By: Amanda Hocking
ISBN: 978-1453816981
Self-published August 22, 2010 through Lulu
Available Format: Paperback, ebook
My Rating: ★★★★☆
Wisdom is the fourth book of Amanda Hocking’s My Blood Approves series. As the title implies, Alice seems to be growing up a bit and coming into her own wisdom. Alice and Milo take a trip to visit Mae and Peter in their new Australia home where they are living with Mae’s recently turned five-year-old granddaughter. To say the least, Mae is a complete wreck at this point, and poor Peter is just trying to hold things together. When tragic news reaches Alice, she and Milo are forced to return to the States. In the midst of all this, Alice starts to realize what being a vampire, being immortal, really means for her.
As Alice starts to become a young woman, Hocking’s series takes on a deeper, more serious tone. Alice starts trying to look toward the future, make some sense of things, and make difficult choices that show a new level of maturity. In this installation, more than ever, I start to feel maybe Alice is going to outgrow Jack, whose maturity level essentially stays the same throughout. I am indeed, to the end, shamelessly on Peter’s team!
Bobby, Milo’s human love interest, quickly becomes one of my new favorite characters. I still love Milo, but the dynamic that grows between Alice and Bobby is so relatable and comforting. He turns out to be just incredibly likeable!
Daisy, Mae’s granddaughter, honestly scared the stuff out of me! She reminded me of those demon possessed children in horror/suspense movies that I DO NOT watch for the simple fact that they have freaky demon kids in them! I have kids, and I love them. I can see how Mae would be compelled to try to save the little girl’s life, but I was immediately ready for someone to rip that kid’s head off and be done with her. Yikes! The evolution of Mae’s character through this subplot really turned me off. Mae was so wonderful at the beginning of the series—warm and motherly. I was terribly sorry to lose my high opinion of her in the last two books.
There seemed to be a lot more content to this story. It was on a bit of a different level than the previous books, and I appreciated that. Now I am looking forward to the fifth and I believe final in the series, Swear, which should be published later this year.
