Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Oops...I Started a Pack is the second book in the Wolvern Academy series of interconnected standalones. While events and characters from the first book are mentioned, the story can be enjoyed on its own.
The book had a nice premise, an unconventional FMC, a pack of misfits, and weirdness everywhere. I enjoyed the school setting, and the unique brand of chaos that the pack brought with it.
The story, however, felt under developed. We have six mates, an unprecedented event, but we never go into it. The FMC has special powers, again unprecedented, but we never really investigate more. The story clearly reflect a shifter world, but nobody ever shift in the story. The timeline and rule for the school felt confusing. I never knew how much time had passed between events, and things that seemed day away are in reality years. Teachers names were interchangeable, and the whole premise of the school and its use went completely away by chapter three.
In all this, we add six mates, of which three get a more in depth characterization, and the other three are barely sketched. We barely know anything about all of them, but the last three felt like an afterthought, a side character with a bit of spotlight when needed, and back to the shadows for the rest of the story. There's no talk of real bonding, and the while the FMC describes herself as horny more than once, the spice is very contained. I appreciated that the relationships developed more on the emotional side, but what little we got on the physical side wasn't extended to all MMCs.
This is my personal take, but why add stuff to a story, if you don't plan on using it, explaining it, or in general being part of the story? Especially for the shifter part, a magic school would have been fine, that element is needed to add conflict, but never used in any other circumstance. Not even in terms of losing control, which is typical for this trope.
In the end, I was intrigued by the story, and kept reading on with interest, but I was left with more questions than answers, and a clear ending showing that the next book in the series will switch completely MCs. It was a quick and fun read, but I'm not sure I'll keep on with the series.