Review: Caged by Amber Lynn Natusch

Caged by Amber Lynn Natusch
Series: Caged #1
Published by Indie
Published on: December 15, 2011
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Werewolves
Pages: 335
Format: eBook
Source: Author

Amazon | GoodReads

"I stood in the middle of the room, unmoving – I barely breathed. My life had just become surreal, impossible, and one enormous lie. I needed to go, to run somewhere, anywhere to beat back the reality that was rapidly closing in around me. The image of him was burned into my retina, flashing over and over again like a warning. He was trapped somewhere between human and decidedly not, and I realized that was my new reality.
I was too."

After the death of her parents, Ruby awakens from a lifetime of shadows and finds herself alone, thrust into a world of lies, deceit, betrayal and the supernatural.
As her quest for truth continues to come up short, she realizes that maybe some questions really are best left unanswered.
When her true identity is finally unveiled, she is forced to choose between two of the mysterious men who continually seem to crop up in her life.
She chooses poorly.
Now abandoned, Ruby must learn to call on the darkness within to survive, or spend a hellish eternity imprisoned because of it.

(Content Advisory: language, mild violence)

This book starts off slowly but by the end it absolutely howls with excellence! Caged is very much plot driven and when paired with Ruby’s outstanding voice this story quickly becomes next to impossible to put down. Natusch’s descriptions are spellbinding without putting even the smallest damper on the endless action. This novel is hilariously funny, well edited and even introduces a new breed of werewolves. Talk about bang for your buck! Caged has many pros and very little cons; what’s even more surprising is that this is Amber’s indie debut.

The story starts off rather slow and I found myself re-reading the blurb to figure out if I accidentally agreed to review a *gasps* non-paranormal book. However, once the story started to reveal itself I quickly realized that the beginning wasn’t slow at all. Amber was actually putting the building blocks in place for a killer story. Knowing what I know now, the opening chapters of this tale make a whole lot more sense. The plot line comes full circle beautifully and no stone is left unturned. I loved watching everything come together seamlessly. You definitely have to stick this one out until the end in order to be able to fully appreciate the depth of this story.

Ruby’s voice is very compelling from the get-go and becomes even more so as the book progresses. I found her way of dealing with the new found truth that is her life very realistic. I also thoroughly enjoyed the sarcastic way in which she keeps “score” when faced with challenging situations. One of my favorite parts of this story happens when Ruby escapes from the compound and is confronted by her foes in a clearing. She adopts a fierce attitude of “I might be going down but I am going to take as many of you with me as possible”.

At first, the bad guys are cleverly disguised as allies and I found this approach both original and intriguing. I can usually pick out the enemies pretty early on in a book so I really enjoyed the fact that Amber challenges her readers with her out of the box way of thinking. I couldn’t figure out whom to trust which made the book even more addictive because I didn’t want to stop reading! The mystery surrounding Sean was a lot of fun to unravel as well. He’s definitely not who he appears to be and the cliff hanger ending only further adds to the enigma.

Caged is a Trojan horse in disguise; it might be an indie publication but rest assured, you’re in for a wild ride. With a riveting narrative and a story line that just doesn’t quit; this book is a must read for any and all paranormal fiction junkies.

Caged Series
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