Brianna Reviews - Ravaged by David Wellington

Published:  2010

Publisher: Piatkus Books

Format: Paperback

Synopsis: The days grow colder.  The nights grow longer.  And every time the moon rises, the wolf inside her grows a little stronger.Cheyenne Clark—a woman whose hatred for werewolves has turned her into the very beast she most despises—prowls the Arctic Circle on the trail of an ancient secret, hunting for the one thing that could remove the lycanthropic curse and make her human again.    

Yet standing between Chey and her goal are a werewolf hunter armed with a diabolically brilliant weapon, a centuries-old werewolf with her own mysterious agenda…and Chey’s own complicated feelings for the man who doomed her to this existence but on whom her life now depends. 

Worse, with every hour that passes, the wolf inside Chey becomes more powerful.  It won’t be long before the woman disappears completely, and only the beast is left.  

Ravaged is the sequel to Cursed which I read sometime last year. It took me a while to work out which book did come next because when I originally googled the series, I came across 4 different titles: Cursed, Frostbite, Ravaged and Overwinter. Turns out Cursed was either originally titled Frostbite and Ravaged originally Overwinter. Or they are titled Frostbite & Overwinter in America and Cursed & Ravaged in the UK, so there is in fact only the two books Cursed/Frostbite and Ravaged/Overwinter.  

Cursed left off with Chey and Powell leaving Port Radium together. Ravaged picks up shortly after this. I found that the first half of this book dragged. The plot didn’t really seem to be moving and was just a lot of ‘Oh look here are Powell and Chey dancing through the wilderness’ – cute but not great story material. In hindsight the driving plot line for this book is the search for the ‘cure’ but this is not apparent at first. I mean, Powell mentions the cure but in the same sentence seems to dismiss it – after all he has been searching for it for the last hundred years.  The plot does pick up momentum eventually and it sticks around until the end, so maybe the book could have benefited from getting rid of the first 100 pages or so. For those who like Dzo he is back again in Ravaged and this time we learn a lot more about him than the vagarities that we learn in Cursed. We also discover a little more about Powell’s past and the time he spent in Europe.  We don’t however learn any more about Chey, Cursed clearly told us enough.

It’s been a while since I read Cursed but I think the eventual plot line and action of Ravaged might have been better. I know so far this review sound like a comparison of the two books, this is because I’m not entirely sure what I did think of Ravaged. I enjoyed reading it, but then I like reading so I enjoy most things I read. There might have been moments when I didn’t want to stop reading but I didn’t put the book down and think wow that was a good book it was more of a “meh, there’s a series finished”. I also was not satisfied by the ending, it was the kind of ending I don’t read much of these days so in that respect I liked it, but ultimately I found the end unsatisfying.

Caragh Reviews - Cursed: A Werewolf's Tale by David Wellington

Published - 1st October 2009
Publisher - Piatkus
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - There's one sound a woman doesn't want to hear when she's lost and alone in the Arctic wilderness: a howl. When a strange wolf's teeth slash Cheyenne's ankle to the bone, her old life ends, and she becomes the very monster that has haunted her nightmares for years. Worse, the only one who can understand what Chey has become is the man–or wolf–who's doomed her to this fate. He also wants to chop her head off with an axe.Yet as the line between human and beast blurs, so too does the distinction between hunter and hunted . . . for Chey is more than just the victim she appears to be. But once she's within killing range, she may find that–even for a werewolf–it's not always easy to go for the jugular.

I bought this book not too long after its release and yes, I have literally just read it! You know how people have 'buzz words' that make them pick up a book.. well 'Werewolf' is the opposite of a buzz word for me. I don't know what it is about Werewolves but i'm seriously put off! I remember buying this book knowing that there was a slim chance I would read it but as an avid 'vampire fan' I hoped that one day I would find an interest in the other side of the coin, so to speak. Well after Brianna picked up the second book from the library (she read this last year!), I decided I would give it a go so that I could read Ravaged before it had to be taken back.

Though I can't say that i'm now a converted Were fan, I was surprised to find that it wasn't completely terrible. I had a lot of issues with Cursed but most of that came down to irritating mistakes rather than the overall plot of the book. At the beginning of the book, main character Chey is struggling to find her way through Arctic Canada after having lost her pack and her bearings. This was when I started having problems. Immediately she comes across people despite being literally in the middle of nowhere with no civilisation and rather than being skeptical, she proceeds to go and introduce herself and tell the reader that she was finally going to be saved! 

Okay, so she's crazy. That's fine. I could maybe forgive her for that. Except she then hints CONSTANTLY that there is a specific reason for her being there. When she meets the all important Werewolf in the woods, she is surprised to see "those eyes"... despite being the SOLE reason for being there in the first place. WHAT? This confusing and backtracking continued until the end of the book but after the mid-way point, I kind of just stopped worrying about it. The plot takes on a life of it's own and slowly draws you in. I kind of expected to lose interest once Chey's mystery was uncovered but in actual fact the opposite was true. The plot itself was the reason for reading, and not my curiosity. 

There was some beautiful writing scattered throughout Cursed. One of the chapters fairly early on begins with a long description of a caterpillar's transformation as a precursor for the Werewolf transformation. It was calming and full of imagery which fit perfectly with the actual transformation we are about to experience. As I said at the beginning, I haven't read many Were books at all but the transformation process was excellent. Another element I enjoyed was the comedy. There were some brilliant one liners - mostly from the character Dzo who is easily my favourite! 

Overall, Cursed wasn't the best thing i've ever read and had more than a few inconsistencies but I did end up enjoying it and it has made me think about perhaps reading more Werewolf books and getting rid of that stigma!