I received a review copy of this book for my stop on the blog tour at Donnie Darko Girl.
I read the first three books in this series - Under My Skin, Second Skin, and Skin of My Teeth. This review will cover all three books.
I love Judith Graves's writing style. The main character, Eryn, drew me into her world with her snark and her wit, and I didn't want to leave. It would be hard being the new girl, with everyone gawking at you shamelessly. But she handles it like a pro, not letting it bother her. She has bigger problems than a bunch of fellow high school kids anyhow.
She's half-human, half-wolven, and after something has happened to her parents (they disappeared without a trace), the Council sends her to live with her uncle. She starts going to school with her cousin, who's less than thrilled to have her living with them. The Council wants her to lay low, believing Redgrave is paranorm-free, but they couldn't be more wrong.
She soon finds herself in the middle of all sorts of paranorm activity (haha!) and becomes torn between her attraction to a hunter, Alec, and a vampire, Wade. All sorts of secrets are being kept - ones from her as well as the ones she's keeping from others. She struggles with keeping her wolven side in check and needs to find a way to reconcile both sides of herself.
"I pull the covers over my head and wonder what happens if you're both the beauty and the beast."
There's plenty of action and some romance sprinkled in. Sometimes I didn't like how many times Eryn would go back and forth between her attraction to Alec and Wade; however, I remember having feelings at that age for more than one guy. I was young, and it wasn't like I was looking to settle down for the rest of my life at the age of sixteen. :P It still could be annoying reading about it in Eryn's for me, though, because her feelings switched in mere minutes.
I was desperate to find out what happened to Eryn's parents - were they still alive or had something really awful happened to them? How did the council tie into everything? If her parents were still alive, then I really wanted to meet them because they seemed like good parents doing the best they could just from her memories. And I was surprised that Alec and Wade were both still in the picture as love interests by the third book. I do love both characters, so I was okay with it. ;)
Aside from that, I'm looking forward to the fourth book, Hour of the Wolf. I love the characters in this series, the paranormal aspects of the story, and the moments that make you laugh and cry at the same time. There are always surprises around every corner, and you never know how things are going to turn out until you get there.
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