I really enjoyed the first half of this book. Ira was such a wonderful character, I was sure this whole book would be a total winner. But unfortunately the story went in a direction I didn’t like. Nothing too crazy happened, It was just hoping for a light book and then it got darker and I stopped loving it.
But what really bummed me out and dropped my rating was the fact that this book ends with a cliffhanger. Now I could have gotten over that, since the second book is already out, but then I found out the second book ends with a cliffhanger too. I don’t like cliffhangers these days. Like someone else mentioned, it feels like a ploy to sell more books.
Ira is a wolf shifter who was born in some sort of half form. He’s a 7 feet hairy ‘monster’, and his pack never really accepted him. So when he turns 20, he goes out to find a new pack that will accept him for who he is.
After two weeks in the woods he’s not so positive he’s done the right thing anymore. But just when he thinks he might have to go back home, he spots a wolf pack. This new pack is led by Zora, the alpha. Zora is fine with him joining the pack, but the rest of the wolves are not so keen on Ira joining.
But Ira will just have to show him what a good wolf he is by helping out. Or by babysitting the little ones, or by digging new dens, or by composting the garden.
When Zora tells the pack it is time for him to take a life mate, Ira thinks this could be his chance…
I LOVED Ira. He was such a crazy upbeat character that I wanted to keep him forever and ever. No matter how much he was being harassed or ridiculed, he was still looking for the silver lining. He was hilarious and sweet and just super super cute.
One thing that stood out to me, but I’m not sure how I feel about, was the utter lack of world-building in this. We don’t learn anything about this world, except that there are wolves, who can take 2 forms (or 3 like Ira), their fourth form (four legs, wolf) and their second form (two legs, human). They never bothered with clothes. I don’t think clothes existed in this world. And I don’t think humans did either. But I’m not sure. It could be that the wolf packs all lived in secluded places in the woods where no humans could find them.
I felt these shifters considered themselves more animals than human. Ira didn’t care in which form Zora had sex with him, either in his wolf or his man form. And since Ira was stuck between the two, he wasn’t fully human himself. It took some getting used to tbh. Oh, and wolves could talk in their wolf form as well in their human form. That was a bit weird, but fit the story.
I loved the storyline of Ira trying to ‘pose’ for the alpha. He wanted to become his mate, and luckily Zora really wanted that too. So when there was a contest and Ira entered it, Zora made sure Ira won. Although when Ira had to hunt and scared a deer to death with his face, that was just dumb luck (and sooooo funny).
I would have loved it if this was the whole storyline. Just Ira and Zora getting together and the pack finally accepting Ira. Oh, and the mpreg. But then we got this whole dark part where there are bloodwolves out to murder them and where they want something from Ira. It ends with a lot of questions and with Ira feeling super confused and keeping secrets from his mate. I didn’t like that, and I’m not sure I want to read the next book(s).
Too bad, because it started out so promising.
(PS, there were a TON of spelling mistakes in this book. And it takes a lot for me to notice them, so I can safely say they were excessive)