(Un)wise by Melissa Haag

Blurb:
The dreams start, and Bethi’s very normal life goes down the toilet. She soon realizes the dreams are actually memories from past lives…and not just hers. She sees the lives of other women like her.

The recalled memories follow the same terrifying pattern: Dog-men chase her, and she sees her eventual tormented death. Learning from the past, Bethi sets out to find a way to live this time around. The dreams hint at an answer.

She needs to be strong enough to find it or die…again.

    

My Review:
4 stars — This was the book I was most looking forward to after reading Curly’s reviews, and probably what sold me on starting the series in the first place.  It definitely isn’t my favourite so far, which surprised me, but it’s kind of fun knowing that Curly Carla and I have different tastes.  There’s a part of me that kind of wants to rate it 3.5 stars, but I think that’s mostly just because I had high expectations, and wouldn’t actually reflect my overall enjoyment of the book.

Bethi was a mixed bag for me.  I enjoyed her sass and independence, but at times her hard shell was hard to get past.  It’s so hard, b/c I understand why she is the way she is — how could you not end up that way with what she’s learning and experiencing in her dreams?  And her fear of the werewolves prevents her from feeling all of her emotions because she’s worried they will detect them on her…but it also prevents me, as a reader, from truly getting a feel for her.  There were these aspects of her that I guess I almost wanted to explore, or needed to know more of to truly connect with her.  It was like we were only given a shallow glimpse at times, and it wasn’t enough for me.  So while I thought she was fantastic, she isn’t my favourite so far.

But saying that, I LOVED her gift and what it gave us as readers.  I learned so much in this story!!  And it was frightening and horrifying and confusing.  But I feel like I have a better grip as a whole on where this story is going and what’s been going on so far.  I will say that I am of two minds with the sheer number of dreams/flashbacks we received.  I really enjoyed getting to see glimpses of how the different abilities affected the girls throughout their different lifetimes.  I also felt like this really drove home the evilness of the Urbat and what they are doing and wanting to achieve…so much disgust.  And I loved getting glimpses into the current incarnations of the other sisters and what they felt growing up.  But it got to be a bit much at times.  Like, I’m torn.  I enjoyed everything I got, but a part of me feels like it was overdone…but then which dreams would I eliminate, you know?  Ugh.

And that brings me to Luke.  *sigh*  Can I admit I was a little disappointed?  Luke showed so much personality in Hope(less), and I really feel like we were shortchanged in this novel.  BUT.  But.  But I’ve been enjoying the companion series, so I’m wondering if when she got to this book she already knew she would be writing the companion series, and so she left a lot for that book?  I just don’t feel like I know Luke at all, and I get that there is a pull there, but I felt like he was a secondary character in this novel at times.  Now don’t get me wrong, I ADORED his quiet protection for the first half of the story.  He really has his work cut out for him.  But I felt like something was missing in the romance area.  It felt like Bethi just needed him, and that all that was connecting them was the pull.  I would have liked a bit more…something…in the romance department.

So all in all this reads like a terrible review.  Sometimes I think I’m a horrible reviewer.  I mean, I gave this 4 stars!  And I wholeheartedly stand by that!  I guess when I just get involved in a series and enjoy it, I need to get all my thoughts out on the page.  Maybe it really was a 3.5 star.  I don’t know.  I go with my gut.  I’m still enthralled with the series, but it just didn’t live up to my expectations.  I can’t wait to see what Luke’s Dream will tell us though.  Meanwhile, I’m going to move on to book 4 and find out what Charlene has to tell us.