I gave the book a shot, and honestly, the fact that I was able to finish it says enough. Overall, I liked the story. It wasn't bad, and both Quin and Cage felt fully fleshed out. Being the first book can be hard, so I've given it some grace, but there were some issues with the plot that felt unfinished.
Let me start with the best part of this book.
To its credit, was the romance aspect which was actually really good. They have great chemistry.
My only gripe is that the third-act breakup felt a bit rushed. It was still believable, but I would have liked a slightly slower pace.
Now, for the whole shifter aspect of the book: it’s not horrible, but Cage’s shifting felt a bit too convenient. However, I agreed to suspend my disbelief given the nature of the genre. So it wasn't too big of an issue.
I couldn't help but feel a tad disappointed by the dragon subplot, though. It started excellently we got a great moment with our dragon shifter but then, all of a sudden, we go on a trip and there is no follow-up. Instead, this subplot loses all steam.
While there is a line suggesting, "I think it's dead, I think it petrified," we eventually come back to a clean house. Which is okay, but what about some sort of confirmation? I wanted to see rock or ash residue to better portray that to the reader.
I did stick around for Book 2 to see if it got better because of the "unknown father/hidden brother" plotline. So, stay tuned for my follow-up on Book 2.
But overall, the author fine tunes everything by the third book. The second one is an improvement for sure.