REBECCA LANGHAM
  • Home
  • Rebecca Langham
    • Bio
    • SERIES: The Outsider Project
    • Novellas
    • Interviews
    • Contact
  • KARA RIPLEY
    • About Kara
    • Romance Stories
  • ceLEStial book reviews

REVIEW: Bitten by her by annabelle jacobs

30/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture


REVIEWED BY L.A. ASHTON
​
Genre:
Paranormal Romance

Pairings: F/F

Queer Rep: Lesbian

Warnings: Blood, violence, rampant misogyny

L.A.'s Rating: Two Stars

[Note: I received an ARC of this work in exchange for an honest review]

Synopsis
Rachel and Sara cross paths on the full moon. A deep and immediate attraction overcomes them, but they part ways before initiating a full bond to receive approval from their Alpha Wolf fathers. Rachel’s father is accepting, but Sara has no such luck. Pain of an uncompleted bond seizes them, but Sara’s father is determined to keep them apart until the feeling fades.



General

This novella is marked as “4.5” in the “Regent Park Pack” series, but the author assured me it could be read as a standalone. As most of the books focus on individual couples and conflicts, I happily agreed. The world needs more lesbian werewolves.
But maybe not these lesbian werewolves.

Plot

The author was right—mostly. This novella can be read as a standalone. The conflict is built and resolved wholly within its pages, and the world-building was done simply. However, I do not think this piece is best consumed that way.

There were times during the novella where a lot of werewolf men were talking and I felt like I’d dropped into episode 39 of a long running TV series. The men were presented without much information to anchor them in the reader’s mind, and there were so many. They were previous series protagonists, no doubt. But they were cardboard cutouts to me, and it was difficult to care about any of them.

I’ve said before I’m not a fan of “love at first sight” or soulmate tropes, unless the piece seeks to defy them. Rachel and Sara are immediately attracted to each other with no buildup (there is a sex scene literally a few pages into the book) and I could have really dug the animalistic yearning of being forced apart, but... it was mostly just sad and mopey, which is fine, but not something to endear me to the dynamic. I think people who prefer this type of narrative would appreciate the piece much more than I did. It wound up not being a great match.

In general the novella felt very cliché. Tropes have their place, but it was always very obvious what was coming. Without something to shake up the pace or add spice, the words grew dull.

This was not helped by the fact that the protagonists did not actually propel the novella forward. The girls were very reactionary; everyone around them aimed to help their situation and puzzle things into place while they did extremely little. In the end, all but one of the final scenes was orchestrated by side-characters while the girls were dragged along. They did so happily—and hornily—but were strangely inconsequential to their own plot. Sara finally showed some steel at the end and leveraged the best possible outcome, but had she not done so, the result would have been similar.

Characters
​

Neither of the girls captured me as I thought they would. Their personalities didn’t come through as well as I believe the author intended, which made my interest in their bond slowly degrade. I did love Sara’s grandmother. She is the MVP of this novella.
As I mentioned above, the men did not stick in my brain properly. We needed more one-on-one with some of them I think; as it stood, I could not remember one from the other or what personality/position belonged to who.
 
I’m a big fan of paranormal romance, but I am not a big fan of soulmate tropes. I think for fans of the series and maybe some fans of destined lovers/soulmates/etc, this could be a match. For me it was not.
 
Annabelle Jacobs’ official site can be found here, and her twitter is here.
 
Note: I am an Amazon Associate and I am using affiliate links. These do not affect you or my reviews.
 
From Amazon.com:
Bitten by Her (paperback)    |    Bitten by Her (ebook)

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    ABOUT C.B.

    CURRENTLY ON HIATUS FOR UNIVERSITY STUDY AND WORK. 

    Book reviews, Author Q&As and more as shared by an Australian lesbian. My core interests lie in genre fiction: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror etc.
    ​
    My aim is to help provide more exposure to those books that  may not fit neatly into the usual "lesfic" boxes (EG: pansexual women who engage with different aspects of their sexuality, non-binary characters, books with very little romance etc.) or books that don't conform to the most popular tropes that tend to dominate the LGBTIQ+ publishing world.

    That said, I'll put up pretty much any review that I'd like to share. Most will have some sort of rainbow content, but not all. I am a reader who likes to talk about books -- that's really what this little corner of the web is for, to talk about books.

    ​Email: celestialbooks [AT] rebeccalangham.com.au


    Archives

    August 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    January 2017
    July 2016

    Categories

    All
    1. # Submit A Book
    Ace Rep
    Action/Adventure
    Anime & Manga
    Anthologies
    Australian Author
    Author Q&A
    BDSM
    Beneath The Surface
    Bisexual
    Bisexual F/F
    Bisexual M/F
    Bisexual M/M
    Blog Post
    Book Review
    Book Trailer
    Book Updates
    Comic Books/Graphic Novels
    Contemporary Fiction
    Cops
    Crime Fiction
    Dystopian
    Fade To Black
    Fairy Tales
    Fantasy
    F/F/F
    Five Stars
    Gender Neutral
    Give Away
    Guest Blog
    Historical Fiction
    Horror Novels
    Intersex Characters
    Journalists
    Kara Ripley
    Lesbian Sci Fi
    Literary Fiction
    Love Triangle
    M/M/F
    M/M Fiction
    MPREG
    Mystery
    Mythology
    New Release
    NineStar Press
    Non Binary
    No Pairing
    Pansexual
    Paranormal
    Pirates
    Polyamorous
    Post-Apocalyptic
    Release Day Blitz
    Religious Themes
    Reviews By Kaelan
    Reviews By L.A.
    Reviews By Rebecca
    Romance Novels
    Science Fiction
    Self-Published
    Space Opera
    Speculative Fiction
    Spy Stories
    Superheroes
    Third Gender
    Thriller
    Time Travel
    Trans Rep
    Urban Fantasy
    Vampires
    Western
    Wolves
    Writing
    Young Adult
    Zombies

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.