First Shift by A.J. Skelly Pages: 323
Published by Wild Rose Press on January 1, 2021
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Source: eARC from Author
The Wolves of Rock Falls, Book 1
Sam Wolfe has been in love with Megan Carmichael for years. Too bad she's off-limits. She's human. He's not.
When an accidental slip of his teeth endangers Megan and his entire werewolf pack, it's up to Sam to find a solution. Unbeknownst to them, Sam's bite has thrust Megan into the crosshairs of a killer. Sam and Megan must work together to find the threat, protect the pack, and maybe fall in love.
But they better do it before the next full moon.
#sambitmeg #wolvesofrockfalls #ajskellywrites
First Shift is the first book in the The Wolves of Rock Falls series by author AJ Skelly. First shift felt like it could be a standalone story, so I am not sure if the next book will follow a new main character (s) or if it will still feature Sam and Meg, but either way I am interested in continuing on with this series. I enjoyed First shift. I had a few issues with finding the right target age group in my mind, which I will get into later, but overall I enjoyed the story.
In First Shift we meet our main character Sam, who is a werewolf, and Meg. Meg is a normal teenage girl, and also happens to be friends with Sam, when same accidentally (and I mean really accidentally) bites Meg, which turns her into a reluctant Werewolf. I hardly consider what Sam did a bite, so I really really felt for him. He so obviously felt completely awful about what he thrust upon Meg, but when you add in the fact that Sam has had a crush on Meg for forever, it added a whole different set of emotions on top of it all. I really liked Sam and Meg, and I liked their back and forth romance, but the romance was also what I struggled with when I was trying to place the best age group for this book in my head.
When I first started reading, Meg and Sam both seemed like young teenagers. Maybe even a little young feeling for their actual age, and they were struggling with crushes and identify, so I was putting this book on the younger YA spectrum, which is still where I believe it falls in terms of character development. But then as Meg and Sam progressed through their feelings, the romance in First Shift heated up quite a bit, which moved the book more into the upper YA age range. Which is totally fine, but if we are in the upper YA range, I typically like for a little more nuanced character development. Meg and Sam felt a little surface level with their feelings sometimes. Overall, I enjoyed them, but if the steam level is going to stay where it is, I am hoping to see a little bit of a deeper dive with the character in future books.
I think First Shift is going to be great for readers of young adult that are looking for a quick and easy read featuring werewolves and romance. If you are a fan of the fated mates trope, you may really enjoyed this fun romance. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.
Leave a Reply