Blog Tour Review: Bitterroot Part 1 by Heather Hildenbrand & SM Reine

BookCrushin is happy to bring you a review stop on the Bitterroot Part 1 blog tour! I never used to like serials, but I got sucked into them with Never, Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher, and now I find myself willing to read more of them; thus, you have ended up with a review of Bitterroot Part 1 by Heather Hildenbrand and SM Reine.

 

BITTERROOT Part 1 by Heather Hildenbrand & SM Reine

Category: Young Adult, Paranormal
Publication: September 21st, 2015;Elephantine Publishing
Purchase: Amazon, B&N, iBooks

Seventeen year-old Regan Vuk has lived her whole life under the shadow of her future: the pack alpha. She is fast, smart, and determined. According to her own pack members, she is a shoo-in. But Regan’s dad has a secret.

 

Seventeen year-old Charlie spent her adolescence drifting from place to place with a mother desperate to hide her illegitimate daughter from the unforgiving reality of werewolf pack dynamics. All Charlie has ever wanted is to know her father–and the family that’s been kept from her all these years. But most of all, she wants a place to belong in the world. Where she doesn’t have to pretend she can’t sprout fur and paws at will. Being kidnapped on her way home from prom was not she Charlie had in mind.

When Charlie finds out the only way to fit in with her new family is to defeat her long-lost sister for the role of alpha, she refuses. That is until she learns that the strange and alluring vampire she’s befriended, Owen, is the same vampire prince that’s been promised the winner.

Regan has no doubt that, although she loathes the vampires, it will be her who “wins” Owen.

Only problem: Charlie’s already fallen for him.

Bitterroot is a Young Adult Paranormal with a dose of sibling rivalry… Who will you root for?

 

Contest! Help spread the word about Bitterroot!

Share the following message on Twitter, FB, or IG OR follow me on any of these platforms and get entered to win a signed swag pack including a paperback of Seasons of the Moon by SM Reine & Dirty Blood by Heather Hildenbrand! Contest ends 9/26!*

2 sisters. 1 vampire prince. Can family survive forbidden love? #Bitterroot for #99cents http://bit.ly/Bitterroot1

 

*Contest not affiliated with FB, IG, Twitter, or any other outside entity. Must be 13 years or older. Void where prohibited.

Review:

[book rating=4/5]

Bitterroot tells the story of Regan and Charlie Vuk, half-sisters who meet for the first time when Charlie is kidnapped from her mother’s home and forced to live with her father’s werewolf pack. Oh yeah, they are werewolves. That’s an important tidbit.

Regan is a natural leader, having been raised in the shadows of her alpha mother and beta father, and  seems destined to be the pack’s next leader. Charlie spent her life flying under the radar and moving from city to city, though she never understood why – until she was kidnapped. In fact, Charlie didn’t even know she had a half-sister, though Regan always knew of Charlie’s existence.

Things I really enjoyed about this book:

1. She is sweet, caring, and quietly resilient. I enjoyed every chapter that was told from her perspective.
2. The descriptions were wonderful and I was immersed wholly into the world created by Ms. Hildenbrand and Ms. Reine. I could picture the landscapes, the werewolf compound, the party at the end of the book, etc., with ease.
3. Owen Rossi. Yum. I can’t wait for more of him.

Here we go to some things that bothered me:

1. I thought she was too cold and, though I understood why she was cold, it was hard to identify with her. There were a few times I just wanted to smack her.
2. Regan and Charlie’s father. He is a grade-A jackass and I absolutely could not stand him. His actions were ridiculous and I just…grrr. I hated him. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing – in fact, if I am invested enough in the story to hate a character, it is the result of good writing.
3. The entire werewolf political structure. I was reminded as to why I normally don’t like werewolf stories; I can’t stand all the politics, the constant jockeying for alpha, the lack of individual choices, etc. I hated the way the pack members treated Charlie.
4. Where the heck is Charlie’s mother and why has she done nothing absolutely nothing to get her daughter back? Maybe this will be addressed in future installments. But I know if my daughter was kidnapped, regardless of by whom, I would be fighting tooth and nail to get her back. Or at least talk to her on the telephone.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and look forward to the next installment, particularly where Charlie is concerned. I want to see her gain more confidence and come into her own as a werewolf, and I really want her to knock Regan down a few pegs. I’m also looking forward to the development of a relationship between Charlie and Owen. Speaking of relationships, I hope Regan gets a clue soon about Carter, her best friend; I mean, hello.

4 out 5 stars. Bitterroot Part 1 was a good start to the series; there could have been more development in a few spots, but all in all, I enjoyed it and am invested in the outcome.

 

Reviewer’s Note:  This eARC was littered with grammatical errors, which made reading the book fluidly somewhat difficult. Words were misspelled (lsat instead of last, for example), incorrect words were used (course instead of coarse), and punctuation marks were misused or just plain missing in several spots. Things like this drive me crazy and really contribute to the idea that indie books are of a lesser quality than traditionally published books. I hope that the published version has been cleaned up so that readers can focus on the story.