Books4Tomorrow: REVIEW: "THE DRACULATA NEST" (A Red Wolf novel)

“THE DRACULATA NEST”

(A Red Wolf novel)

by John Hundley

REVIEWED BY: Books4Tomorrow

OVERVIEW

Clifford Crane has led a tough life - failed marriages, bankruptcy, drug addiction, and a mind-numbing dead-end job. But he's made it through, and now he's a few short years from retirement. He's looking forward to his golden years, until he meets an ancient Uwharrie Indian shaman, who turns him into a werewolf. She believes Clifford is the red wolf foretold in prophecy, the one who will unite the wolf packs and lead them to victory over the vampires for once and all time. Too bad she doesn't tell Clifford that before she dies. Now, rescuing beautiful young women from the clutches of the undead has its rewards, but will it pay the rent for the next thousand years?

The Draculata Nest is the first in a series of Red Wolf novels, depicting a world where vampires are mere generations away from realizing the goal for which they were originally created, the enslavement and destruction of mankind.
In book one, Clifford finds himself a lone wolf, still grieving the loss of Claire Deerfoot, the one who brought out the beast that lay dormant inside him most of his life. Without the pack bond that keeps a wolf sane, he struggles with his dual nature and the strange compulsions that urge him to prowl the night. When he rescues a beautiful young coed from a visiting vampire, one who is hunting illegally in the territory of the local nest, Clifford suddenly finds himself a target of revenge.

The visiting Draculata Nest still thirsts for the blood of young Danielle, and now they want to spill Clifford's blood as well. But an unlikely ally surfaces in Roland Trudeau, a high-ranking vampire in the local nest, whose welcome aid seems too good to be true. Clifford soon finds himself drawn into the middle of a vicious game of vampire politics, a game where losers die.

REVIEW

Admittedly, the premise had me hooked. Even though I’m not a huge fan of vampires and werewolves which have been overdone to the point of boredom and eye-rolling, this book sounded as though it could be something different. And indeed it was, but rather disappointingly so.

A few chapters into the book, it still hadn’t captured my interest enough to keep reading. The very first thing I found a little distasteful, is the sixty year old main lead lusting after two co-eds. It didn’t work for me and left a sour taste in my mouth. I also wasn’t too fond of Danielle’s character, as she came across as the stereotypical male fantasy - an airhead with a body to die for.

The story was different from anything I’ve ever read before and I have to give the author kudos for his imaginative writing and a few terrific plot twists, hence the three-star rating. But at times I found the writing too detailed with unnecessarily lengthy explanations which had me skimming over some of the pages to get to the final chapter.

This being the first book in the Red Wolf novels, I’m hoping that some of the main characters will be more fleshed out in the next books, as I found a few of them a little one-dimensional and underdeveloped. Overall the writing is good and the story is unique, but my personal recommendation is for this book to be downloaded only when it’s free.