ebook Review: Kept

Greta is a werecat whose tribe plans to sacrifice her during the next full moon. Her only hope for survival is Dayne, a sorcerer who once massacred most of the tribe. What’s that thing they say about the enemy of your enemy?

I initially read Kept by Zoe Winters via the free pdf on her site, but I’ve since purchased it for $0.99 from Smashwords so I could stick the ePub version on my android phone. This in itself probably tells you I felt it was worth something.

Kept is a fairly light paranormal romance novella, though it does have its dark moments and you certainly wouldn’t describe it as fluffy.

Likes:

1. Werecats are kind of unique in fiction, especially werecats that are actually domestic cat size as opposed to big cats.
2. The two main characters were reasonably well developed considering the fact it’s a novella.
3. While it only scratches the surface of the world there’s a sense of strong worldbuilding underpinning the story.
4. The sacrifice plot was intriguing enough to make me tolerate the romantic. (I can only take paranormal romance when something else is happening as well.)
5. The writing is solid.
6. The sex, thank goodness, is not explicit.

Dislikes:

1. The romance didn’t really convince me. The attraction yes, but it seems they just kind of fell into the relationship at the end. Given the situation it’s not unbelievable that would happen, but it didn’t feel like it would last. Ironically I’m listing this as a flaw because it’s supposed  to be a romance and those relationships are supposed to feel stable at the end, but it actually made me like it better.
2. The antagonist was a total nutjob with very little motivation beyond blind ambition that we saw. This made him seem very two dimensional. I know it was a novella, but he had enough page time to add a bit of complexity to him. He was actually kind of boring.
3. At times the characters’ reactions were just too predictable. The plot relied on them doing stupid things. Young scared werecats can be excused that but intelligent, long lived sorcerors  (even hot ones) should know better.

Verdict:

If you like paranormal romance you’ll almost certainly enjoy Kept. I enjoyed it and I don’t even like romance as a rule. I know it’s available free from her website, but go buy it. The author deserves it and it’s only $0.99. I’ll be buying the other 2 books in the trilogy at some point but my to buy list is as long as my arm.

Kept by Zoe Winters is available for $0.99 from Smashwords or the Kindle Store. There’s also a free pdf available through her site.