The other day on Twitter, we were involved in a huge discussion about PNR series that we quit. And for some reason I remember quitting the Others series that is a crossover with this one. You guys, why did I stop reading it? I loved that series! Luckily I had this book in my review queue, so I was inspired! I wanted some old school paranormal romance from someone whose series I used to stalk Borders for. 

Guys, I have mixed feelings about this book.

This book starts off strong.

Renny is a small red wolf shifter who is running for her life. Her car runs out of gas, so she shifts and races off. She’s heading to Alpha, Washington in the hopes that the town will take her in. It’s a town of misfits and she needs help. She’s being chased by five coyote shifters who are supposed to drag her back to their alpha in California. This guy can’t take no for an answer, and he plans on taking Renny.

She falls down and passes out from injury and exhaustion at the feet of a very alpha wolf shifter on the outskirts of Alphaville.

Mick sees a small red wolf come flying out of the darkness to land at his feet and he knows two things: she’s his mate, and she’s being attacked by a pack of coyotes. He scares them off, but is now stuck with an injured wolf he doesn’t want, mate or not.

I’m all for fated mates and insta-lust. This is all not just fine with me, but it’s my catnip. What I had issue with is the way Mick treats her originally and then after one scene has such an about face that he grabs her and marks her and boom they’re mated. Hey, give me a grumpy male wolf who doesn’t want to want his heroine, I’m all in. But the total about face from him being growly and grumpy to bam they’re mated? I wanted to see a coversation first, or maybe even sexytimes and some form of bonding first.

I got over it, though, and continued on because I’m vested in this story and I love when the psycho alpha is after the hero’s mate.

But here’s the thing. The villain is a coyote. He has his 5 goons (also coyote shifters) chasing her down. She’s a wolf. A small wolf, but seriously, she’s still bigger than a coyote. So, okay, we have 5 against 1 which are terrible odds, so she’s not going to win, I get that. But…

Alphaville is full of lions, tigers, bears (oh my!), wolves, I mean, you name it! And the entire book is spent waiting for the coyotes to strike. They have these amazing noses that pick up the scents of each individual guy, and they notice all these details…and you’re gonna tell me they couldn’t just follow their noses to these idiots? Seriously?

This drove me nuts. The whole book is spent with coyotes beating these huge apex predators. It seriously bothered me. Now, coyotes are known for being tricky and sneaky, but this isn’t what’s emphasized as their qualities so I kept thinking…hmmm….30lb coyote vs 400lb tiger and the coyote comes out on top? Really? If Warren had made them wolves, I would’ve bought it more, but coyotes? Against a town of lions and tigers are you kidding me? And this could totally be me. They made good bad guys in the personality sense, I just hated that these little coyotes were staying hidden on alphaville land from that many shifters.

So, yeah, mixed feelings about this book. The plot was great. The town has some great characters and a neat set-up for the series, but I had a hard time taking the coyotes seriously as a true threat against Renny when she’s guarded by so many shifters.

***ARC courtesy of St. Martin’s Press