A rejected mate story where the heroine actually has some back bone and the hero grovels? Yes, please and thank you.

🐝 Una Hayes is a great heroine. She's a fighter, a survivor, in a way her pack will never truly appreciate. She has a bad leg and that's all they see, but she doesn't let it stop from taking care of herself and her packmates. She also has that resilience, that quiet determination to keep on moving and living. Her wolf is also a riot.

🐺 I ended up actually really liking Killian and empathize with the path he's taken. It's easy to just focus on the bad and how at times he should have known better. But when you read about how the pack worked before he became alpha, the amount of work and energy he had to put into the pack to get them out of the caves, protect the weak, earn enough money so everybody's taken care of... That required a single-minded focus and determination that unfortunately made him oblivious to other things. Seriously, he can be really dense, especially in the first half of the book. But his hard work also paved the way for Una's ability to take care of her packmates.

💞 They make a really great pair. While he was busy with the big issues in the pack, she made sure the weaker and forgotten wolves were taken care off instead of just left alone. They both grew into strong, resourceful people who complement each other very well. I'll probably read other books in the series just to see how well the pack is now doing thanks to their partnership.

💗 I really like the rejected mate trope here. In many books, this trope is used to have a bully romance where the hero treats the heroine like trash but she's still coming back to him because "the bond makes me do it". It's gross. You have a bit of that here, there were some moments where I didn't understand the dynamics or the choices made (the biology/magic behind the fated mates bond is wonky, no one really knows much about it it seems, plus the wolves have a mind of their own), but overall Una doesn't just give in, and Killian doesn't just demand. It helps that Killian is never an absolute asshole, or is being mean just for the sake of being mean. He hasn't done anything that I see as unforgivable, and he tries to make amends for the harm he's done.

🗒️ I also quite liked the writing. Not overly descriptive, direct and to the point. There are some cringey moments (especially from Killian's POV in the first half), but I really enjoyed the writing overall.

↘️ My main complaint is how little is known/explained around fated mates and their bonds. Between the baffling relationship we see between already existing fated pairs, the ramblings of the crone and her magic... It feels like the author has been purposely vague so she could do with it what she wanted when she wanted it. It was confusing and not very satisfying.

 

I've read a lot of shifter romances, and this one is my new favorite.  Complex emotions,  high stakes, great world building. 

This was a unique sort of shifter romance where instead of being a mate-or-nothing sort, the alpha, Killian, rejects his fated mate, Una, initially (for really no good reason, let’s be honest) and spends the rest of the book groveling to get her back. I overall liked it and thought I’d was good, but I’m also not feeling like it’s my favourite shifter romance I’ve ever encountered. It was well-written and despite the beginning I liked how the author managed to write Killian back from an absolute a-hole to someone I actively liked. Una also came into her own in this story which was nice. Sometimes in these stories when one character has a huge character growth arc, the other character is kind of forgotten, but Una also came into her own in confidence and assertiveness throughout this book and that was a pleasure to read. I think some of the character transitions from beginning to end seemed to pop out of nowhere but this was good and I would read the next book happily. The secondary characters really popped and I’m curious about so many potential couples here. Not much diversity, but there is a gender non-conforming potential story lurking in this world (maybe in a future book) that I think would be really innovative for shifter romance.

As I branch out from my typical genres, I believe this is my first “rejected mate” trope. While I enjoyed the setup in the beginning and most of the story up to ~75%, once I finished there’s just something…meh about it. 

I enjoyed both leads and the dual POV narration. Una is a spunky lead, just trying to keep a low profile while she works towards her independence outside of being a ‘lone female reject.’  Her and ‘her girls’ are a lovely breath of fresh air in this pack ruled by strength. Killian gives a first impression as a big, dumb, brutish Alpha, but there’s more than meets the eye, especially once we’re treated to some heartbreaking flashbacks that really flesh out his character. They’re also both pretty darn funny - I found myself chuckling out loud at times, especially once Killian starts trying to win Una back. 

I definitely wasn’t expecting how much of a slow-burn this story would be. The language is so crude, with so much sexual imagery and tension right from the get-go, but the actual romance between the two leads takes a loooong time to get going. Not necessarily a bad thing, what with Una giving the big ol’ FU to Killian for the initial mate rejection, just not what I was expecting!

Anyways, perhaps once I get a few more of this trope under my belt I may feel differently. I’m moving onto book 2 right away, and I do think I will give this a re-read at some point.

Well, that was a delightful (and brief) foray into M/F romances. I stopped reading non-queer books a while back, but after reading several glowing reviews on bookgram (and also because I could never resist a good ol' grovel-fest romance), my reader brain wanted to give this novel a try. I loved it, needless to say.

I absolutely adored Una: she's a fantastic protagonist, complex and a bit damaged, afraid but still very protective, a badass at heart, fierce and vulnerable at the same time. I think one of the reasons I stopped reading M/F was because I felt I never could measure up to how powerful and beautiful some of the female protagonists were and it made me feel insecure: although I won't be coming back to the genre on a regular basis, I now feel like I definitely have to find more romances like this, where the heroine is contradictory and realistic, imperfect but lovable and admirable, a definitely not one of those beautifully inhuman superwomen. I also absolutely adored all the other female characters: Annie and Mari were wonderful and Kennedy? I'll be forever praying she gets her own novel because I. LOVED. HER. SO. MUCH.

Killian, our hero, was a bit more difficult to like: he's tough and okay, yes, hot. But he's also a walking, talking caveman stereotype and I kept waiting for somebody to beat some sense into him. He eventually gets over himself and slowly, but surely, he starts acting less like an asshole. And yes, even though I still wanted to kick him near the end, all the groveling was absolutely glorious. And I loved how helplessly wrapped around Una's finger he was: the epilogue was *chef's kiss* peak comedy and romance.
All in all, this was a delightful romance: addicting and somewhat angsty, romantic and steamy and so, so satisfying. Definitely recommended.