Wade was a super fun character in the Soulbound series, albeit a bit of a comedic relief character, so I was curious to see him get his own book.

It plays 5 years after Wade got rescued from the clutches of the God who enslaved and abused him, and Wade is now 23, confident and happy with his place in New York City's god pack. While of course he is no POV character in the Soulbound series, I couldn't see much of a difference between how he read as a character as a teen in the original series and in this book, which I guess felt a bit strange.
Still, reading from his POV was fun - after seeing how carefully the other characters in the series have to navigate the difficult relationships between various parts of the preternatural community, it was super fun to see Wade just not have to care due to being a dragon and therefore being somewhat except from many of the political intrigues of the community.

I really enjoyed the plot in this one - Wade gets send to Boston after the local god pack's dire requests aid because her alphas got kidnapped by a fae looking to take over the city - and the god pack aren't the only victims.

This brings us to the other protagonit, Riordan. He's the leader of a prominent selkie clan in Boston and as such also got targeted by the ambitous fae, as his sister's sealskin got stolen. Selkies were not brought up in Soulbound at all, so it was a nice addition and lore expansion. That said, I couldn't quite wrap my head around selkies' standing in the fae community - they are fae, but also seemingly not quite seen as such by other fae? That was a bit confusing.

Riordan was a nice character, though not really a stand out. I enjoyed his dynamic with his siblings, but to be honest, the overall workings of his clan and business and him being a clan leader felt a bit underdeveloped. However, for the scope of the story in this book, it worked. A bigger gripe I had with his POV chapters was the parts where he was in his seal form and working magic. Those I found a bit hard to follow.

My favourite part of the book was the plot. I really enjoyed seeing all the different players of the preternatural community coming together. Not everyone is friendly, but thanks to Wade being a dragon it was just fun to see how it all worked out. The final reveal about the main antagonist was a bit underwhelming, though, even though it could have been really big. I am also a bit confused about the ending, and how what happened was supposed to stop the main antagonist.
There were plenty of cameos from familiar faces, which I enjoyed, even though those were not always fully fleshed out.

The romance was fine. I did enjoy the whole "fixation" aspect from Riordan's side, and how it tied the romance to selkie culture. That said, I found it a bit difficult to believe that a over 400 year old fae clan leader would be in any way interested in a 23 year old who he believes to be a mundane human. And even after he finds out that Wade is a dragon, that does not change his age.

Another aspect I wasn't quite happy with was Wade's trauma. That was not handled with anything close to the depth is deserved and needed. Sure, Riordan quickly realizes about parts of Wade's past, and he quickly and without struggle puts consent at the forefront of their romantic and sexual interactions, but... I still found that many of the romance scenes reverted back to the typical M/M romance patterns that I'm used to from the author, with a sprinkle of "oh right Wade has some issues" here and there. One thing I also found very strange was that the word "rape" was never used on-page, despite it being made very clear that Wade was raped in the past. I can totally see how maybe Wade would not want to use that word, nevermind his years of therapy, but it still struck me as almost a cop-out to not have that conversation and instead advance the romance quickly.

I suppose that was my main gripe with it - it advances a bit too quickly for me, though I think I noted the "too quick romance" thing in the author's other books as well. That said, in several of the other books, the characters at least outright acknowledge that it's fast, and it's not love from the beginning but something to gow into. Meanwhile in Secondhand Skin there are love confessions at the end of the book, whcih plays over the course of maybe 5 days? Possibly less??

I still had a very good time with this book. It's only in retrospect that I notice some of the flaws. I think I would enjoy reading more from Wade and Riordan, as well as from the rest of the crew in the universe.