Finished Rivals and Retribution by Shannon Delany. I received a copy of this from the publisher.
Summary (from Goodreads):
“In Rivals and Retribution, the fifth book in the 13 to Life series by Shannon Delany, Pietr and Jessie will find themselves caught in a pack war with a new breed of werewolves.
Jessie Gillmansen is in trouble again and she’s in for the fight of her life–and Pietr’s! With Marlaena’s dangerous wolf pack putting more pressure on the Rusakova family, change is inevitable and when it comes, it brings a heavy price that forces Alexi into action to save his youngest brother’s heart, head, and life. In the stunning conclusion of this celebrated paranormal series two werewolf families fight for control of the small town of Junction, control of each other and–most elusive of all–control of themselves.”
I enjoyed the first four books in this series, but for some reason, this book was very hard to get through. It almost felt like Shannon Delany just wanted to get through this last book so that she could start a new project.
In the prologue, we keep being told that Jessie is not like ordinary girls. The repetition of that annoys me no end, especially because she’s like so many teenage girls. One of the biggest examples of this is ALSO in the prologue, when she admits that Pietr isn’t as attractive to her now that he’s not a werewolf anymore. Without his uniqueness, he’s just not as interesting. Still, she’s determined to make it work because, after all, a promise is a promise.
But that’s not the most annoying thing. (SPOILERS FOLLOW.)
After Pietr DOES turn back into a werewolf, he imprints on Marlaena. Please, authors, can we declare a moratorium on imprinting? It was gross when Jacob did it and now it’s just annoying. PLEASE STOP.
And the ending was ridiculous. I’m sorry, but it was. (SPOILERS AGAIN) In the last chapter, she wakes up and thinks her mom’s alive again, which means that everything with Pietr didn’t happen. And then she sees Pietr and realizes that no, her mom’s still dead. And she’s all, oh, thank goodness. Because dead mom is sad but no Pietr would be TRAGIC.
The rest of the series was entertaining but I didn’t like this book. If you loved the rest of the series and need to see what happens next, go with it, but otherwise, save yourself.
