Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce - Werewolves are so not sexy here!

Title: Sisters Red
Author: Jackson Pearce
Pages: 326 pages hardcover
Genre: Paranormal, YA
Standalone/Series: Series (book #1)
Release: Already out (June 2010)
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young
Received through Book it Forward ARC tours
Author info:  Author website
Spoiler Alert: In the clear.
GoodReads Blurb: Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris-- the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She's determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead.
Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts fiercely alongside her. Now Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves and finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax-- but loving him means betraying her sister and has the potential to destroy all they've worked for.  

Werewolves are so not sexy in this novel based loosely on Little Red Riding Hood. Werewolves are called the Fenris – who in human form are usually alluringly attractive to draw their prey but change into a disgusting wolf like form with clumpy oily fur and otherworldly stench when they attack. The two sisters in this book, Rose and Scarlett, know the Fenris intimately since they were attacked by one as children that left their life broken and Scarlett horribly scarred.  Now fast-forward a few years and the sisters spend their time battling this threat that most humans don’t see as well as growing into young women. For Scarlett, being a woman only means she is better bait to lure the Fenris away to kill them but for Rose she starts to question as she grows older if she just wants to hunt and kill Fenris for the rest of her life. When their neighbor Silas, a boy the sisters grew up with, returns after spending a year away Rosie begins to question even more what she wants out of life when she lays eyes on him.

The story is told in first person alternating between Scarlett and Rose’s point of view. Although effective in getting across a more complete picture of the overall story it is a little jarring to jump back and forth between the two view points since the sisters are so very different. Scarlett’s whole life is the hunt – I think if she could live off the thrill of killing another Fenris she would chose that rather than sleeping, eating, or even talking to other people. And the sisters do not have an easy life, they both dropped out of highschool to devote more time to hunting and their only source of income is from hawking items of their mother, who abandoned them, and grandmother, who died trying to protect them. Not a very easy choice to sell off belongings of people you loved to supply your hunt for the beings that destroyed your life. The hunt takes Scarlett, Rose, and Silas to Atlanta to take down more Fenris who seem to be invading their town. Many things happen while in the city – betrayal, romance, surprising discoveries, and a nail-biting fight in the end.

3.5 out of 5 stars for me, a gritty new world where werewolves aren’t sexy and sisters hold two-halves of one heart.