This series was fun. It was fast paced, and creative in ways where you think the author is going to go for one trope, but then follows up with a totally different one. I appreciate that. Not because I’m snooty about tropes, but because I know how difficult it is to blend just the right elements of plot and story around existing tropes to come up with something unique.
Enter the reluctant hero of our tale, Drew Ferran, destiny looming and very little left to work with as the stakes get higher. I’ve followed enough tales about reluctant heroes to appreciate just where Curtis Jobling took him. Tragedy strikes, friends and allies take sides across a line drawn by enemies and everyone’s destinies unfold in a six part series that takes us basically all over the known world. Much adventure. Such fun.
It’s a lot of your usual “more than meets the eye type hero comes into a power and destiny that stretches back long before he ever came to be mixed up in the whirlwind events that will decide the fate of the known world” type story. But there are a lot of chaotic anti-tropey twists that are surprise enough to any reader invested in Drew’s journey.
Two things draw me in to any story: characters I care about, set against the backdrop of a lush and interesting world. It was either very cheeky or cheesy of the author to name the series Wereworld given that the places, kingdoms, history and peoples in the story are pretty amazing. I mean, yes, it is a medieval world populated by humans and people who can transform into were animals of all sorts. But there are tribes and bloodlines, and legends that are so beautiful and compelling in the context of Drew’s particular journey.
Is Drew my favorite hero or even a character I would want to hang out with? No. But I have grown attached enough to owe it to him to see his tale through to the end of 6 books. I’m notorious for dropping books halfway through the first chapter and yet I found myself devouring the whole series.
Curtis Jobling did what I look for in all the stories I love: he made me care about a bunch of people who are in over their heads while revealing a lush world one layer at a time. So if the concept of werewolves, werebears, werefoxes and even werebirds, werelions and a roguish super handsome pirate prince wereshark interest you? Go post haste to Westland and find Drew in Cold Cost, living in simpler times with his family where our tale begins. Get through the first half of the first book and if by then you find Drew’s tale doesn’t interest you and want to leave, there’s little else I can say outside of…. But you’ll miss the super handsome pirate prince wereshark! #LordVegaForever #lifegoals
Rise of the Wolf / Rage of Lions / Shadow of the Hawk / Nest of Serpents / Storm of Sharks / War of the Werelords by Curtis Jobling
Series: Wereworld #1-6
Publisher: Puffin
Publication Dates: September 20, 2011 / June 5, 2012 / October 16, 2012 / January 15, 2013 / May 21, 2013 / October 8, 2013
Source: Paperbacks borrowed from the library
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