I read this book way back on 30th July 2023 but I've only decided to express my opinion about this book right now because why not? And seeing the 4.06 average rating on Goodreads, I must say that my opinion is quite unpopular.

But I must clarify that I don't remember most of my thoughts about the book so I don't have a record of my opinions while reading the book except a few quotes that I had saved earlier(thanks to my past self). I remember having something to rant over at every fucking page while reading this book. And I had so much to say to my friend who recommended me this atrocity. This book was so inherently stupid and ridiculous that I couldn't believe it had such a big rating on Goodreads. Anyways, let's start by the basic plot of the book.

This book is about a world where huamns coexist with shifters, vampires, faes and witches but they are hidden, or I think they are. The matriarchs of the founding families seek the witch Elder to scry to see if their sons have mates and they were shocked to discover that many of their sons' mates are humans. And to ensure their safety so that those mates don't end up dying before being "claimed", the witch Elder casts a spell to pull their sons' mates to them.
We follow Meryn Evans who's a thirty something old woman who "accidentally" stumbles upon the training area of Alpha Unit, led by Aiden McKenzie. Surprise surprise, she's his mate and now they must spend the rest of their lives together whether they want to or not.

That's it. That's what happened for the most of the book until the introduction of an eerie character who's troubling Meryn. The stakes are obviously low which is justified because it's the first book in such a long series but it's ridiculous.

The goal of the author for this book was to introduce the characters and build the world for the upcoming books and induce the excitement except the fact that the world building was shit. Pardon my rudeness but it's the truth. It was sloppy and poorly done. The story is told in simple linear structure and it's medium-paced and quite boring, atleast for me. The writing style isn't anything great or worth praising about, it's quite simple and YAish. The book conforms to it's genre quite well but I didn't find it as funny to let it fall into "Humor" category.

Coming onto the characters, I was so annoyed by Meryn. She was over thirty but tell me about one moment when she actually behaved like that. They say to let your inner child out at times and miss girl took that way too seriously. The author kept describing her as tiny, small, petite and god it annoyed me so much. You're telling me that she literally climbed a chair and her head could still barely reach Aiden's chin? What is she, a fucking child? I was so shocked when it was revealed that she's technically middle-aged because she certainly didn't seem like that. It took me quite sometime to finish this book because my body was physically cringing everytime she opened her mouth. Okay, I get that. I get that she wears graphic tees and hoodies, she uses a laptop(what an unusual trait for a woman!) and she's "not like other girls" but why the fuck does her whole personality revolves around this? And most of the shit that comes out of her mouth was not funny, it was ridiculous and immature, considering that she's over thirty.

I know I'm being salty but tell me, how am I supposed to take this girl seriously? Who wears tees like that? 12 year olds?

Oh come on Meryn. When have you ever sounded mature?

Here, she's talking to Aiden's family and 'them' is referred to her underwears. Please, how can she be so stupid to blurt that shit out?

I'm sorry but these 'men' can literally kill her if they ever want to. Where is she getting that confidence from?

And if you still didn't understand how stupid her character was then there's this scene where Meryn found a grenade, she pulled its pin off and started laughing. What in that scenario was so funny Meryn? I'm done with this girl man. I'm so done.
But why on earth were they having sex literally a few minutes after that?! Sir, your girlfriend was about to blow up the armory, probably the whole building along with herself and you're fucking her???

But I must mention that at the ending when she started commanding the warriors in the place of Aiden, I was surprised because how did she become so smart so suddenly? And that isn't me complimenting her, instead that feels like a flaw in writing. How did she know what exactly to do and what exactly to command? It's impossible to be this perfect considering that it was her first time doing that. The girl who was crying at everything, suddenly became a "badass" leader? Nah, that doesn't sit right with me.
By the way, I hate coffee so her coffee addiction really gives me the icks but that's on me.

Aiden, the male lead and his friends too weren't fun to read. What the fuck is snarling, groaning, ROARING, GROWLING? Real people don't talk like that. Even if he technically wasn't a human, did he actually talk like that at every damn moment? That is not sexy. Aiden was the typical alpha male character and god, I rarely find such characters hot.

There's one character that I ended up liking: Ryu. He seemed sincere but also kinda shady. For instance, this statement:

Yeah, this sounded a lot suspicious than it should have or maybe it's just me. Maybe he would actually do something fishy in the future since there are a lot of books.

Honestly, we were promised Romance and we were given that so I think I should give that to the author but guess what? I. Didn't. Care. About. The. Romance. At all. It was Insta-Love and a lot of supposedly romantic scenes were really questionable AND cringy, of course. The sexual scenes have never been my thing to read so I would not be talking about them because that's on me.

I'm sorry but his parents, his bestfriend and his butler was standing next to him. What the fuck is wrong with this man?

This sounds like a pretty normal romantic scene, except for the fact that his parents were literally standing beside them. See I don't give a shit if he's a bear or whatever but why is he pulling her girlfriend on his lap or kissing her in front of his parents? Where's the modesty? The chastity? The basic decency? Actually, why are his parents so casual with that? Why are they okay with his son and his mate being horny next to them?


The weaknesses of the book are pretty much everything that I've talked about until now but if I have to talk about its strengths then there are only three small things that I liked. One is Ryu, the other is Felix, that cute little sprite and the last is that scene where Aiden and his unit were out buying tampons. That was actually funny and I ended up laughing at how idiotic these men were.

This was pretty much a trashy romance for me but since it had a paranormal world then it would have been better if the world was built properly and the main character was written well instead of her being an immature idiot who was not like other girls. Even though the characters weren't likable, I might have rooted for the romance if it was a well-crafted slow burn with yearning from both sides, instead of Insta-love. I also would have liked it more if the characters weren't one dimensional.

All in all, this book was not for me and I clearly had a lot to say. This book was not written for me to be fair since I don't even like romance in general. But I do have the right for this critic because most of what I talked about are the characters and the sloppy, unrealistic scenes. Now, if you're someone who don't really care about the world-building as much and like a romance which is just there for the spice and lovey-dovey scenes, and if you love being different from other girls (totally not being sarcastic at all), then this book is for you. You would definitely like it for the 'no plot, just vibes' aspect and I would definitely judge you for your taste in books.
Again, pardon my excessive salinity.