The Blooding

Rating:
Summary: You want werewolves? Read "Blood & Chocolate"
Review: Disgusted and annoyed by her nagging mother and boring States-side life, Maris takes a job overseas as an au-pair to an English family. The two little kids are lovely and, despite the family's bizarre attitudes, Maris feels right at home ... until the mom's bloodied corpse is found in bed and her husband sneaks out for long night-time strolls. As Maris falls in love with her employer, she comes to realize that he isn't even human...

First off, I love werewolves. Vampires are corpses risen from the dead, but werewolves I can handle: shapeshifting creatures who resemble humans but get a little rowdy around the full moon. Yet for all its corny dialogue and underdeveloped characters, "The Blooding" doesn't deliver. The book never entirely solves it's subplots, such as the exact cause of the mother's death in her bed (there are speculations, but no wrap-up), and the end is a complete let-down. Unlike Annette Curtis Klause's triumphant werewolf novel "Blood & Chocolate", "The Blooding" has a heroine you can't really care about. She's self-centered and one-dimensional. She leaves the States to get away from her nagging mother and then falls in love with her boss, yet there's not much more to her than that. Chapters go on and on, showing the uncertain relationship between Maris and her charge's father, yet you're never sure whether the guy actually cares about her because he's so distant and creepy, and you wonder what Maris actually sees in the jerk.

If you want a good werewolf book, read "Blood & Chocolate". That novel has a realistic, sexy, frustrated heroine who loves to party during the full moon, yet can't understand her place in life. And that story comes out better than any dusty book like this any day.

Rating:
Summary: The Blooding
Review: I hated it and if it was possible to give this book lower than a one, trust me I would! The plot is also slow moving and the description is horrid!
The relationship between the young girl and the man who's over thirty is appalling and the characters have almost no personality. The mood is darker and depressing but the plot is simply stupid- sorry to say. My thoughts: Read this book if you wish but don't be too dissapointed if it's nothing spectacular... It will keep you busy at least.

(PLOT: A young girl who's mother places no trust in her sends her off to help out an old friend with her children in England. While in England weird things begin to happen, the woman sufferes from a mysterious illness and Maris- the main character keeps hearing people come in and out at around 3am and hears someone being sick and finds blood in the bathroom.
To make a long story short Maris ends up trying to find out this family's secrets and falls in love with the father who is like 20 years older than her and gets entangled in a swirl of dark secrets, family fueds, death, and werewolves.)

Rating:
Summary: This was a pretty good book
Review: I liked "The Blooding" as it was a bit more subtle and creepier then "Blood and Chocolate" which it sometimes gets compared to. It is not a very fast paced book but it still a good read. I suppose the bottom line is what sort of werewolf story you prefer.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing Groundbreaking
Review: It was dry. Somewhat stupid plot. i was imaptient with Maris and hated the way most of the story went. But it had it's moments. Get another, unless you want something for a rainy WEEK. You might like it.

I didn't.

Rating:
Summary: The worst Werewolf read yet...
Review: The Blooding is a terrific book. It has so much power in it. I could not put it down. The story is about a girl who becomes an au pair for a couple in England. Everything is going great, she loves the children and their mother . . . but their father is another story. Strange things start to happen. Soon our main character is trapped forever in a maze of pain and loneliness.

Rating:
Summary: It was good... sort of.
Review: The Blooding is an interesting book, although sometimes it's little else. The story is interesting but a little jerky sometimes. The writing style got to me a little. I don't really know why, but I think it was kind of the attempt (it seemed to me) to combine 3rd and 1st person. I read it on a very long bus ride, so I had little better to do. Besides, the plot did manage to progress fast enough to keep me interested. The opening immediately applies a sort of creepy feel to the text. It's good, but probably not something I'd read twice.

Rating:
Summary: very slow paced
Review: this book was very VERY slow, with no gore and maris seemed to be having PMS throughout the entire book because here opinions kept changing for absolutely no reason. The only time anything actually happens is at the very end of the book, and the ending is pretty boring. This took me a while too read because it is such a slow pace, i wouldn't recommend reading it.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best things i've read
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read. Yes, its some-what slow, but if you read it thouroghly (sorry my spelling is so bad!) you can undetstand why. Its one of those -young-girl-meet-older-guys-and-falls-in-love type of thing, but it only adds to it. Maris changes her mind frequently, which is a little irritating, but all in all, its a good read.