Review: Wild and Free by Kristen Ashley

Posted February 26, 2015 by Holly in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: Wild and Free by Kristen AshleyReviewer: Holly
Wild and Free by Kristen Ashley
Series: The Three #3

Publication Date: December 29th 2014
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 367
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two-half-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

 Abel Jin and Delilah Johnson have lived their lives with a hole in their soul, yearning for something they don’t understand.
Until one night Delilah is in mortal danger and a man who’s otherworldly strong and supernaturally fast saves her. Delilah is then cast into a world where fiction comes to life in the form of Abel, her destined mate, a vampire/werewolf hybrid who claims her at first breath as his. 
But Abel knows the danger isn’t done. He’s dreamed for centuries that his mate will perish and he will stop at nothing to keep her safe.
For Delilah, she’s not only coping with fantasy come to life, but a mingling of very different families. Not to mention, she has on her hands a man who doesn’t understand his true nature and has lived his long life thinking he’s a monster.
Abel and Delilah together fills the hole that has been clawing at them for decades. But finally finding each other, it also tips their destinies as the last of The Three. They must unite with the other destined lovers, who with Abel and Delilah, are fated to save the world.
Or die trying.

Ashley is generally an author who pulls me in, but her paranormals haven’t really worked for me in the past. This wasn’t the exception.

Abel rescues Delilah in an alley just as she’s about to get eaten by a pack of vampires. He takes her back to his underground lair and tries to explain the situation to her: there are monsters in the world she has no idea existed, and for some reason they’ve targeted her. Not to mention he’s drawn to her in a way that tells him she’s the other half of his soul.

Delilah is seriously freaked out about what he says, but she can’t deny she’s drawn to him as well. As their families begin to mingle and the violence escalates, she realizes she needs to trust Abel, not only with her safety but with her heart.

Someone on Twitter told me this book got really good at 51%. If she hadn’t, I’d have stopped about 3 chapters in. Halfway through, a secondary romance pops up that makes the story more interesting. I was fully invested in seeing where that went, but the main romance and plot left a lot to be desired.

To be honest, it was pretty boring. The undefinable thing that makes Ashley so easy to fall into was missing, the romance was lukewarm at best and the mystery/suspense plot was pretty weak. I skipped book two, and I really suffered for it. Rather than giving enough background information to make this a standalone, she expected readers to know from book two and completely skipped the explanation about the world, the other paranormal elements and even, in large part, the story of who/what Abel was.

While I enjoyed the secondary romance, the rest left a lot to be desired.

2.5 out of 5

Reading Order:

 

two-half-stars


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