Title: Claimed
Author: J.R. Ward
Series: Lair of the Wolven #1
Pages: 525
Trigger warnings: On page suicide of a side character. References of suicide of a parent. Grief. Cancer.
First off, while this is a spin-off series you do need to be caught up in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. This book includes more of Xhex’s story and if you haven’t read BDB or at least her book then you most likely will be confused.
Second, this is not a standalone book. This ends in a cliffhanger, which I wasn’t expecting because all of Ward’s previous books have been standalones. So just be aware of that before going into this book.
While I usually enjoy Ward’s books, with this one I found myself bored through it a lot. I expected the slower pace because this is the first book but by 50% barely anything had happened. I found myself skimming a lot and putting this book down a lot for other books. The pacing also felt off and the characters were not as captivating as they usually are. For the romance, I felt minimal connection between these two until the very end when everything started happening.
If it wasn’t for the determination to figure out how this book played into the BDB universe and how shifters were a part of it, I probably would have stopped reading this book before I hit the halfway point. I plan on reading the second book to find out how Lydia and Daniel’s story plays out and to see how Xhex plays a part in it. Xhex is one of my favorite females in the BDB series and I really want to know more about her.
Red-Haired Ash Reads 