Series: Phoenix Pack #1
Published by Montlake Romance on 2013
Genres: Paranormal, Romance
Pages: 415
Format: eBook
Goodreads
If your inner wolf and your body react rather enthusiastically to a psychotic Alpha male who’s own wolf has a tendency to turn feral, it can’t be a good thing, can it? Entering into a bargain with him wouldn’t be good either. Unfortunately, Taryn Warner, a latent wolf shifter, doesn’t have many options open to her right now. Okay, she has no options. Basically it comes down to whether she’ll do what it takes to escape the arranged mating with the sick SOB that her father set up. As the answer in this case is yes, it looks as though she’ll have to agree to Trey Coleman’s deal…she’ll have to mate with him instead.
Having always disliked shifter politics, Trey Coleman hadn’t bothered trying to form alliances with other packs. Now that his uncle – a wolf with many alliances – means to take Trey’s territory and his pack, he has no option but to form some alliances of his own very quickly or he’ll be easily outnumbered in the upcoming battle. He figures that the easiest way to do that would be to mate with a female whose Alpha is powerful and influential. There’s only one problem with that – he would then be stuck with her, and the last thing Trey wants is a mate. When he hears of Taryn’s situation, he offers her a deal – if she falsely claims he’s her true mate and allows him to claim her, he’ll save her from her arranged mating and then let her leave after the battle with his uncle is over.
Sounds like a pretty straightforward deal...but soon Taryn and Trey realize they got more than they bargained for. Their mating instincts to protect and possess are weighing on them, they crave each other’s touch and company, and their inner wolves don’t like it whenever they’re apart. Add in that they’ll have to deal with this for an entire three months until the day of the battle finally arrives, and they’ve got themselves a recipe for disaster – or maybe for something quite the opposite.
Warning: This novel contains an extremely sarcastic Alpha female, a broody possessive Alpha male, bitter in-laws, voyeuristic enforcers, a whole lot of dirty talk, and steamy bedroom battles for dominance.
Reader Advisory: This book also contains a graphic ménage scene - not for the faint-hearted.
FTC : I bought it. All views are mine.
Hash-Tags : #PNR #snark #annoying-heroine #alphahole #parent-fail
Nix Synopsis (WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD):
Taryn finds herself in a difficult position. Her arse of a dad wants her to marry a massively horrible man who seems to think he’ll be able to smack her into submission due to her latency and the future is looking bleak. When Trey Coleman offers to get her away from her Father in exchange for a mating of convenience, it looks like the best option that she has. It is all going so well until her wolf reacts in a very lusty way to the distant Trey.
Trey doesn’t want a mate, he wants alliances to protect his pack. Offering Taryn a deal was supposed to solve all his problems but it creates them instead. She isn’t the meek and mild latent he expected nor did he predict his wolf would react as strongly.
Although he can’t help but keep having sex with her (I swear to GOD, I am starting to hate this aspect of fated mate stories), he really doesn’t want to become attached to her so he decides to spend the book adjusting temperatures like a faulty shower and generally annoying me and the rest of the characters in the book. It is only when Father of the year reappears that he has to decide where she fits in his life … and his pack.
What I liked :
I’m going to be honest. This was a very meh book for me. There was not much that I really liked or disliked and so this review is quite difficult to write.
The snark was a major selling point for this book. It was loaded with over the top dialogue and humor and that kept me reading a book that I may have otherwise put down. I had a few genuine laugh out loud moments (all Taryn’s lines really) and I honestly did enjoy the authors voice throughout the book. I think fans of Shelly Laurenston may like this one.
I also enjoyed the characters of the rest of the pack (I may read book two yet .. I’m not sure) and I never felt overwhelmed by the amount of characters that were in there.
What I didn’t like :
This book did not flow well for me. Taryn and Trey spent the book making decisions I didn’t understand and, because of this, I just couldn’t relate to them. Taryn kept backing down from truly a-hole moments from Trey and Trey kept shagging her one minute and acting like a complete div with her the next. There seemed to be no consistency and I struggled to care about their story. I had a surface enjoyment of this book but I just couldn’t sink into it. The plot felt quite slow and I kept putting the book down for breaks which is highly unusual for me.
There is an orgy scene which is just in there for shits and giggles too which annoyed the hell out of me. I love sex in my book but if there is no rhyme or reason for it it’s not hot.
Overall, I won’t read this again but I may read number two!
I love this book and have read it more than once! Maybe you should consider reading it a second time because you really missed key points that led to the orgy scene. Your review is so far from what the book offers. I hope no takes what you wrote to heart or they will miss out on a TRULY PHENOMENAL story!
Not all books work for everyone (lord knows I’m meh or DNF on plenty of stuff other people rave about). The fact that you liked the voice enough to try another one by the same author says a lot.
I enjoyed this book and I like this series. I listened to the audiobooks for most of the series and the narrator does a great job.
I’m glad it worked for you! I know that I’ve read an old copy of the book (I’m hearing the orgy scene has been removed from the recent version) but I just couldn’t get into it.