I got this from the library on a whim after the cover caught my eye, thinking wolf shifters would be a fun way to spice up some of my favorite tropes. Surely you can’t go wrong with grumpy/sunshine or fake dating in any form, right?

Wrong. This book fudged them both.

I love grumpy/sunshine pairings. I usually expect the grumpy character in said pairing to be introverted or antisocial in some form, and I’m okay with it. But this one is apparently so antisocial, he doesn’t talk to or text anyone and has thus forgotten how. Half the time he can’t tell when the FMC is very obviously joking, and the other half he finds her goofing around to be so incredibly insufferable. My dude, she isn’t the problem here.

I also love fake dating. But while every other story I’ve seen it used in takes some time to introduce you to the characters and set the scene before they strike their deal, this one doesn’t. It happens in the very first chapter, when I have no clue who either of them are or any reason to care about their fake relationship. Not to mention that it felt like they went from fake dating strangers to I’M SO HORNY FOR THIS PERSON far too quickly. Much as I wanted to stick around long enough to see them reach the friends with benefits stage, to see if the smut was any good, I just couldn’t.

I’ve gotten pretty good at pushing through books I’m not sure of purely because I’m curious, and even if I don’t end up loving them, there’s something in most of them that makes it worthwhile. But with this one, I simply didn’t want to keep reading and find out. When you have time and the desire to read but utterly do not want to actually return to your book, it’s time to give up the ghost. Or give up the wolf, I suppose.

(Also, I have to say it. Making the FMC a wolf shifter obsessed with Twilight is so unbelievably cringey to me. I had to stop and roll my eyes when she started quoting Eclipse. You could’ve picked literally any other series, and you picked this one. Come on.)