Monday, February 23, 2015

Review of With Everything I Am by Kristen Ashley

Synopsis: One night, Callum is driven into the woods by instinct, an instinct to protect… what, he does not know. Until he, in the form of wolf, meets a young, human child who he is instantly drawn to in a fierce way he doesn’t quite understand.

But in the end, she protects him. Then he finds this human child is his destined mate.

Sonia Arlington has lived a lonely life. She has certain abilities that make her strange and she has a rare disease that, if untreated, could kill her. Her mother and father are assassinated but before, her father makes her vow that she will never let others discover her abilities. This forces Sonia to stay distant from others, no family, no close friends and always guarding against exposure.

Then the intelligence leaks that Sonia is Callum’s human mate. He is now King of the Werewolves and therefore she becomes targeted by the wolves who have aligned with other immortals to enslave the human race. Callum has war on his hands and is forced to claim his mate and quickly integrate Sonia into a world that is strange and frightening to her.

As Sonia attempts to adjust, not entirely successfully, Callum attempts to cope with the knowledge that his mate is mortal. He will have her beauty and gentleness only the length of a mortal life and as werewolves only have one mate their entire lives, their union for him is unbearably bitter as well as unbelievably sweet.

Then he finds that due to her illness, her human life will be even shorter and he is forced to endure the increased bitter while doing everything he can to make Sonia’s short life incredibly sweet.
  
 
5 Stars!
 
Review: I didn't think I could like someone better than Lucien. Then, I met Callum. I think I like Callum better, believe it or not, and that's saying a lot, because my strange love of vampires goes back to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer days, so that's going back a while. Not to mention, Callum is not a vampire. He's a werewolf. So, that just makes things all kinds of crazy!
 
We first meet Callum when he is injured and drawn to a young girl in the woods. She then saves him from those trying to hurt him, and he finds out that his destiny is forever tied to her - Sonia. That same night, her life is changed, forever, and their paths do not cross again for over 30 years. When they do finally meet, Callum saves Sonia from other wolves that are part of a smaller group of werewolves, and other immortals, that are trying to start a rebellion. Sonia does not know, however, that the men trying to hurt her are werewolves. She also does not know that Callum, or any of his people, are werewolves. She just knows that they are part of a secret sect of people that all fall under Callum's rule.
 
I liked Sonia, and I liked her reactions because she didn't just fall under Callum's spell, as heroine's sometimes do. She actually didn't believe Callum, and felt that he was crazy because of what he was telling her. Once she met other people, however, and saw the lifestyle that Callum was living, she began to believe him. She was still very hesitant to believe IN him, though, in terms of really trusting him and letting herself go with him. That is because Sonia, too, has some extra abilities, such as her sight, hearing, and smells, and she had overheard some conversations that made her doubt Callum's ability to care for her.
 
These two had a difficult road to travel, as they each had to slowly learn to trust one another, as any couple would, but also to deal with the problems that each brings - Sonia's frailty as a human, and Callum's being Kind of the werewolves and dealing with a rebellion. I really enjoyed reading about Callum and his people, however, because they are warmer, they are pretty upfront about who and what they are (with those that they can trust), and they go after what they want. I really enjoyed the "claiming" stories. Nothing, however, can hide the fact that the Prophecies, even mentioned in Lucien and Leah's story, mention Sonia's life being short. How will Callum, an immortal, come to terms with that in the coming days of battle?
 
Jessica

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