It's nice to finally read about how Willow and Garrison became an item and also how they are currently dealing with their long distance relationship. I appreciate that we get an exploration of Willow and Garrison's family history. We get to see an emotionally vulnerable Garrison and it's clear that Willow and her family have helped bring out the best in him. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel because I think Garrison is a great person that just hasn't been given the right environment to thrive. I also just like seeing character growth in stories and this is a good example of that. This is a good stand alone story if you don't want to read the rest of the books in this world, but also a good introduction of you want a starting point as well.

*Mild spoilers ahead*

As has been mentioned in other books in this universe, Garrison comes from an abusive household and it's clear in his more recent interaction with his family that he needs to stay away from them for his own safety and well-being. It's also clear that Garrison still has a lot of emotional baggage he needs to sift through. I think the theme of abuse was handled well in this book and the effect trauma like that has on Garrison is a good example of how it can affect a lot of victims in real life. The representation was appreciated and I can't wait to see more of how Garrison deals with it in the sequel.

This installment kept me on my toes the whole time wondering who the traitor in the pack was. The ending was interesting and a bit surprising. I'm glad we got to see Asil and Tag again in this book since they're two of my favorite characters in the pack. It's funny that Asil flirts with Anna just to irritate Charles. Charles is presented as such an intimidating character from the pack's perspective that it's nice to see that he can become irritated like any normal person. His relationship with Anna continues to be one of my favorites with great communication and the great love and respect they have for each other. 

There was a bit of perspective given about Bran and Mercy's relationship given in a conversation between Anna and Charles and I'm not sure how accurate their interpretation of Bran's attitude towards Mercy is. It would be nice to get something from Bran's perspective at some point. I think his actions came to show how far Charles is willing to go to protect the pack. The relationship between Leah and him is still strained, however I think it's possible he does have some fondness for his wife even if he's not in love with her. I'm looking forward to more books in the series. I'll be reading the rest of the Mercy Thompson books in the meantime.

So let me get my beef with this this book out of the way first. Within the first three pages there was a huge mistake that could have been easily avoided by a simple Google search by the author or the editor. There is a Latino character named Yan in the book who speaks Spanish and asks the question "How is he?" in Spanish. The problem is that the phrase used in the text translates to "What is he like?", two very different things. As a Latinx Spanish speaker, it's really insulting to feel like the author just wanted to have their token person of color in the book and couldn't even be bothered to look up the language properly. On top of that, neither did the editors because nobody seemed to have caught that. It's especially unfortunate because I paid full price for the Kindle edition of this book and actually liked the rest of the story. But well, at least now I have my main complaint off of my chest. 

As far as the story, I thought that the idea of a group of men having a book club where they got ideas about wooing women from romance novels was quite funny. Obviously it's not meant to be taken super seriously and it's nice that it destigmatizes men reading romance. I also appreciated that Gavin, the main character, who is a famous athlete and also handsome has a stutter. It's rare to find characters that seem to "have it all" and still struggle with confidence or have a disability. I can see why Thea thought Gavin's stutter was cute. As I kept reading and saw how sweet he was it was easy to see how his stutter could become endearing.

The conflict between Thea and Gavin was also a good reflection of how couples that love each other can still fail to communicate and have problems in the relationship because of it. Each character had their strengths but also their weaknesses that they had to individually come to terms with and fix. It showed a lot of character growth from both of them and ultimately helped them reconcile their marriage. I liked the plot and characters overall, but I do think the author needs to be more mindful of her research when it comes to representation, so I'm not sure how comfortable I am paying full price for other books of hers. We'll see, I'll have to read reviews beforehand and make a decision on that.