Reviewed by Becca

TITLE: Hybrid

SERIES: Darker Hollow #1

AUTHOR: Shannon West and T.S. McKinney

PUBLISHER: Painted Hearts Publishing

LENGTH: 202 Pages

RELEASE DATE: March 29, 2017

BLURB:

Jax’s little brother Mason is all grown up and finds himself longing for a life of adventure. He finds it in a way he never planned late one night while walking home to the lodge beneath a full moon, when he is attacked, bitten, and left for dead by a huge black werewolf. As he’s dying and all hope is fading, he is discovered on the trail and believes he’s being saved. Instead, he’s bitten a second time, and this time by a vampire, who first drains him of the remainder of his blood and then feeds him his own. It restores Mason’s life, but the vampires take him to their mountain stronghold in Virginia, where he’s confronted again by Valerian, the leader of the vampire coven and the one who saved him. The vampire is both seductive and beautiful, and convinces a confused and traumatized Mason that they’re lovers. Mason finds himself in the middle of an ancient war between the vampires and the Dire werewolves, and during a raid, he’s captured by the wolf who first bit him, a strong alpha named Finn. Finn is powerfully attracted to him too, but Mason is changing, becoming something not quite wolf and not quite vampire—a new creature with powers of his own. In order to find himself, he has to learn the truth of what’s happening to him, and discover who his enemies and his allies really are. He has to learn to fight for his happiness even if it means making an unholy alliance to find true love.

REVIEW:

I’m always excited to see vampires and werewolves and I love being able to try out new books with them in it. This book is a first for me with these authors and I wasn’t disappointed. Good plot lines that have me excited for the next book.

The only things I guess that irritated me is the alpha wolf was a little assholish, lol. And the Omega was treated as a slave. That bothers me. Even though the Omega wasn’t a MC, they still shouldn’t be considered as weak. But that’s just my opinion. And Mason did his best to try to fix that mindset and correct how they were treated. Mason I felt for throughout this whole book. Everywhere he turned he was being used and manipulated in one manner or another. All he wanted was to find something to do with his life, like school, and instead he gets his arm almost ripped off by Finn the werewolf and then compulsed by Valerian the vampire. Both for him to do their biddings. Both feel Mason is their mated one and they are going all out to keep Mason from each other. What they have not realized they have done, is with all the bites and venom they have given Mason, they have made him a hybrid. Something with all kinds of powers they are still discovering. I cheered for Mason, though, when he finally put his foot down with both. Enough was enough and he wasn’t going to be treated like their little puppet anymore. I was so happy for Mason then. Because he took back control. He proved he wasn’t going to put up with their crap and stood up for himself. I loved him even more for that. Mason was such a sweet guy. Still is. But with what those two kept putting him through he lost himself…literally. And now he is in charge of himself again and it’s awesome.

Both Valerian and Finn are alphas that you seriously want to throat punch most days. They are overbearing, manipulative, egotistical assholes who think more about themselves than their mate. As time goes on though, Mason wears them down. Despite what they do to him, they really do grow to care for him. And both have changes to make when Mason has had enough. They both realize they are sick down to their souls when they think about what life would be like without Mason and quickly try to do whatever possible to fix it. As Mason discovers his powers, they also discovers he is not the same little human he used to be and they both learn a new respect for him. I love that also about Mason. No matter what they have put him through, Mason perseveres. He grows stronger and stronger and stands up for who and what he believes in. He takes on many enemies because of these two but still he keeps going. He keeps getting up. Mason is definitely my favorite in this book. He’s a survivor.

If you love vampires and werewolves like I do, I think you will really love this book. Being a hybrid has all sorts of twists and turns and it makes you anxious to see what happens next. There are all kinds of surprises as Mason learns his powers and it so cool to see what pops up next. You won’t be able to put it down!

RATING:

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