Book Review of Unleashed by Sara Humphreys

Title: Unleashed

Author: Sara Humphreys

Release Date: October 1st, 2011

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance

What if you suddenly discovered your own powers were beyond anything you’d ever imagined…

Samantha Logan’s childhood home had always been a haven, but everything changed while she was away. She has a gorgeous new neighbor, Malcolm, who introduces her to the amazing world of the dream-walking, shapeshifting Amoveo clans…but what leaves her reeling with disbelief is when he tells her she’s one of them…

And shock turns to terror as Samantha falls prey to the deadly enemy determined to destroy the Amoveo, and the only chance she has to come into her true powers is to trust in Malcolm to show her the way…

Summary from Goodreads.com

My Review: Since starting this blog I have discovered so many authors and books that I know I would not have come across otherwise. Whether it is through publishers, fellow bloggers or just being online more, I have found new genres and books that I have come to love. My favorite among these is paranormal romance. This genre continues to surprise me with all the different facets and has consumed my bookshelf. While Unleashed is a paranormal romance, it is not the typical format I have come to expect from this genre. Most paranormal romance books have the same basic makeup. They have a paranormal element, the main focus is usually just one couple that switches in each book in the series, there is villain looming in the distance that runs constant throughout the series and the male protagonists is usually an alpha male type. The alpha males are typically rough around the edges and can be crass, but in Unleashed, Malcolm should be categorized as a gentleman. He is still very much a take charge kind of guy and does not take orders easily, but he is more refined. I actually don’t think he cursed once in the book, which is not a negative; I am just so used to alphas being so domineering, it took me a little while to get used to Malcolm.

The flip side to that is how incredibly patient and amazing Malcolm was with Samantha. In his culture, once you find your mate both parties accept the mating right away without issues. But Samantha has grown up thinking she was a human her entire life, so she does not accept the idea of having a mate easily. Poor Malcolm has been losing his powers and his mind looking for Samantha and if she rejects him, he will eventually die a slow painful death. Even with his life at stake, he never pushes her to choose him or live in his world. He goes slow with her, introducing her to his world a little chunk at a time and begins to gain her trust. I appreciated Sara showing us a different side to an alpha male and grew to love Malcolm and his compassion for Samantha. Their love does have a slow build to it, but their obvious passion for each other burned white hot.

While I did enjoy a new take on shifters and learning about a new culture, I wished that Sara had given us a little more detail about how this species came to be and what life in their world is like. There were moments in the book where Malcolm talked to Samantha about their culture, but there was no dialogue, so we as the reader did not get to hear all the details. I love learning about new mythology and I really missed that in this book. This is the first book in this series though, so hopefully as it progresses we will get more insight into how this group of shifters lives and where and how they originated.

There were a couple of pages in the book where we get into the mind of the villain briefly, which I always find interesting. I had a couple of ideas about who the bad guy was, but Sara did pull out a few of surprises towards the end. I obviously cannot reveal the identity of the villains, but I know this revelation will rock the Amoveo world and will have repercussions in future books.

I have to mention Samantha’s friend Kerry. We don’t see her until later in the book, but I fell in love with her instantly. She has a sarcastic sense of humor and a realistic outlook on life that I appreciated. I am excited that she is going to be the focus for the next book along with, Dante who we get to see briefly when he is helping protect Samantha. I always like getting a preview of future couples so I have some idea of where the overall story is going to go next. It also helps us to get to know the characters better and how they fit into this world. I already love Kerry, so I am sure I will enjoy reading about how she gets involved in the Amoveo world in the future.

Overall, I think this is a great start to a new interesting series. It was a good solid read, but I was not blown away by it. I wished we learned more about the mythology and had some of the characters developed just a little more. However, I had a smile on my face when I finished the book. The overall romance was just so sweet and I really enjoyed Samantha and Malcolm’s courtship. Samantha was so precious to Malcolm and he handled her with extreme care at every turn, even when she was fighting him. I am very interested to see where Sara is going to take this story next when the next book, Untouched, is released next year.

FTC: Thank you to the publisher for sending me this ARC to review.