Black Beast by Nenia Campell: A book review by Poppy Fairy

Title: Black Beast

Author: Nenia Campbell

Series: Shadow Thane #1

Release date: April 2nd 2014

ISBN:9781310692048

Synopsis:

She walks the line between the hunter and the hunted.

Vampires want her blood.

Witches consider her less-than-human.

Slayers simply want her dead.

As if being in high school wasn't hard enough, Catherine Pierce has to deal with a whole other set of problems that arise from being a shifter that hasn't settled. Because after puberty, shifters are supposed to stop changing--and Catherine, well, hasn't.

Even among her own kind, Catherine is regarded as a freak.

To make matters worse, she'd caught the attention of the witches' Council because they think she's been dabbling in dark magic because of a stupid old book that popped up at her work. And she's been having nightmares about a terrifying man who calls himself the Shadow Thane and plans to end the world in a burst of darkness and dragon fire.

Just in case that wasn't enough, a branch of Slayers are infiltrating Catherine's town, under the guise of a community youth group called Sterling Rep.

Times are changing and that means, for Catherine, it's time to Change.

Amazon

Review:

It has been so long since I've read a book about witches, vampires, and shape-shifters. I used to be so fed up with paranormal books but months without reading them and now I am terribly missing these sexy underworlders. That said, Black Beast was a welcome change for me. 

Black Beast is the first book in the Shadow Thane series and it's a reaaally short book with only 159 pages (164 in my copy). Naturally, my first worry was that either the plot would probably be rushed or it'll have a huge cliffhanger, or both. There was no cliffhanger but I was right about the plot being rushed. There were so many questions and details that weren't fully answered nor explained and not in a cliffhanger sort of way but like they were mentioned early into the story only to be completely forgotten later. Granted, there are sequels so those will most likely be unfolded soon. But still, these questions (or the lack of details) could've been answered or revealed in the first book.

Further, I found it difficult to connect with Catherine and the rest of the characters. Since the book is short, the characters have little development, same with the romance which I thought was also incredibly rushed. 

Some of the things that I loved about this book, however, are:
- The emphasis given on shape-shifters as still having human qualities/emotions.
- The use of familiars for witches! When was the last time I read a book with characters that have familiars? I honestly can't remember. But I'm glad with this book because familiars are mighty cool concept and Graymalkin is way too cute.
- Mythology! Though veeeeery little but this will probably be explored more in the succeeding books.

A review copy was received from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 2 Fairy Wings