Book Review: 13 to Life

TITLE: 13 to Life
Book 1 in the 13 to Life series
AUTHOR: Shannon Delaney
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: young adult
GENRE: werewolves, mystery, romance, urban fantasy
PREMISE: When Pietr comes into town he messes up Jessie's quiet life.
MY REVIEW: Okay admitedly I had low expectations for this series. While it did now blow me away, I was a lot more impressed then I thought I would be. The thing that hindered the book for me was the teen drama/romantic shenanigans. Seriously, I'm beginning to think YA authors should just cut out romances entirely now because lately all the books I've read have had their quality lowered by the insiped romance.
But when this book did not focus on the yawn worthy teen drama it knocked it out of the park. I was intrigued by the mythology, I dug the character stuff, even while the romance bored me to tears I did sort of find myself liking the main couple, and the writing was actually kind of good. The only thing that bothered me, other then the insepid romance was the Jessie/Sarah thing. That made NO SENSE whatsoever. You seriously expect me to believe someone is going to try and be your best friend after you've been a bitch to them before and you KILLED THEIR MOTHER? No one is that much of a good person. Also I'm sorry, but why the hell isn't Sarah in jail?! I don't care how old you are or if the family forgives you, you kill someone in a accident you do time. It's a little thing called involuntary manslaughter and yes, teens can be convicted of it I believe or at the very least get sent to Juvie. That whole scenario made no sense whatsoever.
Other then those issues I dug this book a lot more then I thought I would. Will definitely be picking up the next two books in the series. I just hope there's more focus on plot and less on teen drama in the coming books.
WHO SHOULD READ: werewolf fans, Twilight fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five russian dolls