The Fates Hands Trilogy: Book 1 “The Spare”

by Lori Ameling

My name is Spare. Yes, as in the term Spare Tire. I was the second-born twin to a mother who only wanted one child. Their neglect and cruelty have made me a Ghost in our world of Shifters. I have the plan to escape all this and make a life of my own. Just have to work a few more shifts so I have enough money to make my way to go to college. I don’t think they are going to be incredibly happy when they find that I have left; I will make my escape even if it kills me to do so. I know way too much about the things that are going on behind closed doors in the Rising Moon pack. I don’t really have physical proof, but what I know could get me killed or worse turned over to the Alpha Michael, my Uncle. In his secret world, I will never be seen again, and no female ever returns from his grasp unless you count the ones they find in the river.
You know what they say, though, make plans, and God laughs. My last shift as a cleaning lady and what I find in the last room of the night; will change my plans and my life forever. Many things await me on my journey of healing, heated passion, laughter, secrets, and an Evil that will threaten the very existence of the shifter worlds and even a possible Big Foot sighting.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Werewolves, Wolves, Paranormal, Shapeshifters, Paranormal Romance

550 pages, Paperback

Published December 20, 2022

Reviews

[Michelle Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to read the book it is not allowing me to read

[Lyndsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though there was a lot going on, I felt like the story lacked depth. Something new would come up then it was over. Same with the characters. I did really like Spare but felt she kinda disappeared in the chaos of all that was going on. There were also quite a bit of spelling and grammar errors which is always disappointing.

[Autumn Rivers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant story, very gripping. This isn't easily available but my first attempt at werewolf romance and it has me hooked.

Various spelling, grammar and wording issues but I am definitely continuing with the story! Bring on Jack's romance-hopefully!

[Michelle Tolar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main story line wasn’t bad but there were a lot of spelling and grammar errors that took away from the overall flow of the book.

I also wish the author stuck closer to the main story line and developed that deeper as opposed to branching off into other various storylines that didn’t necessarily enhance the central story.

[Fleur]

I didn’t get far into it at all. Not my cup of tea

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot itself was interesting, and the FMC is alright... But that's where the good things about this book end. Firstly, it was way, way too long winded. There was multiple points where the book could've finished, and I assumed it had, only to find out that nope, it's continuing onwards again, spreading out story points between long breaths of basically nothing. This could've been solved with a good editor having the author narrow things down, but ultimately, that hits the nail on the head of almost all the problems with this book- it desperately, desperately, needed an editor. The grammar is terrible, spelling is a mess, paragraphs will randomly repeat themselves halfway down the page, and POV perspective shifts wildly from first to third person, sometimes with notes in brackets from the author telling you what type, or who's, perspective you're getting, sometimes not. Even in third person POV, there seems to be no set rule to the way that things are written, using both past and present tense randomly, sometimes within the same paragraph. (Threw vs throws for example). Names and pronouns for characters shift around nebulously, especially in relation to character's wolf and lycan forms, and because there's no set way this is written across the story, the author will occasionally pop in and mention in brackets how she's using naming conventions for a particular section. It seems like the first draft was uploaded, not even using the basic spell and grammar check in whatever word processor it was written in, and it's rough. This is completely ignoring the problems with how quickly the FMC seems to get over her severe ptsd, how drastically and immediately her personality seems to change on multiple occasions, how many times plot gaps are just explained away with magic, etc.
The only reason I'm giving this two stars instead of one is because there's the bones of a good book there, somewhere tangled in the mess of writing and mashed together ideas. It just needs some very, very, serious work to get to it. At this point, it feels more like something you'd hand in as a highschool project than a legitimate novel, and that project would likely get a C with all its glaring errors.

[Harlequin Madness · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to give this a higher rating

I loved the plot. Lots of drama and intrigue. Luckily the storyline really pulled me in because the execution wasn't well done. First of all, this really needed some editing. There were misspellings, misused words (e.g., heel vs heal, etc.), incorrect pronouns (and I ain't talking of the neo variety), grammar issues and sentence construction. Now, given that I nearly flunked English 101 in college . . . and it's my mother tongue . . . the fact that even I noticed these language issues is pretty bad. There were also lots of times that the author took the easy way out of a plot issue by leaving it to "magic" to resolve it, or just wrapped things up with a nice convenient bow. I thought it a lazy approach. But I don't want to rag on the author, so I'll leave that there.

As for character building, our FMC, "Spare" (who changes her name to Adira) was a pretty pragmatic, resilient female lead. I appreciated her inner strength and desire to better her circumstances. Of course The Moon Goddess had other plans and she just followed the hands of fate (hmmm, a good name for a book, lol). Her mate, Duncan, as usual, was a yummy alpha and was enraptured with her from the moment they crossed paths. I loved how he took his time with her. He recognized her brokenness and wanted nothing more than to make her life better. . . and he did! I'd give this a 3 out of 5 for sexy times, but I wasn't mad at it. While I love reading smut as much as the next girl, I want it in conjunction with a well told story. I really dislike a book where the smut is so overpowering that it becomes the central theme of the book. That is not the case here. Although, if the smut was toned down, this could have easily passed as a YA novel.

On the whole, I did enjoy the book and do plan on continuing with the next book in the series.

[Jillian Cori lippert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating this book is very difficult. The story sucked me in, and I liked the characters. The world building is good. It's a shifter paranormal romance. It has a very different premise, related to human trafficking. I actually found I couldn't put it down. On that basis, I would give it 5 stars.

BUT ...

The grammar, punctuation, and spelling were horrendous. It was also told mostly in present tense. It made it very difficult to get through. There was clearly no editing done at all; not even rudimentary checks using Word. It appears the author never or rarely attended English class in school. It's really pretty appalling. On that basis, I would give it 1 star.

In all fairness, I will say that I read it for free on an app called NovelFlow. I read the first few chapters of the story on Facebook, then had to download the app to read the rest. I thought it was just a short story. By the time I realized it was a novel, I had to finish. Maybe the version being sold on Amazon has had appropriate editing.

I also want to let readers know the story could be VERY triggering. There are graphic descriptions of abuse, torture, murders and aberrant sex. They were essential to the story, but it could be very difficult for many readers.

Overall, I will give it a generous 2.5 stars. If only it had been edited properly.

[Michelle Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite grammar and punctuation errors, I enjoyed reading the series. However, in the last few chapters, I started losing track of who was who. I believe this was due to taking a break from reading around Thanksgiving.

I used the app NovelFlow to read the series. I tried a couple of other apps, but they required payment before you could read, or they required you to watch three ads before reading one very short chapter. NovelFlow lets you read two decent-length chapters after watching an ad. It also has the occasional pop-up ad that could immediately go away or within six seconds and the occasional pop-up commercial that is short. Both weren’t that annoying, so I recommend NovelFlow.

To the author, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this series, and I look forward to reading more of your books. I want to suggest you invest in Grammarly. My grammar and spelling are horrible, so it’s not good if I can find them. That is why I took one star off. I use Grammarly all the time. I check each suggestion to make sure my meaning is still there. Because I do this, I’m noticing that I can find my errors before running a check. Good luck, and keep writing. I can’t wait to read your next book.

[ColleenPaige · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starting with a solid hook- but fell flat.
The overall story was good, engaging, and kept me reading. But lacked depth, character development, and needed severe editing.

It felt like 3 or 4 stories rolled into one run on sentence.
Had the author split this apart into the individual stories it deserved and developed those more it could have been an incredible 3 or 4 part series.

Characters were introduced and then killed off within a chapter with no real reason to have introduced them anyway (Flea for example).

The Luna/Duncan timeline was out of sync as well which really threw things off. Christmas they get married and are already pregnant (4 months to go) but then the next Christmas she’s only just having the pup?

Mages exist but when magic would solve the issue they don’t have it- but the King can be Santa on a whim?

A lot of inconsistency

HOWEVER- with a good editor, I think this could be made into a really great series. It has good bones- and ultimately- while I typically don’t like werewolf/ shapeshifter lore, this did keep my attention and interest.

[Keishea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's narrative is centered around an intriguing core concept, yet it is marred by notable structural issues and a lack of editorial finesse. The excessive length could be condensed to 3-400 pages, eliminating unnecessary segments and refining the plot.

The absence of a skilled editor is evident in the numerous grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inconsistent paragraph structures. The POV perspective shifts erratically between first and third person, often without c
Any indication of who's POV. Tense inconsistencies are also prevalent, with random switches between past and present within the same paragraph. The manuscript appears to have been published without adequate revision or proofreading or even an ARC team.

Despite these significant technical issues, the book's core concept remains engaging, and with substantial revisions, it could be transformed into a compelling narrative. The story's potential is evident, but it is currently hindered by its numerous flaws.

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I DNF’ed this at 26%, and realistically I gave it longer than I should have.

The author has a good premise in the story with some things I would have loved to have seen more world and story building on, though the story lacked any cohesiveness or depth. The formatting is confusing with some in first and third characters discussions, random formatting in bold and italics that again… is not cohesive throughout.

(Spoiler; also wtf happened with the random chapter end with the wife/husband death? Only discovered by the landlady because they were late on rent. End chapter?!)

The book has promise, but it needs a deep edit and some consideration from the author of how she actually wants her characters to evolve. They all read the same, talk the same, there’s nothing that really connects me to any of them. I hope to see it released in the future with some improvements and I’ll try to read it again.

[Jennifer Pezzella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I happened upon this book on a facebook ad and decided to give it a try. The story premise was interesting and there were alot of unexpected things happening in the book so that was good.

Chapters were way too short, writing was atrocious, I believe this was the author's first book so that's probably why but there was no proofreading at all and some of the way that it was written made it hard to understand.

There is sexual content in the book, it's not very long when it happens but it's basically the same sex scene over and over, I definitely think the author could have done better with that if she wanted to include the sex scenes - every single time there was sex, the man entered the women in one thrust, it was kind of weird because the scene was recycled so many times.

Also this story has a lot of trigger warnings for abuse mentally and physically.

It could have been a really great story with some work, I would say read it at your own risk.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book contains explicit sex scenes, so if that puts you off, stop reading. The storyline is about a badly-treated wolf shifter named Spare who meets her mate from another pack and goes off with him. Her pack is doing some illegal things and the new pack begins to investigate. Meanwhile, Spare’s old pack tries to get her back because she knows too much. I liked the story, but the book read like a first draft. There were continuity problems: the names Lily and Joann were spelled differently in different places, and it changed back and forth from first person to third person. It’s a shame to spoil the story with this kind of writing. Lori, if you read this, I retired from the Catholic Exponent newspaper as special sections editor and am freelancing. Message me if you want to discuss my copy editing and proofreading skills to enhance your next book.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story started out great - very intriguing. But then it became a jumble of story lines, arcs that didn’t need to be included as they added nothing to the main characters. Timelines jumped around, tenses changed mid-paragraph and it became a struggle to finish the book. As the book progressed, misspellings and grammatical errors happened frequently. The layout for conversations changed: one moment the speaker is in quotations and italics and next they aren’t - there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for this except basic error on the writer or proofreader.

This could have been great book had it been split into 3-4 different books and the main storyline kept to book one with more thought and careful proofreading editors to keep the time frames straight.

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up for a quick and easy read and that it was. It was the typical fated mates story line. However, it surprisingly had multiple layers that kept me intrigued. There are trigger warnings for physical, sexual, and mental abuse of both adults and children. There is also quite a bit of gratuitous sex scenes. While the story line was compelling, the novel could use a good editing. There were multiple grammatical errors as well as some confusing errors in regards to who was speaking or was being spoken about. This detracted somewhat from the flow of the story. For those who like the fated mates troupe, you should like this story.

[Jeannie Mestres · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to read this book. In fact I read nearly 40 chapters because I liked the story. The problem is that there are so many errors and usless information that does nothing for the story except to make a lot of chapters. The story lacks depth which should have been worked on before adding another shifter species. The werewolves and werebears are supposedly living near humans, but the humans never realized that people were going missing? The police never got involved? I guess that's why I never read these types of fantasy stories, they are either badly written or unrealistic. I do feel that this one could be good. It has promise, but it needs work.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of spelling fauspas and wrong name placings for mates. So author needs better Editor. Author could be a very good Author if she had that cause you really get to know her characters and the events are wild and sometimes disturbing. Some I could do with out but I'm sure there out there. And there are 3 books in this and I believe there is more pages then 550 I think close to 1100 , because it's just not Spare,s book but Jack,s and Adrians stories. You can find all three books on NovelFlow if you have read the Spare forward to Chapter 65 of 66 it's the start of the other 2 books..

[Thaendra Christenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read all 3 books of the trilogy and really appreciate the author's ability to tell stories and pull you in. An example of this is when Dargon is introduced. Book 1 was full of suspense.

Through the 3 books, the author wove different shifters together, starting with werewolves, then introducing werebears and finally werecats. Witches were added at the end. The 3 books end with the possibility of more.

I intend to read more Lori Ameling books. If you love werewolves, pick up book 1.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

In short, the best of the book was in the teaser I read for free online as an ad for some app. The story was promising enough at that point that I bought the book. Bad choice. Desperately in need of an editor to address basic spelling and grammar issues. The author spent too lot time developing characters and too much time stuffing half a dozen plots into one book. If she’d gone the other way and had 6 books, one per large plot arc, each with well-developed characters, this could have been a phenomenal series.

[Kristen Dewar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It involves many characters and merges their story cohesively. I really appreciate knowing each characters story from beginning to end. The epilog was perfect. I always find myself wondering what happens after the fact when finishing a book, Lori was the first author that didn't leave me wondering. Finally a complete book. I can't wait until her next book comes out.

[Julie Purcell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am rating this 4 stars because this is a genre that I NEVER read. I saw this on FB and started reading. It caught my attention right away.
I enjoyed the story. There were a lot of errors that should have been easily spotted. Spelling, grammatical, and wrong names are being used. It did get confusing at times!

There were times that it felt like the story could have ended, and the next one could have been another book.

It was interesting for my 1st fantasy read!

[Steph Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good book with interesting plots points and well thought out content. There are some issues with 'there, their, and they're' as well as a 'we're' where a 'were' should have been. I general the books wording could have also been cleaned up a little bit. However, I think the character growth was great, the relationships as well as how they supported eachother through trauma was very nice. I can't wait to read the next book in the series! Jack deserves a good mate!

[Meredith Mock · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible! Way over-priced.

It’s like the skeleton of what could be a really good book, but the grammar is terrible in places and impossible to follow, and the plot moves way too quickly with holes and convenient fixes that aren’t explained. Can’t begin to understand why it has as many good reviews as it does. Completely lacking. I couldn’t even finish it. Waste of money.

[Kelly Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the storyline but like many others mentioned, it desperately needed an editor. This could have been developed into an impressive book. Nonetheless, it was my first shifter book and now I need more. Does anyone know if the 124 chapters on Novelflow make up the entire trilogy? I am confused as to if it's all one story or I should anticipate more to come in this series.

[Hope Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good story. There were times that it could have been more descriptive. Grammar and spelling were a bit rough. For a few chapters the lead females name was misspelled leading to an actual different name but it was not too tough yo figure out who it was referring to. The story was good and corrected with a bit more description could be fantastic.

[Hazel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was one I couldn’t put down once I started reading, it’s the sort of book with how well it’s written that it draws you in.

I am now looking for the other 2 books so as I can finish the trilogy.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark and goes places not suitable for most therefore reader discretion advised. Spare is the story of a lone she wolf who has been subjected to neglect and abuse. Having found her mate in a hotel room her plans to escape significantly altered.

Spares journey brings her to werebears, royals and werecats. This is book 1 of 3 part series. Spare does find peace and is the luna of her new pack.

Rating this book on its potential and general storyboard. There were spelling and grammar errors within the ebook. In some areas Spares story was lost amongst the other characters.

Continue to read books 2 & 3 to tie all stories together.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was good but the book needs edited. there are spelling and grammer mistakes but also some problems with the flow of the story. It feels like reading a draft, not a finished book. i do look forward to more books in this series.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Editing (grammar/punctuation, continuity): ⭐️⭐️
This author has a lot of promise. The storyline was interesting, engaging, and fast paced. She just needs to find a good editor. I read the first three books of this series and I would read more by this author.