Author: April Asher
Series: Book 1 in the Supernatural Singles series
Category: Paranormal Romance
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
"'We were friends once, princess. We were more than friends.' Once upon a time, she'd been his fucking lifeline." - Linc
I wanted to love this book but, after finishing it and this review, I settled somewhere in the range of like. The plot, the world, and the characters were all there but the execution held me back in the end.
Violet was funny as hell but exaggerated in every way. Clumsy and klutzy were her biggest personality traits and I wish there was more focus on her insecurities and the reason she wanted to take a step back from the magical community regardless of her magical status. Her relationship with her sisters and her mother was hinted at but never fully explored and it would have given her more depth and background.
"'I don't fix things, Gran. I destroy. Take as evidence the very unconscious wolf shifter lying on my Target comforter.'" - Violet
Linc was besotted with Violet from the moment he saw her. After learning that they used to be an item, but circumstances made him walk away, I didn't understand why he never reached out to her after those circumstances changed.
"Violet Maxwell was the one who got away. And he wasn't just the bastard that let it happen. He was the idiot who hadn't run after her." - Linc
I hate feeling that a second-chance love interest only is interested after fate brings them together again. Linc never held that "alpha" edge for me, he was too mellow though I loved his spirit for equality among shifters.
Also, it was a strange choice to make a major plot point center around the shifter community with no shifts represented in the book aside from a one-page fight. For as much as Linc spoke about his wolf, we barely saw it.
"His Wolf had recognized her, practically sitting up and whimpering as he honed in on her sweet flowery scent." - Linc
For all the build-up between Violet and Linc, their faking dating period had zero sexual tension. Which is the BEST phase of the trope for me to be honest. Also, once they came together, there were several scenes that technically weren’t fade-to-black they might as well have been for all the lack of chemistry and page time.
Everything happened too easily, too quickly, or too coincidentally. If you know exactly what's going to happen in a book before you even get to read that part, it can take you out of the story. Despite the high stakes in this book surrounding our two main characters Linc and Violet, they sailed through each problem easily time and time again.
I wanted more. More magic, more tension, more angst, more drama. As the first in its series, I hope the next books have some more oomph to them to really draw me into the story.
Tropes and Themes: Witches, Magic, Wolf Shifter, Paranormal, Fantasy Romance, Fake Dating.
Blurb
A fake relationship between a magic-less witch and a wolf shifter turns to more in the start of a bewitching new paranormal rom-com series.
Magic-less witch Violet Maxwell wants nothing to do with alpha wolf shifter Lincoln Thorne—the man who broke her fragile, teenage heart. But when the two of them are forced by arcane Supernatural Laws to find mates, Violet and Lincoln agree to fake-date their way to a fake-mating in order to conjure themselves some time.
The joke’s on them. When old feelings make a reappearance—along with Violet’s magic—they both realize there’s nothing fake about their feelings. But there are old secrets and looming threats that could snatch away their happily ever after, again. One thing’s for sure: magic doesn’t make dating and love any easier.
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