Project Athena | Reviews

The Fenrir Saga (Roses)

Author: CarolineHallonback

Reviewer: Rain_dropsand_roses

Genre: Werewolf

I loved reading this story. In your request, you asked whether it is too slow for the readers, and yes, it is slow, but in a way that works with what the story is supposed to be. It's not a fast-action, high-stakes story, at least not at the start, so I don't expect anything crazy to happen within the chapters I read. About genre, it clearly a werewolf romance, or more specifically werewolf if we're going with how Wattpad categorizes their genres.

You did a really good job of describing the werewolf/pack mechanics throughout, and these aren't info dumps either, they are given when required and integrated seamlessly into the flow of the scene so as not to break it up. I especially like the idea of Prospects and the way packs are divided, including the details about the werewolves and how their abilities work.

You say the story doesn't follow the typical tropes, but there are a lot of them in here. Tropes aren't a bad thing per se, there's a reason why they're popular in the first place, and it all comes down to execution. Nothing really stands out, except maybe for how Beonnie's father and mother meet, which is just too convenient.

Hild as a character is one of the more interesting and complex ones from this story if not the most. She's unique, and you reveal more of how difficult of a life she has been through, which ultimately has turned her into this person with a dark view of life and how it is supposed to be lived. She is a sharp contrast to Beonnie, and with the pair I sort of get this Jekyll/Hyde comparison in my mind each time I read their sides of the story. Both had to run away from home, with Hild's side of the story turning out much darker whereas Beonnie has a brighter more hopeful view on things like a potential relationship with a mate.

In most stories of this sort, the main character would be a mix of the two, but I like that they are separate, and Beonnie does go through genuine difficulties of her own when she leaves home. She has a few skills learned from her father but you don't use these as get-out-of-jail-free cards and actually show that she does find it hard to hunt, and she has to seek shelter, cover her tracks, even down to being downwind of Tristan and Dhalia so they can't get her scenet. It's these small things that make her story much more realistic and no less interesting than Hild's despite having a relatively comfortable life in comparison.

In chapter 5 we see Beonnie get her wolf. It happens a bit too suddenly for my liking, but I suppose it is a point as good as any, and the fact that it happens with Zac around and some mysterious stuff going on with the necklaces might be the cause, but I'm not sure. There's a bit of convenience again, and although I don't know what happens in the latter chapters, I'd be disappointed if it turned out that Zac was Beonnie's mate since that would fall into the awfully convenient situations characters in stories like this tend to find themselves in. They become close quite quickly in the little time they spend together, and maybe that's to show some connection they have (the necklaces again) or just how nice of a person Zac is. I would have expected him to be more cautious around a stranger who's been hanging around the borders of his pack territory for a while.

I'd give this story 4 out of 5 stars. Maybe 3 if I'm being strict, because when it comes to the pack side of things, it runs along the same story paths that werewolf stories seem to follow. Four, however, for the characters, their complexity and sense of humour, and the well-written depictions of werewolves without being vague about details.