Saturday, February 6, 2016

Feral Sins (The Phoenix Pack, Book 1) by Suzanne Wright ~ Review

Source:  Purchased the audiobook.

If your inner wolf and your body react rather enthusiastically to a psychotic Alpha male who’s own wolf has a tendency to turn feral, it can’t be a good thing, can it? Entering into a bargain with him wouldn’t be good either. Unfortunately, Taryn Warner, a latent wolf shifter, doesn’t have many options open to her right now. Okay, she has no options. Basically it comes down to whether she’ll do what it takes to escape the arranged mating with the sick SOB that her father set up. As the answer in this case is yes, it looks as though she’ll have to agree to Trey Coleman’s deal…she’ll have to mate with him instead.

Having always disliked shifter politics, Trey Coleman hadn’t bothered trying to form alliances with other packs. Now that his uncle – a wolf with many alliances – means to take Trey’s territory and his pack, he has no option but to form some alliances of his own very quickly or he’ll be easily outnumbered in the upcoming battle. He figures that the easiest way to do that would be to mate with a female whose Alpha is powerful and influential. There’s only one problem with that – he would then be stuck with her, and the last thing Trey wants is a mate. When he hears of Taryn’s situation, he offers her a deal – if she falsely claims he’s her true mate and allows him to claim her, he’ll save her from her arranged mating and then let her leave after the battle with his uncle is over.

Sounds like a pretty straightforward deal...but soon Taryn and Trey realize they got more than they bargained for. Their mating instincts to protect and possess are weighing on them, they crave each other’s touch and company, and their inner wolves don’t like it whenever they’re apart. Add in that they’ll have to deal with this for an entire three months until the day of the battle finally arrives, and they’ve got themselves a recipe for disaster – or maybe for something quite the opposite.

Warning: This novel contains an extremely sarcastic Alpha female, a broody possessive Alpha male, bitter in-laws, voyeuristic enforcers, a whole lot of dirty talk, and steamy bedroom battles for dominance.






Review...


This is one of those books where I liked some things and didn't like others.  So here goes...


Things I liked...


The beginning.  The books starts off really strong.  I didn't want to stop listening at first and I was totally captivated.  

Taryn's voice at first.  I loved her alpha and sarcastic nature.  She doesn't take anything off anyone.  She's strong and funny.  I loved that she was this strong yet latent.  She was harassed about it a great deal but it didn't slow her down one bit.  I really enjoyed her.  That being said, there were issues.  See things I didn't like.

Trey.  Loved him pretty much the whole time.  He's alpha strong too which makes things interesting between these two.  But he also has a caring side that made me fall for him big time.  He's possessive and protective which I found adorable.  

The shifter world.  I loved that Trey built his pack up after being banned from his father's pack.  I love the group of wolves he has...well except for one mistake that shall not be named.  Her I didn't like.  (She was a mistake from years ago and hasn't gotten over it.)  Even the grandma, who didn't like Taryn, was just hilarious.  

Fake relationships.  I adore pretending stories.  This one is about a pretend mating and it was perfect.  Of course these two will develop feeling for each other while pretending to be mates.  But it was a lot more than that.  

The story didn't end when...well when they decided they weren't pretending anymore.  I loved that things kept happening and details of the story revolved around other things.  It was a complete story and not just a romance.

Shifter book.  So in the mood for paranormal right now and I adored that part of the book.  A little different than some I've read, these shifter are two creatures joined and they seem much more separate than combined.  That was interesting. 

The caves they lived it.  I want those caves!

The narrator.  She was great.  I loved her voices and left she captured the feel of the book well. 



Things I didn't like...


How Taryn treated Trey.  Even when they were trying to be mates, Taryn was just plain mean to Trey.  I got tired of it and wanted more caring from her.  She wouldn't risk being made to look weak even long enough to care.  The closest she got to caring was forcing Trey to do things he didn't want to in the name of teaching him to have fun. I wanted more caring from her for the guy she was falling for. 

So there are some things that keep happening that makes a reader think there is an enemy among them.  But no effort is made to really figure out who it is and why they are doing the things they are doing.  I guess it just doesn't work for me with this being a shifter book.  I expected them to hunt down the perpetrator.  They didn't.  Often, the next moment would be days later and nothing comes of it.  Of course, we find out in the end but it just didn't sit well with me that they just let it go.

Long.  Dang this book is long.  The second half of the book took a lot longer to read than the first.  

The rough sex just wasn't for me.  While I get the dominance battle between these two, I just found that screaming at and fighting with each other during sex was uncomfortable for me.  I got about half way through the book and realized I wasn't enjoying the heat any longer.  I think this is why. 

I actually don't like books that have repeated and long, detail sex scenes.  I enjoy the hot stuff just not as much as this book has in it.  This books is clearly erotica and if I had realized that before I bought it, I wouldn't have bought it.  It's not for me. 

While the grandma's verbal battles with Taryn were humorous, I found it weird that Trey never shut it down.  It was over the top negative and as the alpha of the pack, I expected him to deal with it.  Thought that was strange.

Trey's ex or as he calls her mistake.  Even calling her an ex is ridiculous but it's the best way to explain her.  She makes a royal pain of herself.  Not that I didn't like that as some tension in the book but again I expected Trey to talk to her.  I guess that's really the bottom line, there were just too many things that felt like they were just let go to add drama to the storyline.  

Another example...oh, never mind.  You get the idea.  There were just a lot of little things that felt like they were purposely left unresolved to add drama that wouldn't normally be there.  Just gave me pause.

Overall...


I did enjoy the book but I doubt I'll continue the series or ever re-read it.  That's a shame because it's an audio book.  I love to listen to books over and over as I grade or do other busy work.  Once was enough for this read.  I do have the first book in a spin-off series and I'll give that a shot. 




           


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