3 out of 5 stars
Ebook. Dreamspun Beyond #7. 238 pages. Published November 1st 2017 by Dreamspinner Press
Blurb:
Moonmates exist, but getting together is going to be a beast….
When Adrian Rothschild skipped his “werewolf puberty,” he assumed he was, somehow, human. But he was wrong, and he’s about to go through his Turn with a country between him and his Pack—scared, alone, and eight years late.
Dr. Tate Lewis’s werewolf supremacist father made his Turn miserable, and now Tate works for Camp H.O.W.L. to ease the transition for young werewolves. He isn’t expecting to offer guidance to a grown man—or find his moonmate in Adrian. Tate doesn’t even believe in the legendary bond; after all, his polygamist father claimed five. But it’s clear Adrian needs him, and if Tate can let his guard down, he might discover he needs Adrian too.
A moonmate is a wolf’s missing piece, and Tate is missing a lot of pieces. But is Adrian up to the challenge?
Likes:
- The focus on helping kids manage the Turn and the talk about how to navigate social media without revealing the secret of werewolves to humans.
- Adrian’s life as someone who didn’t Turn when he should have and his trouble adjusting to it as an adult.
- The plot of the first half of the book.
- That Adrian and Tate didn’t immediately fall in love despite being moonmates.
- The whole idea of moonmates being a different thing from those who just have a strong bond.
- Camp H.O.W.L. itself was an interesting concept.
Dislikes:
- The slow burn romance was too slow.
- The plot of the last third of the book was slow.
- There was no substantial character development for either Adrian or Tate.
- Lots of missed opportunities to make the story better as a whole.
- Tate’s aversion to being moonmates was a bit over the top.
- No conclusion about why Adrian didn’t Turn when he was nineteen and no real talk about how or if he will continue to be different from other werewolves going forward.
The premise of this book is great. Adrian is the prefect character to introduce the readers to Camp H.O.W.L. As an adult, he is more clearheaded than any of the teens who are going through their Turn. He’s also just an interesting character. He spent eight years being different from his entire pack and family. It bothers him both because it makes him different from everyone he loves and because no one knows why it happened.
Tate is a less interesting character at the start, but he does have an unusual past. A past that prevents him from embracing the moonmate bond he quickly forms with Adrian.
I really did like that, although the bond formed quickly between Adrian and Tate, there was no rush into a relationship. They might be werewolves, but that wasn’t an excuse to jump into bed. Unfortunately, Tate was so against having any kind of relationship or bond with Adrian that the romance throughout the whole book was lacking. The two men basically became friends and roommates who wanted to bone but didn’t.
Instead of the romance being two steps forward and one step back, it was more like Tate ran hot and cold. The first kiss – which didn’t happen until chapter 12 – was the only intimate moment I remember them sharing before they finally got together at the end. And even then there was no penetrative sex, which wouldn’t have been a problem except that I felt like full sex would have had more of an emotional impact. Their quick mutual masturbation just didn’t have the intimacy the story needed.
And that’s the crux of what I felt was missing from this story – intimacy. It was great that they didn’t jump into sex, but there weren’t nearly as many little flirty moments where you could tell their feelings for each other were growing.
Tate’s hang-ups with his family seemed to affect his relationship with Adrian to an unusually high degree. Tate was able to separate himself from his former pack in every other way, rejecting their teachings because he knew it was wrong. Except when it came to being moonmates with Adrian. Even when Tate finally embraced their bond, it was only after telling Adrian his great secret, which didn’t seem like it was that big of a deal. The secret wasn’t something Tate did or even something bad that happened to him. It was just another example of how messed up his pack and their way of life was.
Overall, I did enjoy this book when I was reading it. It was only after reaching the end that I noticed how little the romance and characters had progressed. The epilogue did have some of those little intimate touches that added to the romance overall, but I was still left vaguely unsatisfied. Adrian didn’t even get the chance to be with his family’s pack as a werewolf.
I will definitely be reading the next book in the series because I really did love the idea of Camp H.O.W.L, especially the focus on teaching the teens how to navigate social media without revealing their furry bits.
Be sure to check out the reviews for Under a Blue Moon, Hiding in Plain Sight, and the series review.
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