The Unleashing by Shelly Laurenston

Title: The Unleashing
Author: Shelly Laurenston
Series: #1 in the Call of Crows series
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Kensington (March 31, 2015)
Source: Publisher Via NetGalleyPublic Online Library
Rating: ☕☕1/2
Synopsis:
WINGING IT

Kera Watson never expected to face death behind a Los Angeles coffee shop. Not after surviving two tours lugging an M16 around the Middle East. If it wasn’t for her hot Viking customer showing up too late to help, nobody would even see her die.

In uncountable years of service to the Allfather Odin, Ludvig “Vig” Rundstrom has never seen anyone kick ass with quite as much style as Kera. He knows one way to save her life—but she might not like it. Signing up with the Crows will get Kera a new set of battle buddies: cackling, gossiping, squabbling, party-hearty women. With wings. So not the Marines.

But Vig can’t give up on someone as special as Kera. With a storm of oh-crap magic speeding straight for L.A., survival will depend on combining their strengths: Kera’s discipline, Vig’s loyalty… and the Crows’ sheer love of battle. Boy, are they in trouble.

My Thoughts: While I admit to be thoroughly intrigued by the idea behind this book I am not completely in love the with the final result.

The Good: Among the over played vampire and werewolf themed paranormal worlds this was such an an interesting and fresh concept (if one overlooks the fact that this author wrote another book featuring the Crow/Raven world called Hunting Season in 2009). I love mythology and factor in that it is Norse mythology at that I could have seriously loved this book. The book starts out so good. Kera starts the book out with a bang and I just knew I was in for a treat. A truly Kick-Ass heroine, add a dashing hot viking of a man, stir in Norse mythology, throw in some snark and viola! A concoction of fabulousness! Not so much....

The Bad: As a romance I thought it fell flat. I think the book focused on Kera getting used to her new life rather than a substantial romance. They had quite a bit of sex but romance, not so sure about that.  I really think that there was enough conflict surrounding Kera that spreading her romance over the course of several books would have made for a stronger sense of commitment between the H/h. 

Speaking of her new life as a Crow...ugh! The crows reminded me of a bunch of bubble brained sorority girls rather than the intelligent adults they were supposed to be. Their sink or swim mentality on welcoming a new sister was seriously flawed and didn't endear them to me at all.

Let's talk characters! There is an extraordinary amount of characters in this book. I know in a first book there is an introduction phase where the author tries to establish their world and characters. However, it's important to not overwhelm the reader with dozens of people to remember. In this book, not only do we have to keep track of their first names but their last names too because the author will refer to them by first and then a paragraph later by their last name. This is further complicated by changing POVs throughout the book. It was sometimes difficult to know whose point of view we were now reading from one paragraph to another.

In a Nut Shell: Very little is ultimately resolved at the end of the book but I'm not sure I'm wanting to read another. I hate when a book has so much potential and fails so miserably. 

Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

What It's About:
Ari can’t help feeling lost and alone. With teal eyes and freakish silver hair that can’t be changed or destroyed, Ari has always stood out. And after growing up in foster care, she longs for some understanding of where she came from and who she is. — Her search for answers uncovers just one message from her long dead mother: Run. Ari can sense that someone, or something, is getting closer than they should. But it’s impossible to protect herself when she doesn’t know what she’s running from or why she is being pursued.

She knows only one thing: she must return to her birthplace of New 2, the lush rebuilt city of New Orleans. Upon arriving, she discovers that New 2 is very... different. Here, Ari is seemingly normal. But every creature she encounters, no matter how deadly or horrifying, is afraid of her.

Ari won’t stop until she knows why. But some truths are too haunting, too terrifying, to ever be revealed.
  
What I Think About:
The Characters....
Ari--A young teenage girl who is allowed to wander off in the family car by her foster parents to search for the answers to her birth. Granted the foster parents are described as the best she ever had who taught her love in addition to the tricks of the bail bonds trade but I found it a bit hard to accept that any parent (foster or birth) wouldn't want to go with and help out with the search. Anyway, Ari is an interesting character (at least the mystery of her birth and heritage are) but I found her abrasive, swore too much and emotionally all over the place.
Sebastian--Equally young but a leader to a band of misfit kids in New 2. Prickly personality that I never understood why Ari was interested in him other than he was attractive. Quite mysterious even after his heritage was revealed.
The Rest of the Cast--I enjoyed a couple of the kids quite a bit (I mentally referred to them as Lost Boys even though several were girls). The head of one of the Nine Families of New 2, Josephine, was also interesting. Self serving she wants to use Ari in the long run against New 2's biggest enemy...which is Ari's enemy incidentally.
The Setting:
A Dystopian setting in the not so distant future (approx 2025) mostly taking place in the city of New 2 which is a rebuilt New Orleans after massive hurricanes wiped out the city around 2015. I found some of the descriptions of the city the best part of the book. The author did a great job of describing the destruction and the rebuilt Garden District after the storms. 
The Overall Storyline:
I thought the story drug in parts but the Mythological theme was so interesting that I was able to ignore some of those slow parts just to get to the interesting stuff again. It did seem to take quite a bit of time to get to the meat of the story. I kind of expected that as Ari walked around New 2 people would shy away or cross themselves (at least this is what I expected based on the description) but not so much.

What I Didn't Like:
Other than the lulls in the storyline I didn't like the assassins that were sent after Ari. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate them as characters I just hated what the author named the group of assassins. The author not only used a word that I didn't know how to pronounce she used foreign letters to spell it out. I think it was Greek. I don't speak Greek. It annoyed me.

What I Liked:
Not your typical vampire/werewolf paranormal. The Mythological setting and other world creatures made this Paranormal YA not your Ho-Hum same ol' same ol'.

Overall 3.5 Stars.