Book Review: Phase of Fate (Phase Mountain Pack #1) by Coralee June

Book Title: Phase of Fate (Phase Mountain Pack #1)

Author: Coralee June

Published Date: April 21 2022

Format: Ebook

Number of Pages: 277

Book Rating: 2 Stars

For my Star review system information click here.

Book Description:

I was the average daughter. The troublemaker. The side character in my sister's story.

My sister was a Prodigy, endowed with exceptional skills and bonded with a guardian. In a world where all leaders, scientists, and artists are selected and pledged to shifters, she was born for greatness.

I was born to live in her shadow. In a moment of rebellion, I trespassed on pack lands and an alpha guardian shifter, Theo, bonded to me. Tragedy makes me reject the pairing. They say I am a Prodigy now—someone special. I think they’re wrong.

Theo is protective, overbearing, and gets under my skin. He knows me better than anyone else. It takes everything I have to keep the wall around my heart built up. I refuse to ever trust a shifter. I refuse to fall in love with my rival. But fate comes in phases. Once a nobody, now a hero. Once an enemy, now my forever.

Review:

* Disclaimer: I start all my reviews with this disclaimer. I might not have liked a book but that doesn't mean you won't. We all read books differently based on personal opinions, personal preferences, personal life experiences, etc. Same goes for me loving a book, you might not feel the same way and that's completely OK! The beauty of reading is that no book will be read the same way. Hell, sometimes even reading a book a second time will make it hit completely differently or make me question why I liked it in the first place. All this to say, I hope that reading my reviews can help you learn more about the book and why I felt the way I did, and then help you decide based on your personal preferences if the book would be a good fit for you or not.

So I am counting this as read because I got maybe 85% through. I put it down and was intending it on finishing it but that half a day break just made me even less interested to finish. I also read some reviews which had the same issues with this book then I did and ended up deciding that life's too short to read books which just don't jive with you.

It wasn't a bad book but it wasn't great. A lot of this things I disliked could be more a personal thing. However, all the low reviews posted as I am writing this have the same issues with this book as I do. So it's probably a case of either these things rub you the wrong way and this book flops for you or you don't notice these things in this book as much and you like it.

Here is a quick pro and con list.

CON:

- I couldn't connect to any of the characters.

- I felt nothing for the love interest, family, etc.

- Overall I was just frustrated with the MC. She went through something traumatic, trauma can mess someone up for a long time, but as other reviewers pointed out we didn't get to see who this MC was apart from the portion of her who was grieving/processing. Even with trauma pressing on you you have other personality traits. We didn't get to really see any of that.

- Even if the MC is processing, putting blame on an entire species for a disease/something which was beyond the persons control and hating them so much seems weird to me (also a bit extreme to be racist to an entire species for the act of 1 person/wolf who was unable to control himself due to magic). Maybe she is trying to find someone to blame for everything, but still. Some of the things she says are also just plain cruel. She says this awful awful monologue calling shifters "things" and "murderers" and "monsters", but less than 1 hr later she is defending them and trusting them implicitly? Those hate monologues really made me dislike her, especially since everyone is telling her she is right to hate everyone. The two times someone calls her out on her BS they immediately back track and say "I'm sorry, I'm wrong, you're right)

- It seemed to drag and I wasn't really invested.

- The writing was good but a bit too many info dumps or large internal monologues which could have been cut way down to save of repetition and to make the plot move faster.

PRO:

- The world building was interesting and well done (though some elements I wished were pushed further/explored more).

- I liked the concept of the bonds and prodigies.

- She did well foreshadowing from the start that things weren't how they seemed but also kept enough questions to keep the reader intrigued.

Overall this book really wasn't for me, my 2 star rating reflects that. But I can see how depending on the person and if they can connect to the characters that this might be a book they enjoy.

Until next time,

Maya Lemaire