(Un)bidden by Melissa Haag!

Title: (Un)bidden

Author: Melissa Haag          

Series: Judgment of Six #4

Genre: Paranormal, romance, YA, werewolf, supernatural

Source: ARC

Pages: 249

Rating: 5 STARTS

Available at: 

Amazon(.ca) • Goodreads • Amazon(.com)

Blurb: (via Goodreads)

I left home because I didn’t want to end up in a cage like a lab rat. Hitching rides, begging for cash, and sleeping on the ground got old fast. That was the only reason I braved an overgrown path to a group of buildings. I’d hoped to find a bed and a decent night’s sleep. However, what I found was a place overrun by werewolves.

While on the run, Charlene finds herself surrounded by werewolves, creatures she can’t control with her mind like she can humans. Their existence has her believing she’s found a safe place to stay, a place where secrets are okay. However, she soon discovers she’s anything but safe. Charlene must learn how to use her abilities to influence the strange new species because if she can’t, the next bite she suffers might just kill her.

Read how the cycle begins, and have no doubt. Charlene’s past will shape the future of the Judgements.

My Review:

Melissa contacted me early in my blogger life to first read her books for a review because she wanted to prove me wrong in my claim that werewolf YA books were getting old and predictable. To date, I have read everything Melissa has sent me and I have never been happier to be proven wrong every single time I pop open one of her books. You can read my praises of Hope(less) HERE, (Mis)fortune HERE, and (Un)wise HERE.

I do have to admit the order of this series is a little confusing on the time line. Melissa explained it to me like this: “The first two run parallel.  The third one jumps back just a bit but meets up with the end of the first two.  This forth one starts at the end of the third, then we travel back as Charlene recalls her first weeks at the Compound and what drove her to leave home.  Then it jumps back to the present, just before the girls find Peace in the bar.” So keep that in mind when you read this series!

Out of the entire series, this is the book I was most impressed by. Charlene is the reason the wolves live in a civilized manner, they did it all because of her. But when they started out, they had nothing but a beaten down building to work from. They had no money and very few tools, they had to build everything from scratch, or live off what they could find in a near by junkyard. They amount of thought that must have gone into thinking about all of the tiny details (like fixing windows, and thinking about the changing seasons, and how they were going to feed people with minimal food sources) is ridiculously impressive. It’s the details in this book that really make it amazing.

Of course, you also have the awesome characters. Remember Grey from book 1? You get to learn a little bit about his backstory and you feel a lot more sympathy for him than you originally gave him in the first Hope(less). Of course, we get to see Charlene and her story as well as the secrets she keeps and continues to keep. I found it really fascinating how central Charlene is to this series. Without her, there is a good chance that the wolves would have continued to die off (I’m pretty sure the fact that the race isn’t doing so hot is why the Judgments have been reborn- to decide if they are worth saving.) But her secrets may just be the saving grace of the werewolf race, even if it means the possibility of fracturing her relationship with her mate.

AND LETS TALK ABOUT HER MATE! Yum. That is my word for him. Out of all of the mates thus far, I am most impressed with Thomas. All the other mates kind of knew what was going on. Most of them knew who they were and what their beliefs were. Thomas had to develop and adapt WITH Charlene. He had to change everything he thought about the world, and they ended up growing together. For once, the heroine didn’t need to play catch up to understand her mate’s feelings, because neither of them really understood their attraction for each other.

The only problem I had with this book was that it’s placement was a tiny bit awkward. I understood why Melissa wrote it now because you need to know Charlene’s secrets in order for the series to continue I think. However, I was majorly disappointed by the gap where I hoped to see Isabelle’s story. She seems like she is going to be another kick ass (literally) character, much like Bethi. It would have been nicer to read this book as the first instalment… or maybe the second or as a novella? I don’t know, it was just a little awkward to write it in the middle of everything.

Anyways, like I said, this book exceeded everything I thought it would be and showed that YA werewolf genre still has something to offer the world. Melissa is such an amazing author, even in her stand alones. I recommend this book to all my YA lovers out there. On a side note, if you are desperate for more Melissa Haag (I KNOW I AM!) try reading Touch (review HERE), and be on the look out for some novellas that are coming in the boy’s POV (Clay is first I do believe!). 5/5 stars for one of my favorite authors out there!

**NOTE** You can now find my name with a snippet of my review at the back of the book!