply for the safekeeping of wolves and she tries to do her best at the preserve she works for, even though things have been weird lately. To make it worse, there's a hotel chain wanting to do something near the preserve, which Lydia is very vocally against, and this makes her a target. Then, Daniel Joseph arrives, looking for a job and she instinctively trusts him, but everything starts to go wrong, especially when it concerns her boss and the veterinarian, who both seem to be involved in something shady. With Daniel's help,c an Lydia discover what has been happening and what big secrets the others were hiding?

Back in 2005, I've discovered the BDB series by this author and I admit, I was obsessed with the books, the characters, the world, for a few years. I have several books in hardcover when I usually wait for paperbacks. I was a goner for that world and there was a time I felt this author could do no wrong. Well, time goes by and nowadays, while I still appreciate her work, I no longer feel the obsession (obviously others came along).

This said, I was hoping this book would be an interesting take on werewolves or, at least, in something different from the BDB series - whose latest books I haven't read and, honestly, I don't feel I want to -  because if there is one big criticism I ignored but now frustrates me immensely is that the author doesn't let the deserved HEAs rest. Always some issue now needs to be addressed and I don't feel her method works, not anymore. I'm saying this because Xhex and John Matthew from the BDB series have some cameo appearances here, well and a few others, but mainly these, and while thankfully their relationship is as strong, there's some news for Xhex that seem troublesome. I wonder... why? Why having to add this to this new story... it's all so... avoidable.

Anyway, back to the Claimed plot, I had some expectations, and I was particularly eager to see the author develop a werewolf story, but the beginning was quite unassuming and was clearly the author's style, but... where were the werewolves references and characters? There was nothing in the book until the end in which one could say, oh this is definitely a werewolf story. I have learned in the meantime that this is actually the first of a continuous trilogy featuring the same main characters, and not three stories in the same world with different couples, as the author has done in the past.

Well, disappointment. I'm not certain of what to say about this but even putting aside the lack of werewolf content, the story didn't grab me completely, and I admit I've skimmed a few pages here and there to keep going. I kept thinking to myself, a few years ago I would have not done such a thing while reading a book by this author...but the truth is that the plot was slow, somewhat dense and when I got to the end I actually thought this story was, well, unnecessary. Also, there is a certain reveal which seemed to come out of nowhere, I mean, why, how, and no explanation, only apparent fact. I feel this tactic of spring up such a thing at the end without any hint/context/ allusion to anything about it before was incredibly irritating.

I never really saw the reason for why this story had to happen, why it had to make sense... not even the "romance" between Lydia and Daniel convinced me. I was especially annoyed at this when we get to the end, because two things happen, or better, two things are revealed and it's so... urghh, that I truly lost interest and patience in thinking I'd read more with these characters. Adding to this, the preserve vs hotel sub plot was also not very captivating, and I've finished the novel frustrated with several things.

Therefore, why not a lower grade... well, I still feel some pull towards this author's style and way of story telling and I did like some passages and sequences. I also liked the BDB characters showing up even though it felt they didn't have to, and I think the author is still quite skilled in taking things to a seemingly impossible situation and then twisting it around to make things appealing. But did this book work out perfectly for me? No, not really.

I might return to the author one day, who knows, I still have a couple of books by her in the pile but while they are still here, I don't think they are as enthralling as others by her used to be. This book just didn't seem to have enough charisma, and while it was still competently organized and structured, it failed to truly convince me of what the main characters were going through and of what they meant for one another. It is what it is... everyone changes.

Grade: 5/10