Reviews: A Werewolf's Tale & A Werewolf's Struggle by Amber Taylor

A Werewolf's Tale
Paranormal/Horror/Graphic Violence
Adult

Blurb: Sara Stanton is just a girl trying to make it through high school with as little emotional scarring as possible. Her whole world is turned upside down when a stranger, Hank, appears claiming that she is a werewolf. 
Finding it to be true, she discovers it creates more problems than she can shake a stick at. For starters, her secret crush, Sam, won't leave her alone, talking about monsters killing local pets and wildlife, and admits he now seems drawn to her. This seems in line with the fact that although no one can put their finger on it, they sense something is different about her. Those are all trivial though compared to the unsettling voice in her head that seems to know her every move, every thought, and her secrets. Like a ghost, he's always lurking just out of view, terrifying her in her dreams. Is he a werewolf too, or something worse? 
Either way, Sara knows she'll eventually have to face him to save not only herself, but Sam as well. But what will be the cost?

Uncaged Review: This book is written in the first person narrative, and most of this book is written as the main character, Sara, writes in a diary/journal on a computer. It always takes me awhile to get into first person narratives, as you only see the world in one person’s perspective, but eventually, it works here. 

  Sara is a teenager, who is unpopular in school, a bit overweight and only has a couple of nerdy friends. When she is invited to a party in the woods, things get a bit out of hand, but a boy she has had a crush since grade school, finally begins talking to her, and lets her know what really happened at the party. In the meantime, a man named Hank shows up, and tries to convince Sara she’s a werewolf. Once Sara finally believes him, this is when the story finally gets moving. Sara has nightmares of a man with red hair, whose voice she hears in her head, and seems to know a bit too much - 

  I’m not going to give this story away, but I think the story really started moving along about halfway in, and

even though some of it was predictable, the suspense, and the action sequence near the back part of the book worked here. Be warned, it is graphic violence. Even though to a certain extent, it tied up it’s own storyline, it left it on a cliffhanger of sorts.  3 1/2 Stars

A Werewolf's Struggle

Paranormal/Horror/Graphic Violence

Adults

Blurb: Sara’s journey into the werewolf world continues and she would love to smack the crap out of Hollywood for getting so few things right. 

Trying to recover from the trauma of meeting her psychotic father, Angus, is just one of many issues she has to face. Her friend, Sam, needs to recover as well but he’s way beyond her in the damaged department. Or so she thinks. It doesn’t take long for her to discover that the two of them now share a connection that goes beyond the norm for even werewolves and not in a good way. Both seem to be carrying a piece of Angus’ not so nice personality traits which comes with a body count. Will she fight this connection and stay with her uncle to try and deal with the monster Sam’s become? Or will she follow him down a bloody trail in order to follow a destiny she may have been born for? 

Uncaged Review:  This book starts out where we left off in book one. It’s still first person narrative, but the diary/journel is gone. Now, after the trauma of her crazy father is over, Hank takes Sara back to the village where the rest of their kind live, to save her life, and to live. As Sara recovers, she begins to feel the connection to Sam, who is beyond  hope, according to Hank, but not to Sara. When she finds him, she feels it’s her mission to save him, as she believes it’s her fault that he was involved in the first place. This book actually was a bit faster paced, and there were a couple suspenseful twists that I didn’t predict this time. Sara is still her sarcastic self, and there is a bit of humor, and some heartbreak, but all-in-all, this was a good read. It kept my attention, even better than the first one. I wasn’t sure where the author was going in the first one, but this one ties it up a bit better and tightens the storyline. These are bloody, with graphic violence, so they are not for the faint of heart.  4 1/2 Stars

  The series on a whole is rated together, as I don’t think they read that well as standalones. Even though you could read the second book on it’s own, you would not get the full impact of the story without reading the 

first one. 4 Stars for the series on a whole.