Review: Uncontrollable

Author: S.R. Johannes
Pages: 300
Publisher: Coleman & Stott
Source: Review copy (Thank you!)
Sequel to: Untraceable (The Nature of Grace #1)
Synopsis: As Grace recovers from tragedy, her science class is chosen by Agent Sweeney at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to help with research on the new "Red Wolf Reintroduction Program". 

While she’s excited about helping with the conservation of the endangered wolves, Grace knows this means being outdoors in the worst winter recorded, in a place she no longer feels comfortable. It also means working closely with Wyn (her ex) and his annoying girlfriend (Skyler), a girl whose idea of getting close to nature is picking silk plants and growing fake plants. 

After a couple of wolves show up dead, Grace almost quits. However, when a fellow project team member goes missing, Grace continues the assignment under a renewed suspicion that someone might be sabotaging the conservation program. She quietly begins to hunt for clues. 

Little does she know, she is being hunted too. 

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Untraceable took me two weeks to read. Uncontrollable was finished in less than a day. Since I knew what to expect in this series everything in the sequel flowed very well and I liked the story even more.

The thing I was so impressed with was how everything was not tidy. Asheville was shaken by the events at the end of Untraceable and there was grief and anger. Grace did what she thought was right and there were severe consequences for her decisions. Seeing the hurt she caused others, the pain she kept within herself, and everyone's struggles to let go and move on gave this book some real depth. There were two scenes in particular that stood out for me; one with Skyler, one with Tommy.

Grace herself grew into a character that I liked a lot. She's been through a lot by now and it's obviously she's crumbling at times. She isn't broken. Grace has this incredible fighting spirit. She's someone that just plain cares about the world and although she still does have a tendency to make completely irrational, impulsive decisions it's more endearing now that she sometimes thinks her plans through.

I enjoyed the side characters a lot. I said this story has great depth- the side characters helped with that. Although Uncontrollable is another mystery, it's also the story of people trying to heal. I loved some of the quirky characters like Birdee. One thing I didn't like was the love triangle. I feel like someone might get hurt and the would make me sad because I liked both love interests.

I also developed a real appreciation for nature. I'm a city girl but I've always been fascinated by forests and conservation. There's a pretty big national park near where I live and I even saw a black bear there once so I could easily picture what Grace was seeing. I love that Johannes is using her books to inform people about animals like red wolves. I know a lot of people would care about these types of issues but there isn't enough coverage for the average person to hear about unless they specifically went looking for it.

Overall, I enjoyed Uncontrollable a lot. Although I ended up guessing who the villain was beforehand, I liked the direction of the story. This book felt much more compact and action packed than it's predecessor. It kept me into the story and I'm excited to read more! 4 stars,

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