Review: Never Cry Werewolf

Title: Never Cry Werewolf
Author: Heather Davis
Pages: 224

“Shelby’s summer plans go totally awry when her horrible stepmother sends her off to “brat camp” as punishment for one too many broken curfews. Camp is full of spoiled rich kids, obnoxious counselors wanting Shelby to talk about her feelings, and a totally inhumane “no cell phones” policy.

Things start looking up, though, when Shelby meets fellow camper (and son of a rock star) Austin Bridges III. But soon she realizes there’s more to Austin than crush material—his family has a dark secret, and he wants Shelby’s help guarding it. Shelby knows that bad boys get her into trouble…but who is she to turn her back on a guy in need, especially such a good-looking one?”

Description taken from Goodreads

I don’t know where to start with this one. It just wasn't very good. I mean, normally when I dislike a book I can see some reason why it was published, even if I don’t necessarily agree with it. I didn’t like Hush, Hush, despite its tremendous popularity, but I can at least understand why other people enjoy it so much. Not so much with this book.

Lets talk about characters. Mainly, how I wanted to line them up and systematically punch every single one in the face. Shelby, the generic angst-riden teen, is nothing more than a whiney brat with no reason to hate the world as much as she does. Her –OMG- evil stepmother wants her to focus on her schoolwork and not stay out late at night? The abuse! Her father made Shelby move homes? Surely no child in history has had to deal with such trauma! The list goes on. Shelby is so annoying that it actually becomes painful to read about her. Usually when this happens there are side characters that carry my interest throughout the book. Not here. All the other campers are taken directly from bad afterschool specials, including the jerky son of a paparazzi photographer and the legions of stuck up girls who only care about their makeup. If you’re going to use stock characters in your book (which isn’t a bad thing, necessarily- Meg Cabot makes it work) you need to make them interesting.

You would hope that Austin Bridges, the love interest, would rise above this. In a way, his personality less obnoxious then his fellow cast members, but his dialogue is so ludicrous that, once again, it becomes painful to read. You see, Austin Bridges is –OMG- British. Apparently, this means that it is not physically possible for him to utter an entire sentence without at least two separate usages of British slang. Sound annoying? You better bloody believe it is, mate.

The one thing I did like is the writing style Heather Davis employs. Never Cry Werewolf is a breezy, quick read. I don’t think it took me much longer than a couple of hours to go through it, and I’m a slow reader. However, some aspects of the plot were just too ridiculous to swallow. Mainly, Austin confiding his deep-dark-secret in Shelby less than 48 hours after meeting her. Yes, teen romances happen quickly, but come on. It was like the author got bored of writing and wanted to speed things up.

Overall, Never Cry Werewolf was a disappointment. Although it’s far from the worst book I’ve ever read, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone and will avoid this author in the future. If you’re looking for a werewolf romance try Shiver.

1.5/5 Stars