Red-Haired Ash Reads

Lana Dixon knows to stay away from alpha males, but Ty Hawthorne is impossible to avoid. Her inner wolf refuses to give up on him and after a romp under the full moon Lana knows she will risk everything for him. But will Ty put duty before everything including their mating. 

After reading the prequel story, I was really interested in Ty and his story since we were told he had been chasing a phantom mate for over 10 years. Ty instantly is attracted to Lana but fights it because he doesn’t think she can be the phantom mate. While I liked Ty, I do think he was a bit of a pushover at times. He doesn’t stand up to his father who clearly isn’t a good person and just goes along with all his misogynistic views. I was really expecting him to really confront his father once he realized Lana was his mate and take over to make the pack a better place, but that didn’t happen. 

Also, while Ty clearly fell hard for Lana, he doesn’t lean on her like mates should and Lana gets upset about it, but it’s not ever really addressed. I just expected more grovel and change from Ty than what we got. Sadly, a lot of the changes happened during time skips and are just referenced, which took away from the relationship development I think. 

Lana was a great heroine. She was smart, deadly, and determined to claim her mate. I liked that she wasn’t afraid to fight for her home and go against rogues who were causing problems. A strong heroine is always my preferred choice. Since this is a fated mate’s romance with instant love, there wasn’t a lot of relationship building. I think a little more would have been nice, especially the time skip parts at the end where they actually are a full mated couple. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book but just wanted a little more out of the story and characters. This is an interesting shifter world though and I do plan on reading more to find out what other paranormals are in this universe. 

TW: attempted rape; misogynistic views;

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Previous books and reviews for the series:

#0.5 Desert Hunt