Title: Living with Loss
Author: JenniferCamacho
Genre: Werewolf
Chapter Count: 14
Blurb [sic]: When death claims a mate, it can have a devastating impact. Logan knows, all too well, the pain of that loss. What happens when an already vulnerable pack, is led by an even more vulnerable alpha? Will he be the exception to the rule and carry on living, leading his pack.... or will a new threat cause them to crumble alongside him?
Onto the review
I really wasn't a huge fan of Living with Loss. I felt the death of Logan's mate was just a huge plot device and the story could use some heavy editing. Of course I'll be going into the finer points of the story below.
The dying mate. Like I said above, Olivia's death felt more like a plot device than it did something organic. You can argue that all things in a book are plot device, but most of them have a kind of character growth. We get a lot of telling about how this hurt Logan and what it's doing to him but I never felt those things. Logan's depression didn't even feel real to me, because it was so movie style rather than how real depression and grief strikes people.
Word choice and description. I don't know if this was due to quick writing and no editing, or the author not really understanding what some of the words s/he uses are. For instance, in the first chapter Griffin, one of Logan's wolves, says something then gets this tag line: "[H]e drawled out, his signature mischievous." I can't understand what that means. Mischievous is an adjective, you put it with an action, like smile or laugh. You can't just have mischievous as a signature.
Werewolf lore. This is a common thing in werewolf stories, the lore has such a suspension of disbelief that I can't fathom why things happen. Authors don't even TRY to explain why things are the way they are, they just say "I'm allowed to make it that way so I do" and it pulls me right out of a story. So, to name off a few: moon goddess, who is she? Why does she choose mates? Why do alphas die without their mate? Depression doesn't work like that. I would know, I've had it chronically for nearly all my life and I've been dealing with the grief of losing a close family member for the past year too; I have yet to put a gun to my mouth.
Writing. The writing isn't terrible, the author knows the difference between 's and s', so that's awesome and rare. The writing does suffer from speedy output and very little editing though. A lot of the mistakes I mention above would likely be revised through an edit or two. I'm aware it's probably a rough draft, but as this is it's current state, I will review it as such. I will say the writing also suffers from "telling not showing" syndrome which made it difficult for me to connect emotionally to the characters.
Characters. They were all right, but I wasn't particularly enamored with them. They didn't feel real to me, they felt... well not bland or unreal, just not so real I wanted nothing more than to meet them. In the end I was pretty neutral to them.
Verdict: If you're a huge fan of werewolf stories on wattpad you'll enjoy this read. Many commenters praised it for it's originality.
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