I received this book for free from Inkitt in exchange for the possibility of my honest opinions/ review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. So, I had a few problems with this book - mainly because I enjoy a good backstory, and I like the details of a book to make sense and I'm big on continuity, which was lacking in a few places. (for example, in the beginning of the book the main character mentions several times how poor she was, including having to make her own, very limited amount of clothes, yet in a later scene she talked about how she was used to a home with nice things and decorations. If you are that poor, you aren't going to have a home with decorations).

I also struggled with the beginning scenes - this Running, for example, which sets up Blythe to meet her Mate. She's a complete, whiney, immature teenager who knows nothing of the real world. Getting picked for the Running is a complete shock to her, yet in several places the author explains that it was her turn to go - there's also a bit where the author explains that every family has to send someone to the Running each year. But yet, only ten women are picked to go the the Running. So there's only ten families in the whole world? Later on, it's explained that there are several other sites where the shift shapers live - so they have separate Runnings for each of their houses? Why wouldn't they just have one, if the human population hates the Shifters so much? There's just so many loopholes and things that aren't consistent and don't make any sense to anyone who thinks about the plot for even half a second (I could give many, many multiple examples but don't want to completely spoil the book).

So, the first half of the book was basically Blythe meeting the shifters and getting to know and accept her knew world. She cries on every page, whines 3 or 4 times a page, and is extremely annoying. Then she falls in love in half a second, stops crying on every page (now she cries every five pages) and all of a sudden, she starts to grow up. It's not a realistic character arc - she's not slowly growing as a person, her personality just changes. All in all, however, the first half is enjoyable, you just have to ignore some of the plot holes and the constant crying.

The shapeshifters are mostly written the exact same way - they have one side to them - violence. I get it - they are prisoners, don't get to see the sun, their life sucks - but they are all extremely one sided - as is Blythe herself.

In the second half of the book, most of the plot disappears, and you are left with Blythe having sex, cooking & baking, and abuse, and a lot of stilted conversations where nothing much happens.

So, with all of my complaining - why am I giving the book three stars? Because even with all of that, I did like the book. Blythe was so annoying, but the world building was very very interesting, especially if the world is developed more. There's a huge similar to the Running verses the Hunger Games, and I'd love to see the author take her own spin to this. There's a huge amount of room for more stories to be developed in this world.This review was originally posted on Rambling Reviews