I recieved this book through Librarything Menber Giveaway Program.

8 year old Rachel's mom disappears. A week later, Raul (Rachel's friend and classmate) comes to the house. He is scared and in a hurry to get to mom's computer. Soon after, a couple of large dogs break into the house & chase Raul and Rachel.
While on the run, Raul changes into a wolf. They are caught and this is where to adventure begins. These people who can turn into animals (they can speak while in animal form) call themselves Exotics. Rachel find that her mom is one. Most seem to be a form of dog. But there are also snakes, parrots, moles & other creatures.

I loved this story. It kept my attention. Perfect for an easy read in the evening. Or to give to your preteen to enjoy. The ending left me hanging on the edge, waiting impatiently to read Book 2. ( )

Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish this book. The story seemed very interesting and suspenseful, and I very much enjoyed where it seemed to be going, but the prose kept bringing me up short. In fairness, I'm a word snob, and this is probably not something that is going to be a hangup for most readers. I had the same sorts of problems with the Twilight books and they're best sellers. I was able to finish the Twilight books, however, and I just couldn't get into this one. I would say that it could use a bit more of the point of the story brought out in the beginning, so that the reader could know where they're going a little bit sooner and become hooked in a little bit better. Also, I'd say vary word usage a bit. If I look out at a back yard, I don't really want to know that it has grass and bushes "and stuff". I'd like to know what some of the other "stuff" is. I'd be interested to know how it's arranged. How dark is it outside? Are the other things nature things or are they things from the household? In other words, it didn't paint much of a picture for me, and I needed a little bit more imagery to see where I was going in the story.

I did think that the characterization was rather eye-catching, but because of the wording I felt like I was going to have a difficult time believing that the characters were going to have the ingenuity to overcome any significant obstacles. I do understand that it is probably a young adult book, but give young adults a little bit more credit. They're a lot smarter than we remember being at that age. ( )