"Wolves of the Rising Sun Volume 1: The Riveauxs" by Kenzie Cox was actually three short stories about wolf-shifter brothers Jace, Aiden and Luc finding their fated mates during mating season. Unlike some other reviewers, this reader did happen to read each section to the end; like some of the others, she still was not left wanting more or interested in following the Riveauxs or writer Kenzie Cox even after finishing the tales. The three novellas are based deep in the Louisiana bayou; setting descriptions were so clipped, this reader pulled up an episode of the History Channel's "Swamp People" to better visualize the area alluded to. There was also some spelling, grammar and punctuation issues, enough to irritate but not enough to toss this reader from the world. The plot for each story was simple to the extreme: man meets woman, man wants woman but woman - or man, in some cases - is unsure, man finally wins woman over. The biggest disappointment was the total lack of character development, leaving the characters little better than one dimensional people mentioned on a page. Physical attributes were disclosed somewhat, allowing this reader to kind of visualize an image that lacked all warmth, personality, and any reason to empathize for or with. Nothing that set one character apart from another, like "extras" in a "B" rated movie. Your eyes skim over them and you know they are there, but they don't truly resonate with you - like mannequins. The males were protective of their mates and growly if another male came near her... okay, that's sort of the norm for not only shifter males, but any book with an alpha or dominant male. None exhibited any personality, at all... and then we readers jump right into a sex scene - several, per story, which by all rights should have been sensual and hot because it was fairly well written, but wasn't - due to the lack of character development. This reader found herself rolling her eyes, huffing out a sigh and wondering when the tale would end. As short of a read as this book is, there is no way it should have taken this reader two days to read it. Sadly, each tale also seemed to this reader as if much was left unsaid, like perhaps the first chapter or two was missing from the very beginning... you know, the area where readers first learn a bit about some of the main characters and world building begins and the rules or laws of the world are hinted at. Each story felt that way because one more or less built off of the previous one in some way, either by starting at a scene where readers had left off but now with an entirely new point of view, or by a different character thinking back to a scene from the previous story - but now in their point of view. The entire book left this reader bored and completely disinterested in ever reading anything by this writer, again, and this reader truly loves paranormal romances and discovering new-to-her writers. But not this time; this reader cannot recommend this book. ** Review originally posted to Amazon reviews on June 24, 2017 and Goodreads on the same date. **
