Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Review of Willowgrove by Kathleen Peacock


Title/Author: Willowgrove (Hemlock #3) by Kathleen Peacock
Publisher/Date published: Katherine Tegen Books, January 6th 2015
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: Willowgrove is Kathleen Peacock's riveting conclusion to the Hemlock trilogy, a dark, romantic, paranormal suspense series that pits friendship against survival, and trust against love.

Ever since Mac's best friend, Amy, was murdered, Hemlock has been a dangerous place. But now that Mac, her boyfriend, Kyle, and Amy's ex, Jason, have investigated a mass breakout from Thornhill, a werewolf "rehabilitation" camp, the danger has only grown. Fear of the infection spreading is now at an all-time high, and anyone with a scar is suspected of being a wolf.

What makes Mac even more afraid, though, are the dark experiments that the warden of Thornhill was performing on wolves in a secret asylum called Willowgrove. Uncovering the truth about what happened may be the only way for Mac to save everyone she loves and end her nightmares for good.

***WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR FIRST TWO BOOKS IN THE SERIES***

I remember really enjoying Hemlock when I read it way back when it first came out. I remember thinking how werewolves weren't really my thing, but I was somehow still really liking Hemlock and it had surprised me. But picking up where we left off with that one a couple of weeks ago, first with reading Thornhill and then Hemlock, was a bit disappointing.

I don't mean to say these books were bad, because they're not and I did enjoy the story, but I think I built it up in my head and had all these high expectations that just were not met. Which is probably more my fault than anything the author did. But that's how I experienced this story. Willowgrove is a pretty gloomy read. It's dark and it's a dangerous world for werewolves and their friends/lovers. And it's scary how putting the werewolves in camps and experimenting on them reminds me off what went on during World War II. And you know, considering that we learn HOW werewolves came into existense, it's actually a pretty likely story and I can imagine something like that happening. Though I doubt we'd get werewolves out of it, but hey, who knows.

I like Mac, but not so much that I can see how she has both Kyle and Jason running around risking their lives for her. And a lot of other people as well. I also didn't feel a connection to her, I sometimes didn't understand the choices she made and this made me not be in the story as much as I would have wanted to.

But guys, I know I sound pretty negative and I'm not. Willowgrove and the whole Hemlock series is a decent series. It has some solid writing and an intriguing storyline and it's really something that I enjoyed reading. But I just didn't love it. Not as much as I thought I would. But towards the ending I did find myself wanting to stay awake so I could finish it, just so I'd know how it would end! And there were some dark things that went down in Willowgrove and I was left gaping at some of them, but it was a good ending to the series as a whole.

My rating: 3,5 stars

1 comment:

  1. I'm gland the book and series were decent enough, I kind of get that feeling you mention, when the book maybe isn't wowing you but at the same time you want to know how it ends.

    :) It sounds like an interesting series, though.

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