Synopsis from Goodreads
After Chloe Pryce's final careless mistake, she's forced to move from sunny California to live with her father in rural Alaska. Where Chloe is greeted by the town's finest and fiercest boy; Grayson Holtz. But Polar, Alaska has it's own fair share of dark secrets and Chloe - well she's about to get caught up in it all...
Buy from Amazon (UK) || Book Depository
First Published May 29th 2013
Series: Wolfstate Chronicles Book 1
Source: Bought (Kindle Edition)
My Book Review
(4 Stars)
So yes slight spoiler but, this is a another werewolf book and yes it follows some of the very well known tropes which come along with the werewolf theme. However, I have read my fare share of this kind of book and this one has somehow caught my attention. I normal rate a predictable 'just-another-teenage-werewolf-romance' around the three star mark, this kind of stories I find to be an enjoyable light read but Alaska has managed a 4 star rating as I think this might be a story which stays in my memory slightly longer than the others, it was by no means perfect but it just had a little bit ... more.
I think the two main things that I liked about this book were; firstly we get an unique and challenging location, I find that I so many werewolf stories are set ' in a small town near a woods' or 'in the back streets of a city', where the weather is constant with a were timely rain showers thrown in for effect. But this book -if you hadn't worked out!- is set in the cold rugged and rural Alaska. I liked how we got to see Chloe's realistic fears and apprehensiveness about living somewhere so different from where she is used to. From her fear of being alone at night in the wilderness to her reluctance to drive even on the nicest days. Over all I just liked that weather plays such a life changing aspect of the Alaskan people and it was interesting to see Chloe adapt to that culture.
The second thing for me has to be the relatability of Chloe's character. One thing that made her relatable was those first friendships that she creates, when she first arrive at school in Alaska reminded me of my first years of secondary. The sadly realistic shallowness of them and the way that Chloe is drawn to first people who are friendly towards her only to realise that they aren't the best of friends to have.
As I said there were a few things that I would have liked to change about this book. Firstly, I have to admit Chloe's family situation did have to remind me of Bella's from Twilight, with the eccentric mother and the partially absentee cop dad - who is trying hard now that she is living with him. Secondly, although we do get some interaction between Chloe and some of Grayson's friends, I would have liked to see more interaction between Chloe and members of the pack (and maybe some of the rival pack), and to know more about the politics of the packs in Alaska.
Overall, this book has somehow stuck out for me within the 'same-y-same-y' werewolf subgenre, and I wish we were getting more book following Chloe and Grayson as they (and those around them) cope and adapt to the changes that take place at the end of this book. To anyone who is a fan of the werewolf genre who is search though those 'same-y-same-y' werewolf books in the hope of gem, I suggest you try this one.
