Cover Image: My Date with a Wendigo

My Date with a Wendigo

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Member Reviews

I did love the development of the love story between the two main characters but I wasn't as into the whole story. I didn't feel like it worked.

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The description of this book did not lie, and I was not disapointed. It isn't a masterpiece by any means, and here and there were plot holes, or scenes that fell short. However it was a book to suspend disbelief (really suspend it) and to sit back and enjoy. Fun, romantic, and unique. Clever in its way. A good cast of secondaries, and made me intrigued to read more from the author.

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I don't know if this book is trying to be a parody of pnr and horror or and honest PNR romance. It was all over the place and the tone is so off at times. It was not a pleasant read at all and the writing really needed more time to be polished. Also the lack of actual shapeshifting of a creature like a Wendigo is greatly disappointing.

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Did not finish. The writing felt clumsy and it just didn't grab me at all. I made through about 20 pages before setting it aside and never picking it back up.

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So I wanted to read Olivia, the vampire novel but realized it was a crossover with characters from this book. This book was rough. I wanted to bail several times but thought it may get better. I didn't look at reviews beforehand... should have done so though. I am all for paranormal romances, but this one was a bit like some parody of a paranormal romance. Ridiculous humor is not for me. I hate to leave negative reviews, but I think perhaps this one had a very targeted audience. When you write in such a niche genre your audience pool is already pretty small, to then further limit the audience by writing humor (if it wasn't supposed to be absurd I apologize) that isn't for the majority within the niche makes it difficult. I am going to wait a bit, and then go ahead and read Olivia

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Not my kind of book or story. It was lacking in a lot of things. I just couldn't finish it because it lost my interest after 30%

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I genuinely hate giving books bad reviews. I couldnt finish this book, i really struggled to get through it. Some people may like it, but it fell flat for me. Sorry.

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My Date With a Wendigo centers around Elizabeth Rosseau and Abigail Lester. While they knew each other earlier in life and became close, Abigail up and disappears, leaving Elizabeth wondering what went wrong. Elizabeth is now a therapist and Abigail is, of all things, a wendigo attending meetings to help her not eat humans. I don't typically review F/F paranormal romance but this book sounded too unique to pass up.

The book starts out with Elizabeth "Liz". It's been six years since her best friend Abigail took off without warning. Liz clearly has some unresolved issues. She has the emotional IQ of a slug. While she tells herself she's an adult and a well-adjusted therapist, she has some questionable behaviors. Too many nights in bars and failed relationships has her reaching out to Abigail's old phone number hoping it's the same.  Abigail, as we find out, has a furry issue of her own. Thanks to a wilderness accident, she was turned into a wendigo. She's hiding out in a cabin in the woods, only coming to town to go to a diet support group for "fiends" aka monsters (monsters ≠ PC, ya know) whose conditions cause them to want to eat humans. 

The support group is actually pretty funny if you can imagine a wendigo, an incubus, a selkie, an anthropophage (I had to look that one up), a ghoul, and a vampire all sitting around talking about trying to not eat people. It's such a normal scene with such a weird twist that it's pretty humorous. Sometimes you fall off your diet and have guilt about it. In their case, you might just eat your significant other accidentally. The fiendish world that the author creates was really fun to get lost in for a while. There's the support group, but also the community center with its black market and art classes for vampires.

While the paranormal aspect of the book worked well for me, the relationship itself had some bumps. Liz seemed way too copacetic with finding out that Abby is a wendigo. Wendigoag (yes, that's apparently the correct plural) are not attractive things. Go ahead, if you don't know what one looks like, google it. I'll be waiting...Back? Yeah, they are gross and terrifying. Out of all the creatures that you could choose to want to have sexy time with a wendigo would not be in my top 100.  While it was a unique choice, Liz's vociferous acceptance was a little dubious. Be friends, sure! Hold hands, er, claws with? Not so much. Maybe it would be convincing if like a werewolf, she transformed only during some set time frame?

My Date with a Wendigo is a sweet, second chance romance at its furry little heart. It's meant to be light-hearted, and it is often laugh-out-loud funny, but it does read very young. While I would put this as NA, the explicitness of later was still a bit shocking in comparison to the age that Liz acts most of the time. There are quite a few logistics to work out when you decide to date a hairy cannibalistic fiend that I never had reason to consider and probably never will again. Recognizing the message of love and acceptance, at the base of this book is two people who were best friends and each wanted more without knowing how to tell the other that. Like any relationship, there are hurdles to get over. If you can overcome them together, the relationship is stronger for them, right? If one of you needs to be muzzled while you do so, well, every relationship has its problems.

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An interesting idea and I was looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately I couldn’t get into it. I didn’t connect with the characters and felt underwhelmed by the storyline. I’m sure it will appeal to many, but it didn’t grab me.

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I am sure there are paranormal /sci-fi readers that will enjoy this book. Although a fan of certain paranormal fiction myself, this book just didn't sit well with me. I couldn't connect, I couldn't sympathise with characters...

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1 star. This story is about Elizabeth Rosseau who was best friends with Abigail Lester, and they both confessed their feelings to each other. Abigail was in an accident and it turned her into a Wendigo. Elizabeth contacts Abigail hoping to hear back and when she does, they start talking. Abigail is nervous about meeting as she is a monster and unsure how Elizabeth will feel.

This book was terrible. It was poorly written and I could not even get through it. It was not a great concept and I really wish I did not read it. I did not like the concept of one of the characters being a monster and talking to the other one. I did not like anything about this book and thought it was a complete waste of time. I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction and still did not like this one.

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So I picked this on NetGalley because I'm a horror reader and I was in the mood for a romance. I was kind of expecting a balance between both genres but there is no horror in it; I'm not saying that is a bad thing, it wasn't, for me, but just in case you're looking for a paranormal romance with a bit of horror in it, this isn't it.

I believe this is a full feel-good little book. All characters are looking out for each other and the bad things that happen are accidents or light misunderstandings or just life being a bitch. In that sense it is quite comforting and might feel a little artificial if you don't believe that people can look beyond looks and love people for what they are (which I believe is the big message of the book).

What didn't work for me were the sex scenes. I get that Liz and Abby love each other very much but the furry monster (excuse me, fiend) sex just was really awkward for me.

Besides that, it's a happy book and an entertaining read.

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It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

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OMG....first I have to say I am not a paranormal fan. That being said I thought I would venture out beyond my comfort zone and try this one. Well....this did not improve my preference.
Here is my impression.
While I was reading I had visions of a half dozen 12yr olds having a sleepover and stating the game of the night was to write a story. That's my impression....a story written by 12 yr olds.
Since I'm not a paranormal fan, I didn't know what a wendigo was. So I googled it. Now I'm suppose to believe that this "fiend" is kissable, huggable and loveable. Naaaa, I don't think so.
The sex scenes were ....well....strange.
Aside from all that....the long drawn out dialog was really boring. For example the amount of pages revolving around the purchase of the wedding dress.
The ending was basically, the author stopped writing.
I was hoping that somewhere in the story there would be an atidote to change Abby back to human. Maybe eating a Vampire, Vegetables or a Mormon. But no, they live happily ever after as the odd couple.
Needless to say, I skimmed a lot and it still took me forever to finish.
As I said Im not a paranormal fan....but Im not sure paranormal fans will like it either.......unless they are 12.

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One of the most unusual books I read so far. I mean I love wearwolf or vampires, but wendigo is a first. I am used to changing forms, not constant body. Now I wonder how relationship with a real monster looking person you can have? The main characters are very likeable, even though there is huge difference between them, physically that is. Of course there is happy ending, which is really nice. The story itself is very good and writing is good. So if you are into wendigo, this book is for you.

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2.50 Stars. This was a bazar one and not really in the best of ways. I love paranormal and I’m always happy to see a new release paranormal lesfic book but this didn’t really work for me. This is a debut book for McCluer and I can see where the premise was going but it never really came together.

This is not a book to be taken seriously. It’s supposed to be a comedy and it also has a bubble gum pop-ish feel which is weird when one of the main characters eats humans. But you have to approach it light heartedly or you will never make it through. I get the lighter take on a scary paranormal being. I have read other paranormal books that were comedies and were fantastic, the problem here is the humor didn’t hold up and the tone of the book changed as it went on. If this would have been laugh out loud funny, like totally taken to a humor extreme, it could have worked much better.

As a huge paranormal fan I do know what a Wendigo is supposed to look like. Most have a huge heads with horns like a monster elk. Unless I missed it the horns were never mentioned and I could not picture someone with a deer face kissing a human. There are versions of these mythical beings without horns, but they normally don’t have fur and that snout which this Wendigo character seemed to have. I’m getting off track here but my point is I could not really picture in my head what this author had in mind for how her Wendigo looked. It just wasn’t described well enough. I only knew what to sort of picture since I’m familiar with this creature already, if someone wasn’t I think they might be a bit confused. I also thought there wasn’t enough background about this creature besides “eats humans”.

I did have some trouble with the writing style. Not sure what it was but I never felt really comfortable. I also had trouble telling who was speaking at times. Even though a new chapter would start with a name, after certain breaks it felt like the POV would change and I would have to stop, go back and figure out who for sure was speaking. The book just didn’t feel very tight. Hopefully with this being an ARC copy that might still change.

Lastly the romance was just really hard to believe. I love paranormal romances, give me a human and a werewolf or vamp anytime, but I struggled here. I do commend McCluer for using a supernatural being I have never read about in a romance story. I always appreciate different, but the reactions from the human character were just so unbelievable I could not completely look past it. Also there was way too much talk about how one can have sex with a human without eating/killing them. I felt like half the book was about this topic and it got old pretty quickly for me.

This book did not work for me, but I do really appreciate McCluer taking a chance on something different. Just for that fact alone I would give her another chance. I think with some more practicing of her craft, so she can tighten up her writing, I could enjoy one of her books much more.

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Many times throughout this book I debated on not actually finishing it. The story is odd and silly in a way that just felt uncomfortable. Most of the characters were too ready to accept things at face value in an instant. I didn't honestly enjoy any of the characters at all, main or supporting cast. The story was a little too out there for my taste and didn't really have much support for me to really feel interested in where it was going at all and certain themes or thoughts the characters had were really repetitive.

The ending was extremely bland. The author added one or two chapters too many and left the story off at a really uninspired moment.

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Sorry to say that this story has seemed absurd and silly. I am not very knowledgeable about the underworld of wendigoag (I've paid attention), incubus, anthropophagus and other infernal creatures, but what has been described here has been inconsistent and less interesting. The story of Aby's conversion is truculent and unpleasant at least. And Liz's obsession once she finds Aby, incredible. Because it may sound politically incorrect but there has been no way to imagine the two together in any position. And besides, the author has not known how to end such an absurd story, so she has done it poorly, lengthening it meaninglessly and then finishing it also meaninglessly.
I hope that someone interested in stories of paranormal worlds will find something positive, but I doubt it.

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I don't even know what to say about this book. I think it's the most awkward and weird book I've read.
Elizabeth Rosseau and Abigail Lester are friends since childhood. After confessing his love for the other Abigail disappears for six years without a trace. Elizabeth manages to contact Abigail and finds out that her love of her life has become a wendigo. There begins a romance that in my opinion was cringy to read.
There was a moment in the book where the whole plot of the story had already happened and it was extended 50 pages of boring content without any reason whatsoever
2.5 stars
thanks to netgalley and Bold Strokes books for the advance copy

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So this one was very much not what I was expecting - and there were parts of the book that made me feel uncomfortable. It is too bad though, because there are some fun parts that were pretty good, and felt more romantic comedy like than a pseudo horror comedy. I liked the idea of a monster support group - they prefer to be called 'fiends' - for monsters who don't want to harm humans. It provides an easy way to introduce Abigail's friend group, who are a fun bunch of people. But it also riffs on 12 step programs that treat addiction. The monsters use humans for food - it's in their physiology -Abigail's Wendigo nature makes it impossible to feel satiated from anything but humans. This isn't an addiction, so treating it as such feels, off somehow.

The story feels mostly like a romantic comedy because of its light handling of the individual fiends, and it basically has its own happy ending with the lead characters getting married. There are some darker tones, here though, with Elizabeth's mental health being very fragile, to Abigail being a Wendigo. Wendigo's are not nice depending on who is telling the lore, it can be a literal embodiment of guilt caused by consuming human meat, or it is a metaphor. You don't become a Wendigo by means one becomes any other monster - you become one by via cannibalism. Abigail's story of her turning was both heartbreaking and grim, and it did feel a little out of place from the lighter tone of most of the book.

I don't want to get too bogged down with my criticisms, but I do have to say that it is really tough having a Wendigo that doesn't shape-shift (some legends do have them do it, perhaps confusing them with Skinwalkers, another Native) as a lead romantic interest is hard. Abigail does mimicry a little bit, and some of the little details about her voice sounding just off to Elizabeth (while she is in denial over the news that her great love is a monster from Native myth) was a nice, chilling touch. Some legends outside Algonquin tribes tell that Wendigo's are mimics. They lure their prey into the forest by mimicking their last victim's voices. It was also nice that it was set in the Western suburbs of Toronto, because many First Nations Tribes are the originators of the Wendigo stories.

If anything, it was just mostly a disappointment because of some of the problems with tone. It will not be what people expect, and many will find it lacking.

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