Title: Black Rook (Cornerstone Run #1)
Author: Kelly Meade
Publisher: InterMix on July 15, 2014
Source: Library
Brynn Atwood is a low-level Magus whose unpredictable precognitive powers have made her an outcast among her people—and an embarrassment to her highly-regarded father. View Spoiler »
I have a complicated relationship with paranormal romance, mostly because of its close relationship to urban fantasy. UF is my favourite and I love everything about it, from the emphasis on character building to the emphasis on setting to the snappy dialogue. BUT. Sometimes I just want some romance, you know? One where I don’t need to wait like 9 books for my ship to get together. Sadly my impatience and love of love usually ends up resulting in some pretty cheesy stories. Was Black Rook one of them? Yes and no. Behold, the cheese and not-cheese elements!
Cheese:
1. Three brothers named Rook, Knight, and Bishop? And no one comments on the weirdness of that?! COME ON.
2. My least favourite werewolf trope (possibly the only thing I don’t like about them) is the insta-love that’s justified by the mate bond. Whatever, I know nothing about this woman but my wolf “perks up” whenever she draws near! It’s MEANT TO BE.
3. When Rook and Brynn finally do get together (this is PNR people, that ain’t a spoiler!) he starts getting fancy with his compliments. It’s pretty embarrassing. “You are the song of my heart” gets tossed around once or twice.
Not-cheese:
1. In Meade’s world, a werewolf’s position in their pack’s hierarchy is determined by the colour of their fur. Since Rook is a black wolf, he’s more powerful and of higher rank than his older brothers. There are also gray and white wolves, with whites being the most rare. They white wolves are gifted/cursed with extreme empathy and the ability to calm other wolves, and as such they’re highly coveted. White wolves are also the only ones able to mate with other supes, which is yet another burden they must bear.
2. The relationships between the three brothers, cheesy as their names may be, were very well developed. It was nice to see the layers between Rook and Bishop, and Bishop and Knight in particular.
Final thoughts:
I’d feel remiss in omitting the fact that there are some triggering events in Black Rook. There is a sexual assault that occurs, and while it isn’t graphic, it’s very clear that a character has been raped. Sadly it isn’t that uncommon for a main or secondary character to be raped in PNR and UF but despite the obviously disturbing content, I thought Meade handled it with much more sensitivity and subtlety than some other writers.
I honestly feel kind of weird giving this book such a bad rating. I just thought it was super “meh,” even below-average in some parts. It’s clear that the fallout from the sexual assault will be an extended story arc throughout the series and honestly I just don’t want to read about that. Everyone’s got their RAGE issue with books and rape is mine. I can only think of one series where it’s occurred that I’ve been able to keep reading, and that’s because I was already hooked by that point. If you’re looking for a light, clever, and swoon-worthy werewolf romance…you should probably look elsewhere.