Photo Credits: Kaidi Guo
Edited by Vaishali
Title: ‘When It Will Rayne, It Will Pour'
Author: S.C. McCormack Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Drama, New Adult, Romance Year of Publication: 2018 Version: PDF - Copy kindly provided by the author Review
“I might bend, but I won’t break.”
‘I savoured the illusion of freedom as my mind focussed solely on the run.’
'When It Will Rayne, It Will Pour’ by S.C. McCormack is a fast-paced, anticipatory adventure, heavy with romance and thrill.
Rayne Slater is a strong-of-the-mind, strong-willed, independent bounty hunter and PI with a lonesome past that has never let her go. With a nebulous past that slowly makes itself known through nuggets of anticipatory recalls, Rayne lives her life in South Dakota with solitary secrets spying over her shoulders.
‘The truth hurt, and it was only going to get worse.’
One stormy night Rayne’s cold, conditioned life is interrupted and threatened by three brutish shifters, offering her a considerable fee in exchange for a job. They want to exploit Rayne’s particular skill set to spy on and kidnap their target: Reese Donovan . Living with recent loss, Reese currently resides with his uncle Vic and his ‘pride’ , a pack of shifters nestled in the remote hills of Featherstone – where Rayne’s next mission lies…apparently.
“Don’t fear me, love,” he whispered so low I knew I was the only one who’d heard him.’
With a designated week to bring news of Vic’s territory and secure her hostage, Rayne leaves her home for Colorado, ready to do her unfeeling job as resourcefully as she can. Knowing she will be propelled back into the shifter world does nothing to conciliate her though. This job not only touches on Rayne’s worst recollections, it combes through the constant memories of her shifter riddled-past - a past life that struggles to remain in the past.
“You have no idea who you’re up against.”
“People have told me that so many times, I don’t fear the threat anymore,”
Scheming her way into Reese’s inner circle, Rayne has to stride carefully around her new companions who can scent deception with transparency. Rayne isn’t entirely human though, with tricks up her own sleeve she isn’t easily assailable, and with a thick skin, a survivor’s instinct and a fighter’s heart Rayne can’t let anything or anyone threaten what she has spent years avoiding and building up.
“You have me to help you, you don’t have to do it alone,”
Upon their first encounter, Reese’s possessive instinct can barely be suppressed, even though suspicion underlies the tension. While Rayne fights her nature with everything she can, using her past as a battering ram to battle her present and shield her vulnerability, Reese is adamant, not letting deceit, lies, or anything else get in the way of what he wants and what he claims to be his.
“You can fight, love, but you’re fighting a losing battle,”
While Rayne is determined to be anything but emotionally invested in the situation she finds herself in, Reese is determined to not lose another person who could potentially come to mean something to him. Rayne’s lone life is at risk, and humouring the idea of it hypothetically being placed on a back-burner is something Rayne’s stubborn backbone wants to circumvent, at any cost.
“I think they’re right about you, Rayne, you know exactly what to say to bring a man to his knees,” laughed Sam.
Or maybe you’re just easily fooled,” I hinted, but made it sound like a joke.’
With a fever pulling at their insides, Rayne comes for feel guilty for her choices and soon finds herself taking chance for the pride while chancing her life in the process, and for all her blunders Rayne always tries to remedy them. Rayne is certain that she will bring nothing but her past’s consequences to Reese’s life, and hiding her beast amid herself for years, Rayne will be damned if Reese jeopardises her life’s flow, one that she is still finding.
I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.’
I enjoyed this paranormal take on shifters, and while the premise of‘When It Will Rayne, It Will Pour’ has promise, I felt that the story could have been implemented in more rewarding and thorough way, perhaps by broadening the scope of the story, providing more details of shifter dynamic in general, lacing up the second half of the book in a more secure, direct way, and deepening the relationship between the two main leads which felt underdeveloped and not fully fleshed out. I absolutely loved Mason’s character! I found myself hoping that the author would find a way to slyly integrate him into the story again because his character was one of the best parts about this story for me, along with Meko, who seemed to be a far more interesting antagonist than Damian.
“You brought happiness back to my life, my little warrior. I thought I’d saved you that day, but I’ve come to realise it was you who saved me.”
As a productive, resilient lead, Rayne’s story ignites suspense throughout. Scripts of Rayne’s past are nicely deposited throughout the story, correlating with the present in a way that made me read on just to learn more about her past. The embedded memories did wonders for this story, building dense planes to Rayne’s character while colouring in the pieces of Rayne’s actions and choices in the present.
He was playing me, but he didn’t know he was getting played as well. By the end of this, we would see who the better chess player was.’
I liked Reese, but he fell flat as a character as I continually searched for his voice. Though this story is told in dual perspective, Rayne most definitely has the dominant voice, and I think this story would have heightened in merit if Reese’s character were equally as fleshed out. The relationship between Reese and Rayne wasn’t strong enough, lacking in intimacy and missing something important. Beyond their aggressive, violent exchanges and fevered desire, the development of their relationship felt neglected and hasty, and it was tied up too quickly come the end.
“I can live with whatever wisecracks that smart mouth of yours throws my way, I can live with your stubbornness, I can even live with the fact you have secrets you don’t want to reveal, but what I can’t live with is the feeling of dread that comes over me every time you want to walk away.”
What Mason and Rayne had felt much stronger than Rayne’s and Reese’s relationship. Both Rayne and Reese have potential as characters, but I felt that Reese wasn’t given the benefit of being explored as well as Rayne. Reese’s character wasn’t developed enough for me to get a clear picture of who exactly he is.
“Don’t give into the darkness, Rayne. Hold on, if not for yourself then for me.”
S.C. McCormack writes easily to begin, the writing being simple to follow, but over the course of the book it felt laxly seized with the author losing her grip on it. The second half of the book was without the upkeep the first half of the book had. While there were editing issues, they weren’t obstructive enough to get in the way of the story or my enjoyment of it, but what did fall through for me was the abruptness of the plot ending, leaving questions and inconsistencies in the narrative as well as some skewed character choices. As there were some unexplored and incomplete openings, I feel that this book could potentially have another instalment – which I would definitely be up for reading!
‘When would people ever learn not to judge a book by its cover?’
As a debut author S.C. McCormack writes well and has great ideas for this story. ‘When It Will Rayne, It Will Pour’ had some missed opportunities that could have been tapped into story-wise, but overall it captured my interest as a good read, with a final battle scene that had my heart racing. As I reached the culmination of this story it didn’t feel like I reached an end but rather a commencement, so on that note I do hope ‘When It Will Rayne, It Will Pour’ transforms into a series.
‘Why could she not realise how much her life meant to me?’
Battles of dominance, a sharp lead character, risky behaviour, lies and betrayal, coupled with dark sorrowful memories ‘When it Will Rayne, It Will Pour’ is a fun paranormal adventure centred on a female lead who is nothing less than a survivor.
“Dakota, shifters are not made, they are born.”
I gave this book 3.3 stars -
Trigger Warning: Attempted rape, sexual harassment, torture and graphic violence, some swearing.
*Thank you Skye for offering me a copy of your work in exchange for a review!*
My Rating System:
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★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read
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