(Mis)fortune by Melissa Haag

Pages: 358

Series: Judgement of the Six, Book 2

Genres: Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Shapeshifter, Supernatural

Publication Date: April 29, 2013

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Michelle, another woman with unexplainable gifts, finds herself surrounded by werewolf society. Kept prisoner for years by the predictions that torture her, she meekly follows orders not knowing if she’ll ever be able to run. When her stepfather dies, Michelle takes the opportunity to run. But she needs to find a safe place – somewhere someone will listen to her predictions and not use them against her. It also needs to be somewhere safe, with someone just like her captor to protect her from him.

Part of the fur wearing faction wants to use her, and another part strives to keep her safe. Will Michelle discover enough to keep those she loves safe from the emerging evil?

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I felt a blush creep into my face as I stared into the room. My stomach dropped. The king sized bed with a white feather down comforter dominated the room. Two towels folded into the shape of swans facing each other to form a heart with their heads and necks sat on the bed. A black, white, and brown abstract painting hang on the wall above the bed. To the left, long black and brown patterned curtains dominated the wall.
This was the room from the vision…
(Mis)fortune, Chapter 15

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Michelle is quite the interesting character to be in the mind of. Her predictions have always been her weakness, but at least she knew what to expect with them. Yet when even that changed for her, it’s easy to see that she didn’t know what to think about what was going on around her. On top of that, knowing that she’s got others to protects makes her a more serious main character than Gabby. Hard to believe if you’ve read Gabby’s tale (the first book in the series), but true nonetheless.

I also really enjoyed the romance within this story. Michelle’s already gone through a crazy amount in her short lifetime, so it’s great to see her come out of her shell and fall in love. She manages to find a fantastic mate – someone who’s willing to protect her from the craziness of her own life, who cherishes her for herself, not what she can do for him.

As much as I adore reading about the Compound that’s the werewolf home base, it’s also great to read about them expanding. For too many years they’d been on the edges of society and slowly dwindling in numbers. Now, finally, they’re starting to increase in number enough to need a second base to call their home. To know that Michelle – one of the compatible females – is part of the motivation to get this second base of operations ready was great to see.

If you’re looking for a cute and mostly lighthearted romance read, and don’t mind a fascinating werewolf spin to it, you might enjoy this story. Each of these novels tell the story of a different couple throughout the overarching storyline tying the tales together. Each story has its own twists and supernatural elements to make the story unique and eye catching. I, for one, love it.

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*Spoilers ahead*

In complete contrast to Gabby denying Clay’s importance in her life, Michelle quickly welcomes Emmitt’s support and comforting presence in hers. She trusts him right off the bat (though that can at least partially be attributed to the bond pull), allowing him to take her and her brothers to his safe haven. Having been controlled by men for years before that point, it’s a huge thing for Michelle to trust Emmitt so quickly. Yes, she was still hesitant to put her full trust in him, but to be able to place any trust in him was huge for her.

Though it is true that Emmitt almost lost Michelle’s trust when he showed her that he – and his family – were werewolves like the men that had been controlling her life before her escape… He had his reasons for telling her the truth, but it was still a very risky play for him to make. If I was in his situation, I probably would have handled it more like Jim would – wait until she was fully engrained into her new life and didn’t have a desire to leave.

Luckily, things worked out in the end. Emmitt regained Michelle’s trust by being the safe haven she needed – and protecting her from the very men that had ruined her life up to that point. He proved time and time again that he would do whatever it took to keep her and her brothers safe. He constructed a home for them to live in – Michelle and her brothers, though he had no qualms about joining if Michelle were okay with it – before she’d even consciously decided to stay. He proved time and time again that he cared about her and what she had to say.

Of course, they went through a lot of hardships to get to the point that Michelle wanted to marry Emmitt. Michelle had to overcome her fears of the outside world and the shapeshifters that Blake and his cronies proved to be. Emmitt had to learn not to push Michelle too far too fast, even if he wanted to jump straight into forever.

I’m thrilled for Aden and Liam that they’ve got a real father figure in their lives. Sure their birth father was alive until the start of the novel, but he wasn’t really a father to them. And Michelle was their mother figure for so long – her mother having given up her life fighting to keep Michelle’s rights her own – that it just makes sense for the person she ends up being with to be their father. Jim can remain the fun uncle – it’s definitely a role that suits him better.

I’m also happy that David set up Michelle with a safety net in the smallest of chances that she managed to escape Blake. (Luckily she met up with Emmitt and was able to get away!) Thanks to the money he’d made off of Michelle’s premonitions he was able to put aside a nest egg for Michelle in the case that he died. With the nest egg not only was she able to secure a future for Aden and Liam, but she was also able to secure a future for the werewolves.

It’s been a couple of months since I read (Mis)fortune at this point, and I can’t wait to jump back into this world with (Un)wise. This will definitely be a book I reread in the near future.

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