I enjoyed the book a lot, and I wish I had the time to read the book from beginning to end in a few days because it was very entertaining and the story line was certainly good enough to keep me wrapped up in the story. I am not familiar with the "supernatural scene" of this book at all, I have mainly stuck to vampire or shape shifter books that only mention the fae in limited degrees, so to read a book about a young girl who just finds out she is a selkie and her introduction into that world really helped as a way to introduce me to this kind of world. Much like Jane had Ryu (among others) as a guide to the world that she was suddenly a part of, Ryu also served as a guide to me, helping to explain the creatures and lore the book is based on. I really appreciated that as the reader I was no expected to already know the lore behind the book.
In the beginning I felt bad for Jane, due to her past. She harbors a lot of guilt and a lot of pain that has caused her to essentially be trapped in her life and really never progresses as a person, never seeking a relationship, or more friends, just content to live a very basic and depressed existence; which is understandable when the circumstances are revealed. That being said at some point during the book, maybe about half way through I found myself being more annoyed with her guilt than anything else, it got a little tedious after a while.
Jane is also introduced to this new world in a very fast pace as well as in rather gruesome circumstances, so Peeler using witty humor really helped to lighten the situations and make it more enjoyable for the reader. Although with that being said Peeler did sometimes try to make witty or humorous sex quips during strange circumstances and they kind of made me pause and think "huh" to myself. That's not to say that the sexual content in the book wasn't well written, it wasn't overly grotesque and fit in with both the characters and the plot, it didn't feel forced. Even Jane's holding on to human fears of pregnancy and STDs helped to show how Jane was not able to transition to the new life overnight.
Ryu was amusing to me, he was a great guide for me to grasp what was going on, but he also came across as someone who really cared about Jane. Even so he still had his "other worldy" predilections, which really shined through at the end when he didn't seem to affected by the human Nyx brought to the celebration and so obviously abused. It was very telling to me that Jane had a similar reaction as I did to that situation.
Peeler introduced a lot of characters in Rockabill that I really hope in future books of the series are revisited and further explored, especially with Anyan. I think the book could have used another editing pass and maybe some revisions. Some of the internal monologue didn't could have been better placed because in some instances it seemed out of place and detracted from the story line, but other than that I am interested to see how the series progresses and how the authors storytelling ability progresses as well. It was an entertaining read, and I enjoyed it.
***Up next is going to be Strange Angels***
