Werewolf Sings the Blues by Jennifer Harlow

  Werewolf Sings the Blues is the second book in Jennifer Harlow’s Midnight Magic Mystery, though the events in the book actually take place before the first book in the series (What’s a Witch to Do?).  Between the two, I liked the witch book a bit more than this one. 

One reason why I had trouble connecting to this story was the main character, Vivian.  I don’t believe one has to necessarily like a character to like the story. (Gone Girl is an example where the main characters are totally unlikeable yet the story is totally compelling).  Still, if the characters don’t grab the reader, then there has to be something else to pull the reader in (again see Gone Girl).  Here, Vivian quickly grew tiresome and there wasn’t much else to grab my attention, which is probably why it took me so long to read this fairly short book.

Vivian wasn’t all bad but her bad girl antics started to feel like listening to a broken record after awhile.  The excuse for her behavior is her sad childhood.  Her father abandoned her and her mother when she was a baby (or so she was told) and her mother and stepfather all but ignored her, especially after her sister Jessie was born.  Vivian was literally the redheaded stepchild.  Like unhappy children do, Vivian rebelled, with drugs, alcohol, and minor skirmishes with the law, which of course only made her relationship with her mother and stepfather worse.  As an adult, Vivian is still struggling.  Her thirtieth birthday days way, Vivian gets some startling news: Werewolves exist.  Her father Frank is not only a werewolf, but the pack leader.  The werewolves are at war, and she, as the daughter of the pack leader, is in danger.  Enter handsome, muscular, blond guy, otherwise known as Jason, to the rescue.  Jason has his own daddy issues, and frankly they are much more serious than Vivian’s issues.  Yet, Jason is a fairly decent guy.  Vivian, in contrast and to use Jason’s words, is a wrecking ball.  She recognizes that her behavior is destructive but does it anyway.  I get it, she has low self-esteem.  I sympathize but her destructive behavior and general negativity got old pretty quickly.

I might have gotten past Vivian if there was an actual mystery here, this is part of the Midnight Magic Mystery series after all, but there isn't one.  Jason immediately explains the reason why Vivian is in danger.  Most of the book is about how (not if, because this is that kind of book) Jason and Vivian will make it to safety and how long it will take them till they realize they are in love with each other and they live happily ever after.  There is a question of who the traitor inside Frank’s pack is but even that isn't much of a mystery (let's just say it's the mean guy), and anyway this question doesn't really surface till late in the book and no one spends all that much time trying to figure it out.  If there had been a more of a mystery I think I would have liked this more.  Overall, this was okay but I would recommend What’s a Witch do Do? over this.