Finally Saved

I read this book years ago when it was free on Wattpad and recently rediscovered it. It was a good read, but I do feel that it would benefit from an edit. Please note that there will be spoilers in this review.

Pros:
- The lore surrounding werewolves/lycans. The author had some great ideas, such as the protector bond and the character who could shift parts of her body at will.
- The author does a good job of narrating fight scenes. These were probably one of my favorite parts of the book. I didn’t love the switch to third person POV at the end, but I understand why the author felt the need to do it.
- I like that the mate bond does not make them fall in love right away, but that they actually have to build a relationship beyond the baseline attraction. With everything Libby has gone through, it wouldn’t have made sense for her to fall for Nick right away.

Cons:
- Holy internalized misogyny Batman! Libby embodies the “not like other girls” trope more intensely than any book protagonist I have seen in a while. She never misses an opportunity to remind the reader that she is the prettiest girl in the room. There is a particularly egregious scene where during a flashback of what is supposed to be her most traumatic memory (her father forcing her to be an escort when she was underage), she stops to note how the other escorts are glaring at her because they are jealous that their clients are staring at her. This is a common occurrence when Libby goes anywhere; on her first day of school she makes sure to mention how the boys were “staring at her with lust” and the girls glaring at with jealousy.

Libby also calls girls she doesn’t like “sluts” frequently, even expressing surprise that a girl she meets isn’t sleeping around because according to her, “guys give her the bedroom look all the time”. I wanted to chalk this up to Libby’s established conservative upbringing, but these views go unchallenged by every other character in the book.
- Sometimes the author uses words incorrectly and it’s distracting. For example, they say a character “reasoned” something that was just a statement, no deduction occurred. In another part of the book, they describe a character as having straight hair styled into “layered waves”. I had no idea what I was supposed to picture here, because straight and wavy are two conflicting things and it pulled me out of the story as I tried to figure it out.
- There is one major plot hole that nearly broke this story for me. What exactly was the mother’s motivation for anything she did in this story? We begin the book learning that Libby’s mother found out about her dad’s abuse and then took her away from him. But it is established after this that she is cold and distant, and doesn’t seem to care about Libby at all, in fact it appears that she resents Libby for having to leave. We learn at the climax of the book that Libby’s dad was working with the rogue wolves so he could punish Libby for running away from him. The mom seems to have been aware of this the entire time; she brings in the letters he sent Libby, she’s tipped off by him and leaves town when he kidnaps her. So what exactly was the point of her leaving with Libby? It couldn’t have been because she cared; she doesn’t do anything to prevent what was going to be Libby’s murder. I just did not understand this at all and since it is the inciting incident of the story, this is a big issue.

I’m so shocked it ended that way! I so want more to read. I have now moved to “rightfully his”. I can only hope to see more books from you in the near future. You are a wonderful writer and I love getting lost in your work!