Dude what the fuck?? This was like two different books cut down the middle and spliced together. First of all, it absolutely has to be said that there are REPEATED RAPES IN THIS BOOK THAT ARE UNACKNOWLEDGED!! I don’t mean body betrayal syndrome. I mean full-on rape:
“I thrust into Arlene again and again, harder each time as her screams of protest filled the room. Fuck, she felt even better than she had years ago. And it was even hotter watching her try to push me off her as I fucked her wet pussy. I gripped her hips. “I’m in charge here, not you.” “Shawn—” she gasped, completely burnt out from me pounding into her. I rammed into her and her gasp made me smile. I slipped out of her only to thrust back into her with a punishing strength. My hands gripped her waist as I rammed into her over and over again. Her breathing became ragged and I could tell she was close. “Do you want me to stop?” I asked suddenly, withdrawing from her. Even with her previous resistance, I knew that part of her wanted this too, which she proved when she said nothing. I smiled as I slammed back into her without warning. Her gasp filled me with pride while her legs trembled.”
“He had sex with me whenever and however he wanted, even without my consent. It irked me that I enjoyed it and had multiple orgasms every time.”
What. The. Fuck. Is happening. This part adds absolutely nothing to the story, it’s never discussed again, and it’s just horrifying. He also kidnaps her and her daughter, which she is fine with, and sends their daughter to stay with his parents, who are the reason they couldn’t be together in the first place because they were so against him being with her, without even telling her.
Oh, and also, this is the worse world-building I have ever seen. Apparently there are humans, hybrids, and werewolves, although we never are really told what any of the secondary characters are and there’s no sense of whether or not there is wolf/human conflict. The heroine is a hybrid, which is supposed to be a big plot point, but we are never told what the hell that means. She never transforms into a wolf (something even the hero only does once and it happens off-page), and the only mention that’s made of her wolfiness is that she has a strong sense of smell. So she’s a human with good smelling abilities?? Then why make her a werewolf at all! Make her a human so there’s more reason for them not to be together! Such lazy writing!
I genuinely hope this author reads reviews, because this book is a catastrophe. They spend the first half of the book building a conflict—she’s low class, he’s high class, she lives in the slums, he wants to kill his father because he won’t spend a dollar to save the “downtown wolves,” etc. And then there’s a 5-yr time jump and when I say the earlier conflict just vanishes, I mean I t vanishes WITHOUT A TRACE. The parents are happy she is with their son, the father has completely transformed from an absolute MONSTER to a loving father and grandfather WITH NO EXPLANATION, the hero has magically solved all the class issues, she has no trouble assimilating back into the society she left—and then in like 4 pages they’re engaged and married the end. Just awful. Why would you go to the effort of creating a conflict you were just going to dismiss? The most mismatched book I have ever read, worthy of 1 star even without the gratuitous, horrifying rape scenes.