Book Reviews

Burning Passion

Author: Soulmated
Synopsis:
A new law forces rogues to attend their nearest pack school. Lucky for Zoe the school closest to her happens to be in her mates territory. But, it's also the pack where her  abusive parents  live.

Grammar:
I caught a few mistakes like misspelled words and sentences that needed commas but nothing major. I give book a 3.9 out of 5 on grammar.

Theme:
The theme I got from this book is if you focus too much on what things should
be you'll miss what actually are. Zoe was a rogue, she should have been feral and vicious but, in reality she was loyal and brave. Zoe's parents, elders of the pack, should have been loving guardians, instead they were abusive. It's not until everyone in the pack opens their eyes to what's really going on, that a happy ending is achieved. I give this story 4 out of 5 on theme.

Character Development:
The main character Zoe felt a little flat to me in this story because she was portrayed as perfect. The point of view switches back and forth from Hunter's perspective to Zoe's perspective throughout the book. In  Hunter's Perspective every other word out of his mouth  was about how perfect his mate was. After a while it got annoying. Then, the two mistakes Zoe did make, lying to her mate about being able to shift, and, not telling Hunter about her parents threatening Chloe, had no consequences.  No one was really mad at her at all. The only flaw Zoe had in the story was winking too much, and that seemed to annoy the readers more than the other characters. A character without flaws is not complex.  However, the male protagonist Hunter actually was complex. In the beginning of the novel he bullied his mate out of peer pressure. By the end of the book he learns to stand up for his mate against anyone and everyone. I give  story a 2.5 out of five on character development.

Plot:
    Zoe states in the beginning of the book that her father is an alpha. Zoe not being a boy who could one day become alpha or, their first born like Stacy was why they didn't love her. But later on Hunter, Zoe's mate is alpha, Zoe's parents are only elders of the pack with alpha blood. So why was it so important for Zoe's parents to have a boy? This little inconsistency ruined the entire story for me because it took away the villain's motive. As a result the whole story kind of just felt like woe is me, everybody hates me for no reason.
     In addition, the beginning of the story was very slow. After Zoe initially gets bullied she basically just goes to school, has bland interactions with Hunter and his friends, and confronts Stacy. But the most popular and powerful kids in school, the alpha and his friends, already hate Stacy. Plus, Stacy's one goal was to become alpha female, a position which automatically goes to Zoe because she's Hunter's mate. So Zoe was pretty much fighting a queen bee who had already been dethroned. The exposition would have been more interesting if the author had maintained a bit of mystery by slowly revealing Zoe's back story, rather than info dumping in the very beginning.
I give this story's plot 2 out of 5.

Additional Note:
This book had a lot of slut shaming; one charecter in particular was repeatedly demeaned for wearing revealing clothing and having multiple sexual partners. But the male protagonist  who also had multiple sexual partner was not shamed at all. The author also started the book by  breaking the fourth wall and did a lot of telling not showing. Overall this slowed the story down and was irritating.

Conclusion:
I give this book a 3.1out of 5. I honestly wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The slut shaming and bad plot ruined the story for me.