I fully hated this. Boring, creepy, & infuriating.

This begins with our alpha "hero" (eyeroll) Rick rescuing Kai and his younger siblings from an abusive household. Kai is sheltered teen who's been abused for years, and he doesn't trust Rick automatically--a totally natural reaction which Rick accepted with grace as he slowly built trust with Kai and his siblings. JUST KIDDING! Rick immediately terrifies them, shouts at them, then freezes them out and neglects them, never once communicating what is going on! What a champ! Bonus points because the reason he freezes them out is that he's lusting after the abused teen boy literally on DAY ONE! Makes my skin CRAWL.

Eventually, he realizes he's being a garbage person and decides to step up and do is alpha duty. He's magically transformed into the most caring and helpful alpha on earth, and the story carries on from there like he's never done a thing wrong! What a perfect leader! All the alphas are BAD, but not Rick! Oh, but if you're, say, a family of abused children who are distrustful of alphas after hearing about all the bad alphas, buckle up for a scolding! This book will victim blame you with glee. Every character, especially Kai, is victim-blamed HARD by the side characters. They're guilt-tripped for being distrustful of Rick, who they HARDLY KNOW and who is NOT COMMUNICATING TO THEM. The side characters who spout BS like this are meant to be seen as heroes, too. WTF? Worse than what the side characters say, Kiki Clark made the most bizarre decision to make Kai's internal thoughts extremely self-deprecating and imply these are the RIGHT thoughts. He repeatedly thinks thoughts like he's "bad" and "mean" to be protective of his siblings & wary of Rick--a stranger who has not spoken to him or his siblings at all. The largest influx of victim-blaming scenes occur a matter of days after they've left their abusive family and filthy shed they lived in. The lack of empathy from the writer towards these characters completely shocked me. The victim-blaming doesn't stop after Rick steps up, either. It carries on to the end. It's truly a disaster so bad I've added Kiki Clark to my blacklist of writers to avoid at all costs.

There's some pedophilic undertones to Rick's behavior toward Kai, which make me want to vomit. Kiki Clark completely leans into parent/child dynamics for them which sent off alarm bells the entire time I read. For example, during a pack interview about his childhood trauma, Kai crawls into Rick's lap to cry and also, I guess, rub excitedly. Yes, in the middle of talking about his trauma, he's sitting horny in Rick's lap, acting 1/3 his age, and doing this all with an audience. No thank you. This dynamic is a really bad fit for such a poorly written childhood abuse story. While the dynamic is not explicitly dd/lb, it may as well have been, and this book needs a content warning for it, because GOD. Don't blindside people with a kink that, when it hits wrong, hits REALLY wrong.

The book is riddled with issues that appear relatively small in comparison, too. It uses traditional pack dynamics, so the Kincaid pack is very predictable and boring. The role of the alpha is an unlikable dictator in these. Every side character is a dull trope. There's these absurd info dumps that are awful to listen to/read, literally PAGES of solid dialogue telling backstory, no breaks. The plot is the dullest waste of time, involving characters and issues that readers have no reason to care about. And, god, SO much of the book is this boring, superficial plot.

Narration is not good. Just read the ebook.

13 people found this helpful

Just Wow!

LOVED the start to this series! Always love Kirts narration, his voices are AWESOME !

5 people found this helpful

Love it

Awesome story loved everything about it. Rick Ki all the Kincaid pack is great! Can’t wait for the next one.

4 people found this helpful

Absolutely Wonderful.

This is my first book by Kiki, and I must say I am fantastically expressed. This story is wonderful. A great start to a new series. Kai & Rick omgosh. I loved the compassion, loyalty and love they have for their family is so refreshing and welcomed. I just loved it. and the narration of Kirt Graves bringing these characters to life, OUTSTANDING. The only little disappointment I had was that, I wish a harder, or a beat down was administrator. To me, I feel certain people partially got away scott free. I look so forward in the next book. I just pray🙏🏽 that we will not have to wait long for the next installment of this amazing series. I highly recommend you all checkout this author and this story. You will definitely not be disappointed.

4 people found this helpful

Yes PLEASE

More more more! Kirt graves and gay werewolve books are like crack cocaine and crispy creme donuts all rolled in to one for me lol!!

3 people found this helpful

Pretty good story. Not a fan of narrator.

The story was pretty good. I believe I would have enjoyed this more if I had read it. I like Kirt Graves narration of Nox, but could not stand his narration of Wolfsong. His voice for the alpha in this book sounded like someone reading a bedtime story to their child and doing the voice of the big bad wolf. It really took me out of any scene with him in it, which is more than half of the book.

3 people found this helpful

Good Series Starter

This was my first experience with Kiki Clark and Kirt Graves and I really enjoyed it. Clark has created a really unique world here – shifters but without the typical fated mates aspect, though it’s definitely instant attraction. While each book in the series follows the relationship of a couple giving them an HEA, there’s also a series story arc that runs throughout the books, so you’ll want to listen to them all and in order.

There’s a lot of world building going on but Clark does a good job of keeping it interesting and I didn’t feel like the pace was affected by it. While Rick & Kai are wolf- shifters – the Kincaid Pack is made up of various animals as well as seers and witches. I’m a fan of books with kids in them and while not exactly a “single dad” trope – Kai’s responsibility for his younger siblings definitely brings all of those feels to the story. I also like that the kids are not just convenient props, Clark has made them an integral and believable aspect.

There are some heavy elements in here such as abuse, violence, and some relationship angst. Tempered by a little bit of humor and new found family. I love the secondary characters as much as the main couple. While Rick and Kai get their HFN, the mystery surrounding attacks on the pack are just revealing themselves to be larger than anyone thinks. I’m definitely looking forward to Keiran & Bennett’s book, The Second and His Bonded.

Narration:
This is my first time listening to a narration by Kirt Graves and I’m absolutely in love with his style and voices. There are a LOT of characters in this book and Graves gives them all unique voices and personalities. My favorite part is that he performs each chapter in a voice corresponding to that character which makes it easy to keep track of perspective. He’s definitely being added to my “find more!” list of narrators.

2 people found this helpful

4/5 stars

Story was great! I love this series. Performance by Kurt Graves was good. I wish there was a little bit more diversity with his voices. Some characters sounded very similar though it wasn’t hard to know who was talking. Great audiobook overall. Would recommend!

2 people found this helpful

Enjoyable!

3.5

So first off, I mostly enjoyed this. I loved the power balance between the couple. I loved the trauma. I also loved Kai giving it back at Rick.

I didn’t love how… slow it seemed in the beginning? While also sort of rushing their feelings? It was a little awkward for a hot minute. But it did get better as it went and left me wanting the next book for sure!

Great narration!

This is my first time with this author and I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to start the next one. I love Kirt Graves’ voice. He has great character voices too.