********** Contains Spoilers**********
I’ve read this book, and series multiple times since purchased back in 2016 but have never gotten around to posting a review so here goes. I enjoyed this book and thought Claire and Damien were great together, instant attraction and connection that turns into more. Claire doesn’t want anything to do with Neturu society, apart from her brother Ben and his two friends Alex and Felix due to Claire only being able to shift into a bunny rabbit, and that’s even hard enough to do on the odd occasion. Claire’s Grandpa is Kaleb Hendrickson and the leader of Neturu’s Guard for the last 30 years, and her mother is Lana Livingston one of Neturu’s best historians. Claire’s Grandpa has been training her to fight since she was little, she’s now an extreme fighter as well as extremely strong, especially when she’s angry. She’s really proud of her body and an her accomplishments but it comes across as completely full of herself most the time.
Alex and her went on a camping retreat kind of thing, just them two where they ended up kissing that eventually lead to more. Claire ended up shutting her energy down in the heat of the moment so she had to tell him about her shifting issues and that she can’t go into Shima (Neturu plain where they can replenish their energy). Alex took it all in her stride. They spoke a lot over the last six months since their night together but they haven’t spoken about what happened between them both. Ben would go after Alex if he ever found out. Claire’s parents are making her go to gathering of Neturu teens, which she really didn’t want to, as she’s worried that she’ll be made fun of if anyone found out about her shifting issues. Claire’s planning just to eat and then spend time in her room as Ben gave her his laptop to borrow. Her Grandpa paid for a suite and it isn’t until she’s hopped out of the shower and a extremely hot guy is in her room.
He tells her that this is his room as he got given a key and explained who he is but he’ll go down now to sort it out and he’ll knock when he comes back. The room is double booked and both of them don’t have anyone else to stay with since Damien’s friends all have roommates and Claire only knows her brother and his two friends. Damien gets her out and about. I liked how she didn’t mind calling Damien on his sh*t and treated him like everyone else. Well after she got over their initial meeting when she found out who he was she was calling him by his title. Damien and her go to one of the fighting workshops and Alex ends up being the teacher. She’s really happy to have her friend back. This is the moment that Damien finds out what an amazing fighter she is, as he’s worried when Alex wants to spare with her as he’s a Guard member. Claire tells him to just watch and he can call it off during it if he’s worried that she’ll get hurt.
Alex keeps on trying to talk to Claire about what happened. He wants more from her but she’s confused so she ends up leading him on. She could tell Damien and Kayla that she didn’t know if she wanted more with Alex and Ben would k*ll him when he found out. After Damien found about Claire’s shifting issues Claire tells him that she likes Alex and he knows about her issue and didn’t judge her. Damien gives her really sound advice and tells her to tell him that she needs more time since he just sprung it on her out of the blue, and that she shouldn’t judge whether or not to be with him because of him being okay with her lack of shifting as others may accept it as well. It’s also really obvious that she has feelings for Damien and Damien for her, the feelings scare her but she thinks that he wont be able to ever be with her because of who he is, and he needs to bring a strong shifter into his line. He tells her that it doesn’t matter as it depends on who he ends up falling in love with, the Council doesn’t have a say in who he marries.
Damien is really understanding when Claire tells him what the issue is and he tells her that he’s really trained on Neturu energy so he’ll help to see if he can work out why she can’t shift. I liked seeing how much Damien has grown in the last year since everything went down with him and Kayla. He was completely full of himself and I didn’t really like him that much. I’m glad that Kayla is now his best friend and him Jackson (his cousin and Kayla’s boyfriend) get along great, when they used to hate each other. I enjoyed getting more of Kayla and Jackson. Claire finally gets the answers about why it’s extremely hard to shift and that she can’t go into Shima. Man, Claire’s mum really doesn’t like Damien and she’s definitely where Claire gets her outspoken personality from. Yes, this is a very insta-love book but when it’s alien’s from another planet why can’t they be fated mates. I’m really looking forward to reading the next book, especially after seeing the mission Claire is being sent on next. I’d definitely recommend this book, series and author.