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A review by jscarpa14
Belonging by Kelley Armstrong
4.0
Derek and Chloe have been dating for three months, living with Derek’s Dad, Simon, Chloe Aunt Lauren and Tori in a farm house outside of a town. But when someone from the Edison group alerts the Cains that they have another grandson not living as a part of their pack the happiness Derek and Chloe have found might soon come to a close. When the Cain’s kidnap Derek will he find his way back to his family?
I really did enjoy this story. It opens in a third person narrative from Brad’s point of view. Brad is a minor werewolf character working for Edison group or rather St. Cloud who was over Edison Group in the first place. He’s only in the story for the prolog. In chapter one the story switches to a first person narrative from Derek’s point of view. The opening chapters mostly establish what the living and relationship situation is like now for the characters of the Darkest Powers Trilogy. However the action picks up when Derek encounters his long lost werewolf family. My only issue with the plot is Lauren and Kit’s lack of concern when Carter followed Chloe into the forest. I mean whether he was part of the people hunting them or not a potential stalker should concern the adults caring for the teenage girl. Since they don’t really have the option of going to the police about it, because of those hunting them, that alone should have been cause for them to think about moving. Other than that I really did enjoy the story. It was fast paced and offered a decent amount of action, but it was more focused on Derek’s emotional struggles than anything else. I did however definitely enjoy the novella about what’s happening now for the Darkest Powers characters. The story was engaging, interesting and well written.
The characters are where I have an issue with this story, one in particular. I realize this is an entirely new situation, but Chloe was never extremely confident in the Darkest Powers trilogy but here she’s portrayed as self assured and confident. She’s not as sarcastic and she’s definitely a lot more playful than she was in the trilogy. Maybe it was because we’re viewing her through Derek’s eyes or because she’s more relaxed now that she’s not in immediate danger, but it just didn’t seem to fit with what we already knew of her character. Derek was well developed and I’ve most definitely enjoyed the novellas Armstrong has offered from his point of view, but again he just wasn’t the same as before. I could see how he would worry about losing Chloe because he’s never been in a relationship before or had a girl interested him, that I felt fit. But when he describes Chloe as being able to take care of and save herself I didn’t really feel that fit with the character we met in the novel either. Yes Armstrong explains this by Derek saying he’s getting better about being so overbearing and protective, but still he’s been so protective of Chloe for so long it’s hard to believe that he’d see her as capable now. The other reoccurring characters didn’t offer much in development, but Simon, Tori, Liz, and Lauren fit with their previous character development from the series. Yes their characterization mostly relied upon previous work rather than new establishment, but this is a novella and that’s understandable. Kit, Derek’s Dad gained a little more as a character in this story, but he wasn’t really developed in the novels since he only appeared in the final scenes of the third book. The book also fails to address Tori and Simon’s sibling relationship which Chloe discovered in the novels, but neither Simon nor Tori were actually informed of. You’d think by three months later Kit would have had the nerve to say hey Tori, I’m your artificially inseminated father. Or by now Chloe would have felt the need to tell her or something. I know they were background characters in this story but I felt that situation bore mentioning regardless. The new characters of Theo and Carter I felt were well developed introductions to the series. Brad was distinctive, though clearly a background character and Nate was a little flat for a character.
Overall I’d definitely recommend the novella found on the Darkest Powers Blog to readers who’ve enjoyed the Darkest Powers Trilogy. I imagine it will eventually be officially released as an ebook like the other short stories attached to this series in the Darkest Powers Bonus Pack, but at this time you have to go to the blog to read it.
I really did enjoy this story. It opens in a third person narrative from Brad’s point of view. Brad is a minor werewolf character working for Edison group or rather St. Cloud who was over Edison Group in the first place. He’s only in the story for the prolog. In chapter one the story switches to a first person narrative from Derek’s point of view. The opening chapters mostly establish what the living and relationship situation is like now for the characters of the Darkest Powers Trilogy. However the action picks up when Derek encounters his long lost werewolf family. My only issue with the plot is Lauren and Kit’s lack of concern when Carter followed Chloe into the forest. I mean whether he was part of the people hunting them or not a potential stalker should concern the adults caring for the teenage girl. Since they don’t really have the option of going to the police about it, because of those hunting them, that alone should have been cause for them to think about moving. Other than that I really did enjoy the story. It was fast paced and offered a decent amount of action, but it was more focused on Derek’s emotional struggles than anything else. I did however definitely enjoy the novella about what’s happening now for the Darkest Powers characters. The story was engaging, interesting and well written.
The characters are where I have an issue with this story, one in particular. I realize this is an entirely new situation, but Chloe was never extremely confident in the Darkest Powers trilogy but here she’s portrayed as self assured and confident. She’s not as sarcastic and she’s definitely a lot more playful than she was in the trilogy. Maybe it was because we’re viewing her through Derek’s eyes or because she’s more relaxed now that she’s not in immediate danger, but it just didn’t seem to fit with what we already knew of her character. Derek was well developed and I’ve most definitely enjoyed the novellas Armstrong has offered from his point of view, but again he just wasn’t the same as before. I could see how he would worry about losing Chloe because he’s never been in a relationship before or had a girl interested him, that I felt fit. But when he describes Chloe as being able to take care of and save herself I didn’t really feel that fit with the character we met in the novel either. Yes Armstrong explains this by Derek saying he’s getting better about being so overbearing and protective, but still he’s been so protective of Chloe for so long it’s hard to believe that he’d see her as capable now. The other reoccurring characters didn’t offer much in development, but Simon, Tori, Liz, and Lauren fit with their previous character development from the series. Yes their characterization mostly relied upon previous work rather than new establishment, but this is a novella and that’s understandable. Kit, Derek’s Dad gained a little more as a character in this story, but he wasn’t really developed in the novels since he only appeared in the final scenes of the third book. The book also fails to address Tori and Simon’s sibling relationship which Chloe discovered in the novels, but neither Simon nor Tori were actually informed of. You’d think by three months later Kit would have had the nerve to say hey Tori, I’m your artificially inseminated father. Or by now Chloe would have felt the need to tell her or something. I know they were background characters in this story but I felt that situation bore mentioning regardless. The new characters of Theo and Carter I felt were well developed introductions to the series. Brad was distinctive, though clearly a background character and Nate was a little flat for a character.
Overall I’d definitely recommend the novella found on the Darkest Powers Blog to readers who’ve enjoyed the Darkest Powers Trilogy. I imagine it will eventually be officially released as an ebook like the other short stories attached to this series in the Darkest Powers Bonus Pack, but at this time you have to go to the blog to read it.