Author: Marleigh Kassidy
Series: The Hounds Series book #1
Category: Paranormal Romance
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
This was a dark book, and not necessarily because of the abuse and heartbreak. No, it was dark because you grow to care about these characters and they constantly fail, being beaten down and hurt time and time again. There aren't many happy times in the first of the series aside from a few well-placed sexscapades.
Saige was a tragic character, and things went from bad to worse as the story unfolded. Her outlook was bleak and it was hard to know just how she was ever going to feel safe.
"That I was wrong to believe he's one of the good ones at all because there are no good ones anywhere. Just like happily ever afters, they don't exist." Saige
Aden was a unique love interest in a shifter book in that he wasn't a shifter, only human even if he was part of the pack. He was a total sweetheart with only the best intentions, though they didn't always coincide with listening to what Saige wanted.
"That's when I see the same need reflected in his eyes as I feel inside me. Protect Saige, always." - Aden
I hated Kade's character in the beginning, due to his man-whore and alcoholic tendencies. He was drowning himself in lust and liquor to forget the past but it was hard to see redeeming qualities other than possessiveness. As his and Saige's relationship developed, he was very good for her and while bullish, he knew how to get through to her and what she needed.
The Alpha of the pack, Dariel, was uptight and barely hanging on to his humanity. He couldn't understand Saige's importance to his pack and constantly ignored who she was to him/them.
There was a connection between all of them right away, even while some denied it. With so much baggage between the pack and Saige's past, no one seems like they are ready to move forward and embrace their relationship. There was a big cliffhanger at the end of this book and I immediately started book two after writing this book review. I hope that the four of them can find a way to trust each other and heal.
"Damaged, then, maybe even broken. Just like the rest of us." - Kade
Tropes and Themes: Reverse Harem, Abuse, Wolf Shifters, Werewolves, Why-Choose, Dark Romance, Cliffhanger.
Blurb
Two years ago, I lived a hellish life where happily ever afters happened to everyone else, never me. Until he came.
He was an alpha wolf shifter, rich, the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my life…and a monster a million times worse than the past I left behind.
His years of abuse finally break me, but when I least expect it, I’m impossibly free when I should be dead.
Keep running, Saige, I tell myself. Maybe then you’ll find a safe place to hide.
I never expect to run into three men with secrets, shadowed eyes, and damaged souls. With them I can almost believe they will protect me from a past that continues to hunt me.
With them, maybe I’ll be safe.
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