(Mis)fortune by Melissa Haag

Blurb:
Our world is being judged and even they remain unaware.

Michelle, another young woman with an unexplainable gift, finds herself surrounded by the previously undiscovered werewolf society. Kept prisoner for the predictions that torment her, she meekly follows orders waiting for her opportunity to run. When her stepfather dies, she takes a chance and escapes.

After witnessing Blake, her captor, grow canines, she knows he will do anything to find her. She needs a place to hide and someone to listen to her predictions so her head doesn’t explode, but knows there’s nowhere she can hide forever, and no one who can protect her… unless she can find someone just like him.

Part of the fur wearing faction wants to use her, another part strives to keep her safe. The second book of the Judgement of the Six series will raise more questions about the purpose of these gifted few and Michelle will need to fight for answers. Will what she discovers be enough to help her keep those she loves safe from an emerging evil?

    

My Review:
4.5 stars — While I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get much followup on the events from the first book, I was at least warned after seeing Curly Carla’s review, and there was a note before the book in the box set I am reading, so I was prepared for it.  I will say that I am anxious to see Gabby and Michelle meet and learn even more about what is going on in the grand scheme of things, but that’s only because we got a pretty good serving of some background in this book and I’m just excited for more.

Michelle was my kind of heroine.  I’m not even sure what makes me gravitate towards her, but you could really feel her fear and understand her reactions based on the hand that was dealt to her.  And I really liked that we got a bit more information about her past than we did with either Gabby or Clay.  I still want to know where their father’s are, though I’m starting to wonder if that’s part of what makes the girls special.  But we at least learned a little bit about what happened to Michelle’s Mom and how the meetings with Blake started.  I thought the way she cared for her family, and always thought of her brothers first was very authentic.  I loved the way we saw how sheltered they were and how that affected them all.  I thought in general her reactions to all the information she eventually learned about the werewolves and how she dealt with it was very realistic.

Emmitt was adorable.  He was strong, steady, conscientious, and faithful.  I loved the way he handled Michelle, trying not to scare her, but trying to protect her and the boys at the same time.  Looks like I will definitely be sucking up the cost and reading his POV next.  While I love alternative POV books, it’s hard to pay full price knowing we’ll be getting a lot of repeat.  But at the same time I want more Emmitt.  It’s a rough life right?

I adored Emmitt’s brother Jim in this one.  He and Nana Wini provided such a great family for Michelle and her brothers, and I LOVED the way Jim and Emmitt would play with and take care of the boys and show them what real life could be like.

I loved that we got to learn a bit more about what these other kinds of werewolves are, the Urbat, and I look forward to even more revelations in the books to come.  It was enough to whet my appetite but keep me wanting to come back for more.  I’m really intrigued about Elder Joshua, and I found it fascinating how much Sam and the other elders and ack knew about these other kinds before Gabby even started questioning them.  That was something I hadn’t expected.

All in all it had a sweet romance, great characters, some fantastic action, mystery, suspense, and kept me wanting to read more.  Looks like this is a winning series for me so far!