H. L. Wampler

This book was given to me by the author through the Making Connections ARR group for an honest review, thank you.

The Last Grimm: Red’s Hood is the story of Abigail Grimm who is a direct descendant of the Brothers Grimm and the last surviving Grimm. She is the only one who can read the monstrous fairytale creatures that have been brought to our world by the Evil Queen, back into their own world. This is also a story of romance between Abigail and Connor Guy as he helps Abigail in her goal to read the creatures back into the books.



Positives :

The story is nicely descriptive without going into excessive flowery detail.

Once the pace stepped up after page forty the story grew more interesting.

If you’re looking for a simple romance story this is it. I wouldn’t necessarily classify it heavy on the supernatural. The fairy tale part is more of a background to the romance between Abigail and Cole.

The Last Grimm is a very fast read. I don’t normally finish a book in a day but I did with this one.

This story is low on the angst meter. It has some gory bits, but I didn’t find them all that stressful and I have a low tolerance for angst and gore.


Negatives :

There were quite a few grammatical errors.

I’m not a fan of instant love and this story had both Abigail and Connor in instant lust with each other. Shortly after the second date they were in love. Way too fast for me.

The story was slow starting and the action didn’t pick up until after page forty.

Abigail was difficult to relate to for the first forty pages because of the lack of action. The author conveyed Abigail’s quiet demeanor, but Abigail’s behavior quickly changed once things started to happen. I didn’t see a gradual development of a personality, but an instantaneous change that was a bit hard to believe. But Abby’s personality was more interesting and easier to relate to once the change happened.

Whenever Abby was angry at Connor for something he did, she would soon forgive him if he kissed her or held her. Connor also didn’t respect Abby’s anger. He dismissed the anger and mentioned that Abby shouldn’t be angry at all. Abby gave in too easy and the lack of respect for Abby’s emotions on issues by Connor bothered me.

Connor was less detailed in personality. I would have liked to have read a stronger personality for Connor considering who he was and what he did. He was mostly referred to as a gorgeous man throughout the story.

Considering that Abigail would likely need to defend herself against the wolves, she wasn’t given any training on how to use an axe until the very day of the fight which was rather unbelievable.

I was disappointed that there weren’t many serious supernatural, paranormal events going on in this story. I was hoping for something a little more ‘Buffy-like.’ As I said in the ‘Positives’ section, for those who like YA romance, this book focused much more on the romance rather than the fairy tale mentioned in the book blurb.

The Last Grimm is an easy fast read once you get past page forty. It’s more of a YA romance novel than a supernatural story. The supernatural stuff takes a back seat to the romance between Abby and Connor. I wouldn’t say this story is outstanding, but it was a fun, quick read. I’d probably read the next books just to see if there are any more paranormal things happening, although I know that the paranormal events aren’t likely to be the main focus of this series. At least they haven’t been so far, since many details have been glossed over when delving into Abby being a Grimm and what that entails. I give this story 3 stars.


… (mere)

Abigail Grimm, the heroine of this novel by H. L. (Heather) Wampler, doesn’t even discover she’s a descendent of the famous Brothers Grimm until the middle of Chapter 10, when she first reads a letter from the father she never knew—and won’t know again until the end of the story. At the same time, she learns from Connor Guy (our male protagonist and an “immaculate specimen of a man”) that she’s the last of the Grimm line—“the guardian of the fairytale world”—and is responsible for keeping “peace and balance” between the real world and the world of fairytales by “reading beings into and out of stories.” Unfortunately, however, Abigail soon learns that Connor and Abigail’s own “emotionless pit” of a mother are in league to have Abigail be the champion of this world-saving cause. Both her patience and her first blush of infatuation quickly run pale.

When Abigail next finds out that Connor is also from the fairytale world (and is, namely, the last of a line of huntsmen in Little Red Riding Hood—just as Abigail is the most current descendent in the line of Grimms), she doesn’t know whether it’s the whole world that’s gone crazy, or just she herself.

Soon enough, the anonymously-sent gift of an enchanted red cloak sets Connor and Abigail on their dangerous mission—she as “bait” for the wolves; he as huntsman to do what huntsmen always do with big bad wolves: namely, shoot them. Connor suspects the cloak is not really the gift of an anonymous gift-giver at all, but rather a trap laid by what he calls “the Great Evil.” The plan our two protagonists conceive, in any case, is that Connor will kill the wolves and Abigail will send them back into the story. (Little spoiler: Abigail has a surprise or two in store for both Connor and you, dear reader.)

Even huntsmen, however, can be either wolfish or tiger-like themselves. And so, it isn’t long before the “wolf” named ‘Connor’ has the “little red riding hood” named ‘Abigail’ in his claws and fangs for a deliriously happy romp through the woods of his twenty-third penthouse apartment. (So much for modern-day fairytales!)

All right. Enough spoilers.

Well, except one (in Chapter 38 of a forty-chapter book)—which I felt was too good to hold back.

“Red,” he growled.

“My, what a deep voice you have,” I said.

“All the better to greet you with, my dear,” the wolf growled while circling me.

His golden eyes were trained on me, "My, what big eyes you have.”

“All the better to see you with, my dear," said the wolf.

His big paws sunk deep into the snow as he circled around me again, "My, what big paws you have!"
"All the better to hug you with," said the wolf.

He snarled and snapped at my face, "My, what a big mouth you have."

"All the better to eat you with!" growled the wolf while lunging at me, “I told you, silly girl, that nobody can stop me.”

The conceit of Ms. Wampler’s approach is an interesting one—namely, that characters from a fairytale can actually come and go between a world created by wordsmiths (in this case, the Brothers Grimm) and one inhabited by actual human beings. Once you, as a reader, are able to suspend disbelief long enough to accept this newer reality, you’ll be able to relish the enchantment of Heather’s story.

If I have one criticism of Ms. Wampler’s novel, it would lie with the dialogue. With the exception of Abigail’s mother (who in fact says very little), all of the principal characters in the story are somewhere between 18 and 21 years of age. The 18-21-year-olds I’ve known over the years have a somewhat more expansive vocabulary. At the same time, they indulge in a lot less slang and are not nearly so ‘potty-mouthed’ as Ms. Wampler’s characters. I dunno; maybe it’s just me being an old fuddy-duddy.

Oh, and the word ‘amazing.’ I thought if I read it one more time in connection with Connor’s eyes or biceps or hair, I was going to make myself a little Connor-doll and stick pins in it. (At least Heather's choice of word wasn’t ‘awesome.’) Now, that would truly be an amazing experience!

“Unbelievable,” he sighed (Chapter 40). Well, I think you can believe it all you want for the space of a couple of hours.

RRB
August 22, 2012
… (mere)

Note: I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

The concept of the story was very interesting and was the thing that intrigued me most to want to read the book. The structure with the extremely short styled chapters was weird for reading and the writing style itself was choppy. With some fixes to editing issues and maybe a better look at central dialogue themes this book would translate better to a reader.

The character of Abigail was not very strong and she seemed kind of annoying throughout the whole thing. she wasn't whiny but there was just something about her that was off putting. Connor seemed like the typical romance guy hero but without a lot more depth than that. The romance aspect didn't seem very convincing. Connor and Abigail just didn't really seem to connect and it was just to easy. The relationship seemed childish and not very well developed. Also for being a best friend who knew Abigail so well, Anna seemed very selfish and easy to infuriate.

Also on http://lrjohnson13.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-last-grimm-reds-hood-by-hl-wampler.h...… (mere)