Review: Willowgrove by Kathleen Peacock

I'm glad I was able to read the three books right after one another. As I think it made me enjoy them more. But oh. I really wanted to love Willowgrove. As I enjoyed Hemlock a lot, but didn't fully love Thornhill. In the beginning, this book was great. But then it changed for me. And now I'm having mixed feelings.

I'm not sure where to begin. So I'm going to begin by saying that I adore the author, Kathleen. I think she's awesome. But. Despite me adoring her, I did not love this book. I'm so sorry about that. But I'm also going to be honest about my feelings for this book. So yeah. My review may not be all that positive.

In the beginning, though, I thought I would love this book a lot. It was interesting and exciting and I wanted to know what would happen next. And I enjoyed the characters. But then more things started happening. And I started disliking Mac so, so much. And I just. When I do not like the main character, I start having issues with the rest of the book too. Like the writing. So many things didn't make sense for me. I would never talk or act like that. Mac just did so many stupid things, always going on her own, and oh. I did not like it at all. I wish I had. But I didn't. She just bothered me in this book. Which I will explain more about, in a little bit. Mac is also brave, though, which I did like. I just wish she had thought about things a bit more.

Before I start being all negative, hih, I do want to say that I think the plot in these books are pretty awesome. It is exciting and brutal. I enjoyed reading about the different camps and I liked reading about the werewolves. But. Thing is, there isn't much about that at all. Most of this book is about Mac and her feelings and things she is doing. And while I adored Mac previously, I did not like her in this book. I'm sorry. I wanted to, but no. I didn't like how she always left the others behind, going out alone.

Then there is that whole romance thing. I can't honestly call this a love triangle. Mac only loves Kyle. But I can also say that I hated most of the romance. I adored Kyle. So much. And I just want him happy. But I didn't like how Mac dealed with Jason being in love with her. They shared that kiss in book two. She never told Kyle. She could have, he asked, he is hurting. But she didn't. Because she didn't want to ruin him and Jason's friendship. Wtf. I didn't think they were friends at all, to be honest. Oh, it bothered me.

I just did not get the friendship between Kyle and Jason. Sure, they might have been best friends as kids, but I don't think they were friends at all these days. They didn't talk. They didn't hang out together. They didn't seem close at all. Yet Mac keeps insisting that they are the best of friends, that they would die for each other. Ugh. That bothered me. Especially the Jason part. I never liked him. Not once. And Mac keeps thinking that he has changed. I didn't see that one bit. Sigh. He is not a character for me.

Anyway. There are many things happening in this book. And I did like reading about Serena and Trey. I just didn't fully love them either. I felt like this book wanted me to care about all the characters, yet it ended up not making me care about any of them. I just didn't care much at all. I didn't get why they all cared so much either. It made no sense to me. Like Mac wanting to die to protect them all. Sigh. Why? I'm not sure I would have felt the same way, and that bothered me a little bit. I just failed to connect.

There are so many things about Willowgrove that I would talk about. But I won't. I just. I'm so sorry that I didn't love it more. I wanted to, but I couldn't. So I'm sorry to say that this is a two star book for me. But. I do think many others will love it. Honestly. I just had issues with it. So yeah. I do want you all to read this book :) So you should, when it comes out in January. Huge thank you to Katherine Tegen Books / HarperTeen for the auto-approval on Edelweiss that made me able to read and review this book early.

Goodreads. Pre-Order. Kathleen Peacock.

My review of Hemlock. My review of Thornhill.