Hemlock (Hemlock #1) by Kathleen Peacock: review

Goodreads rating: 4.13

Hardcover, 416 pages

Published May 8th 2012 by Katherine Tegen Books

Series: Hemlock #1

Source: Bought

Mackenzie and Amy were best friends.

Since then, Mac's life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac's hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy's killer:

A white werewolf.

Lupine syndrome--also known as the werewolf virus--is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.

Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy's murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy's boy-friend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.

Kathleen Peacock's thrilling novel is the first in the Hemlock trilogy, a spell-binding urban fantasy series filled with provocative questions about prejudice, trust, lies, and love.

I guess I'll start off this review by saying that this book is about werewolves. And I only say that because I know some people are beyond over werewolf and vampire books, so if you don't want to read a book about werewolves, then maybe you should just hold off on this one until you're ready to read about them again. But the only werewolf books I've really read are Twilight and the Dark Divine series, and so I enjoyed this book. The best friend haunting her dreams thing was interesting, and really created a lot of mystery. There were a lot of things that the dream version of Amy somehow knew the gist of, but couldn't say the whole thing since she was a figment of Mac's imagination. Amy's boyfriend, Jason, has been falling into disrepair for a while. But it gets worse when he decides to join this anti-werewolf group. Because it was a werewolf that killed Amy. Or was it? That's what Mac, and now Kyle her best friend since forever, is trying to find out. But this anti-werewolf organization is more powerful than anyone could have imagined.

There really was no love triangle here, even though they make it seem that way. Jason and Mac are both still grieving for Amy, but then Jason decides to be in the anti-werewolf group and Mac can't trust him anymore. So that leaves Kyle. He's always been there for Mac, even though they began to grow apart because she was always hanging out with Amy. And he's always felt something more for her. But he has his own deadly secret, and he'll do anything to keep Mac safe. Mac can't help falling in love with him. I did love the brief romantic scenes between them, but that ending!!!! Kyle is too self-sacrificing! And I hope that nothing ends up happening with Jason to make it a real love triangle. Yeah, it turns out Jason isn't all bad, but I'm still not sure of his motives.

I enjoyed this book better than I thought I would, to be honest. After Twilight, while I haven't tried to avoid werewolf books, I've been wary of them. But this book was full of mystery and heartbreak and I found myself really enjoying the characters. Even the minor ones. There was definitely good depth to the secondary characters, and I felt myself connecting with the main character. And I definitely fell in love with Kyle. That's why I hope Mac doesn't start to fall for Jason. If you're into werewolf books, then this is definitely for you. And like I said, it has a great story and a great romance, so I recommend it.