Thalia @ Pictures in the Words

This is pretty much just another mediocre book, unfortunately. I'm currently feeling two stars. I knew this was a contemporary novel, but I figured the author or characters would give me a reason to care about wolves--not werewolves, or shapeshifters, or anything--just plain wolves. But...I don't care. At all.

The people in our main character, KJ's, town are crazy about wolves. Some of them are crazy about keeping them in Yellowstone park and letting them do whatever. Far more of them are crazy about getting them out and away from their herds and cattle. Which I guess makes sense if you're a rancher. But the book does a very poor job of explaining why I should care and why all these people are feeling the way they are. I mean, stores are being destroyed, Virgil (KJ's love interest) had his truck/ice sculpture/himself shot at during a Christmas parade, and KJ's dad's store was set on fire with her dad inside. People are going freaking nuts and violent over...wolves. You're either a wolf lover or a hater--and the other side will pretty much hate you no matter what.

I just don't get it. I'm supposed to care. But I don't, because KJ never takes the time to explain why I should care. She just assumes we're all like her and will get it immediately. I get really turned off by books that assume I'm a specific type of person, or is only written for one, small crowd--this would be small town ranchers, I guess. 

In addition, there are quite a few grammatical problems, and Virgil sucks as a character. He and KJ barely talk during the whole book (they mostly pointedly ignore each other), but KJ has now admitted to herself that she loves him. (Why???) There's poor writing ("He smiles with his eyebrows"--what does that even mean?!), poor grammar, poor characterization, and poor plot development. I kind of feel like banging my head against a wall so I can figure out why I'm even reading this.