Francesco Pianfetti

Pain

Dark, grim hopeless. The story Jocylyn crafts if one of damnation beyond any possibility of redemption, sinister heading to ominous. Technically, the good stuff is all there: good writing style, rock-steady characters, relentlessly desperate atmosphere. Jocylyn writes from a deep place of the soul.

Shawn feels like the very portrait of the consequences of trauma taken to the extreme, and Luke and Bill make you feel like you need to wash your mental hands after dealing with them. Impressively written.

I give the story four stars only because I'm getting soft-hearted in my old age, but if disturbing stories are your thing you'll find plenty of enjoyment here.

Between the three Alphas

The story kicks off with a good rhythm, and keeps building on that without wasting time on excessive detail about the whereabouts and the background. I'm not a great fan of detailed backstories, and Taylor gives you just enough to get yourself a pretty precise picture of what's going on without being lengthy, That's a balance difficult to achieve. Kudos for that.

The characters are well-rounded, maybe the physical part is just a tad too heavy-handed, but (and I hope you'll pardon my ignorance, I'm not quite the expert on werewolves) I think that's a common trait in the genre, so the reader expects it. What I was a bit uneasy about was the difference of age between Ariadne and Dionysus, particularly Ariadne being so young, but since Ariadne's first heat is the whole point of the beginning of the story I guess that's unavoidable.

All considered, in my opinion Taylor's story is a very well executed genre piece that mixes classic and original elements delivering a thoroughly enjoyable read.