Friday, May 25, 2012

Review: Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock

Title: Hemlock
Author: Kathleen Peacock
Genre: Paranormal YA
Series: Hemlock #1


Hardcover, 416 pages 
Published May 8th 2012 by Katherine Tegen Books


Purchase book||Amazon||Book Depository 


Source: Publisher


||Summary||
Mackenzie and Amy were best friends. Until Amy was brutally murdered.

Since then, Mac’s life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac’s hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy’s killer: A white werewolf.

Lupine syndrome—also known as the werewolf virus—is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.

Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy’s murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy’s boyfriend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.


||Review||

Mackenzie a.k.a Mac Dobson lost her best friend Amy to a werewolf attack five months ago, a white werewolf to be exact. After Amy’s murder, the string of attacks disappeared, but then it begun again. Senator John Walsh, Amy’s grandfather wants to find Amy’s killer so he brought in the trackers. The trackers is an anti-werewolf group, who doesn’t care whether you’re actually infected or a werewolf sympathizer…it’s one in the same to them. Anyone who is infected either bitten or scratched is supposed to turn themselves into the Lupine Syndrome Registration Bureau. Amy been plaguing Mac’s dreams, and Mac thinks the only way to stop the dreams is to find Amy’s killer. With the help of Jason, Amy’s ex-boyfriend, her best friend Kyle, and some unlikely allies, Mac sets out to find this ‘white wolf’.  As Mac starts to unravel the truth behind Amy’s murder, she discovers that everyone around her been keeping secrets of their own; even her best friend Amy.

I love anything werewolf, so I was really excited for Ms. Peacock’s debut novel Hemlock. This book was more of a murder mystery with the addition of werewolves, rather than a paranormal book about werewolves. When I first read the synopsis, I thought it was going to be one of those cookie cutter types of YA that have been floating around….but I was wrong! This book is more than just werewolves, it’s about friendship, loyalty, betrayal, prejudice and love all wrapped up a well-written and well-plotted novel. The characters were all very life-like, and the emotions that they experienced leaped off the pages. I remember getting teary-eyed a couple times throughout the novel. I like Mac, our main heroine right off the bat. She’s so devoted to her friends and family, strong-willed, and does everything in her power to protect the people she cares about. Other readers talked about a love-triangle in this book, but I didn’t really see it as a love-triangle. Mac has feeling for one of her guy friend, and her other guy friend likes her (although she didn’t even know). There was never a moment in the book where Mac was conflicted on who she wanted to be with.

I loved everything about Hemlock, the characters, the world-building, the writing style and the eye-catching cover. The pacing was good; I was sucked into the story and the emotionally charged dialogue. There was a lot of twist and turns as new information were revealed. When I found out who the killer was I was flabbergasted. I never once suspected that (BLANK) was killer; the author did a good job at keeping the suspense.  I finished this book in less than 3 days; it usually takes me longer with other books. I highly recommend this book to EVERYONE. Even if you’re not a werewolf fan, you definitely should still pick this book up because it will not disappoint. The book ends on a cliff hanger, so I am dying to read the next book!


**Thank you HarperCollins for sending me this book**

15 comments:

  1. I'm a big fan of werewolf books too, so when I read the synopsis for this one I knew I had to get it. I just finished it recently and loved it! I'm glad you brought up the point about the love triangle. Most of the other reviews I read talked about it, but when I read it I didn't feel like it was much of one either, at least not in the traditional sense. Really looking forward to the next one too!
    Great review :-)

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  3. Thanks Amber, yeah I agree I can see how other readers see it as a love triangle, but like you said not like the usual one we read about. I'm not a fan of love triangles, so I was glad how everything turned out lol. What other werewolf books have you read and enjoyed?

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  4. I read mostly adult werewolf/shifter books, but for YA I loved the Wolves of Mercy Falls series (Maggie Stiefvater) and I also really like the Raised by Wolves series (Jennifer Lynn Barnes). I will be reading the 3rd one in that series very soon!

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  5. I have Raised by Wolves on my shelf, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I also really enjoy Rachel Vincent's shifter books. I've been wanting to start Elieen Wilks's The world of Lupi series, and Keri Arthur's Riley Jensen books...but there are so many already! Have you read any of them, or which other series would you recommend? I like series that centers around a main character, and doesn't switch characters every book.

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    1. I LOVE Rachel's Shifter series. It's one of my favorites!! I still need to read the Lupi ones, but my friend has those so I can borrow them! The Mercy Thompson series is really good. She's a coyote, but the other main characters are werewolves (also some fae & vamps) including who ends up as her mate. My favorite werewolf couple is Elena & Clay from the Women of the Otherworld series, but those do switch couples & can switch to witches, necromancers, etc, although they do go back to Elena & Clay in a couple of the books and they also appear as side characters in the other books. I'll look at my other books and see if there are some more shifter books I can recommend and let you know later tonight :-)

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    2. Also wanted to say about the Women of the Otherworld series, the first two books are about Clay & Elena, then it switches for a few, then back to them, and then switches (that kind of thing).

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  6. Wow, I completely forgot I have the Mercy Thompson series lol! I've read up to Bone Crossed, but do have Silver Borne and Rivermarked on my shelf; just haven't gotten to them yet. I'm wondering if that series is still worth continuing, have you read all of the Mercy books yet? I also have the Nightshades series by Andrea Cremer but haven't caught up to that series either.

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    1. I have read all of the Mercy Thompson books and I still do really like this series. As for the Nightshade series (which I forgot about! LOL), I LOVED the first book, then I was in the minority on the second book. I didn't love it, it was okay for me. I definitely liked the 3rd book more than the 2nd, but I'm still not sure how I feel about the way it ended. The 1st book still remains my favorite of the series. I am, however looking forward the "prequel" series coming out :-)

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  7. I read Nightshade but not Wolfbane lol, I always start a book get the following book and not read it. There's always so many interesting new books coming out! The prequel for the Nightshades series look good too, with a bad-ass chick on the cover haha. What book are you currently reading? BTW do you have a blog or site? I clicked on your profile to see if you had a blog but there wasn't one listed :)

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    1. I have a "few" 2nd & 3rd books myself on my bookshelf. It's really sad! LOL! You are so right about the new books that come out. I'm currently reading Shadow Bound (Unbound #2)-Rachel Vincent :-) I don't have a blog, but thanks for checking! I just read a lot-haha!

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  8. I have both Unbound books, but again haven't gotten to it yet haha. I just recently finished The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda, I've been a slow reader lately. Your default pic looks so professional, I swear I thought you were an author.....are you?! LOL. You should totally make a blog, since you read so much too!! Do it, do it! :D

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    1. I've got The Hunt in my TBR read pile to read soon! My mom is a photographer and she took this picture of me. I'll have to tell her what you said about it! She'll love that :-) As for doing a blog, I always joke that writing and me are not friends. We just don't get along most of the time. LOL! If I write any kind of review on Goodreads (most of the time I don't-just rate the book), it's usually just a couple of sentences. Maybe one day...you never know, but for now I just enjoy following the blogs :-)

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  9. I was hesitant to start a blog before, since I know I'm not a good writer. For example, I took multiple business writing classes and it was pretty hard for me.I also had to take a writing exam that's required for all students who were about to graduate.I actually failed and had to retake it :/. However, I started thinking 'what the heck this is for me',its fun to share and find stuff in common with other book lovers and meet new people (like you! :D).Tell your mom she did a great job! I really thought you were an author or something LOL! Btw, do you have fb?!

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    1. I think it's great that you started a blog! I may do it one day :-) I told my mom what you said about my photo. That made her happy. She said "I thought you looked like an author too" haha! I am on FB, but ever since I joined Twitter, I don't go on there as much as I used to. I'm a twitter addict now. Lol!

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