Warning : inappropriate koalas ahead. 
 It happened again. I waited too long to read a book that I knew I was going to like. Instead, I picked up too many books along the way that were nothing but a crap shoot. 
 What I'd hoped for : Creepy. Gory. Spooky. 
 Did it happen? : Check, check, and check. 
 What I wasn't looking for : Overdone Romance. 
 Did it happen? : Uh...twice. In a way I wasn't expecting. 
 No, there were no actual threesomes. Sorry to disappoint. 
 This book was a retelling of The Island of Dr. Moreau and a pretty decent one at that. At first, I was a little nervous that there wouldn't be enough new source material to make this stand out as its own story apart from the retelling, but thankfully, I was wrong. The second half of the story brought enough fresh material to an old tale to make me happy. 
 The author did a great job of painting a picture about an island which was out in the middle of nowhere, completely inhabited by disturbing creature/human hybrids. When I am able to visualize the surroundings inside of my head, I feel like I'm right there in the story with the characters. As well, the sights were not the only thing to drag me along for the ride. I could practically hear the screams of the experiments as well. I had this entire mini-movie playing out for me, complete with dark lighting, ominous noises, and even imaginary scents lingering in the background. 
 This is the kind of stuff that makes reading multi-dimensional. 
 Now, I might have had an easier time picturing the island due to the fact that I've seen the recent movie of the original book a few times. But, I still think that I would have liked Daughter even if I didn't have a visual reference to refer to. Because, again, the author did a great job of sketching out the island and its inhabitants. She gave plenty of detail about the creatures, down to the shape of their facial features and body hair counts. 
 Back to the romance. If nothing else, I was surprised by the turn that it took near the end. I went into the story expecting the author to favor one path, and a different path was taken. I do appreciate the break from the expected. Even though I personally thought that this story didn't need the romance at all, I didn't have a burning desire to want to see anyone get thrown off a cliff either, so it wasn't really a big deal. If I could have changed anything, I would have left out the love triangle and made the story about Juliet and only one of the men. The guy who I would have axed out could have stayed a character in the story without taking an interest in her and it would have been even better. I am a big romance fan, but not even I NEED to have romance drama in every single book that I read. Sometimes, the story outside of a person's love life is even more interesting than the trials of love, which was most definitely the case here. The strength of the story came from the original source material. Love should have been served up on the side, the way I found the flirtation in the movie to be - a nice little juicy extra, but not the focus. 
 But that complaint is minimal. Outside of the unnecessary love triangle, I have no complaints. This was quite an enjoyable read. I'm hoping that the next two books will be just as fabulous.