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Fantasy. Fiction. Romance. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:Two wolf shifters agree to be fake mates but unexpectedly find something real in this steamy paranormal romantic comedy by Lana Ferguson. Mackenzie Carter has had some very bad dates lately. Model train experts, mansplainers, guys weirdly obsessed with her tail�she hasn�t had a successful date in months. Only a year out of residency, her grandmother�s obsession with Mackenzie finding the perfect mate to settle down with threatens to drive Mackenzie barking mad. Out of options, it feels like a small thing to tell her grandmother that she�s met someone. That is, until she blurts out the name of the first man she sees and the last man she would ever date: Noah Taylor, the big bad wolf of Denver General. Noah Taylor, interventional cardiologist and all around grump, has spent his entire life hiding what he is. With outdated stigmas surrounding unmated alphas that have people wondering if they still howl at the moon, Noah has been careful to keep his designation under wraps. It�s worked for years, until an anonymous tip has everything coming to light. Noah is left with two options: come clean to the board and risk his career�or find himself a mate. The chatty, overly friendly ER doctor asking him to be her fake boyfriend on the same day he�s called to meet the board has to be kismet, right? Mackenzie will keep her grandmother off her back, and Noah will get a chance to prove he can continue to work without a real mate�a mutually beneficial business transaction, they both rationalize. But when the fake-mate act turns into a very real friends-with-benefits arrangement, lines start to blur, and they quickly realize love is a whole different kind of animal.… (more)
User reviews
I liked Mackenzie and Noah and thought that they made a great pair. As they spend time together, they find that the attraction between them isn’t fake at all. I thought that the chemistry between them was very well done and it was obvious pretty early on in the story that they both felt more for each other than they had planned when they made their fake dating arrangements. I thought that the secondary characters were really well done and added a lot to the story as well.
I listened to the audiobook and thought Samantha Summers and Joe Arden did an amazing job with this story. I thought that their voices complimented each other’s very nicely. Both narrators did a great job of bringing the characters to life through their reading by adding just the right amount of emotion to their narration. I am certain that their narration added to my overall enjoyment of this story.
I would recommend this book to others. I enjoyed Lana Ferguson’s previous book, The Nanny, and was excited to give this one a try. This story had a bit of a different feel since it had some paranormal elements but it was just as entertaining. I cannot wait to read more of this author’s work in the future.
I received a review copy of this book from Berkley Publishing Group and Penguin Random House Audio.
This was a delightful grumpy/sunshine romance. Noah was viewed as a terrifying ogre by most of the hospital, but as Mackenzie got to know him, she realized he was just intense, introverted, and bad with people. The blend of contemporary romance "fake dating/marriage" with light wolf shifter paranormal romance aspects (they have to scent each other to make their relationship believable, and Mackenzie goes into heat once) was perfect. I loved the lack of weighty pack politics - Mackenzie and Noah were just regular people worrying about their jobs and families. They just happened to be a bit biologically different from humans.
For some reason, reading this reminded me of reading manga. I could absolutely imagine it as a fluffy romantic workplace manga with lead characters whose wolfy aspects led to things between them getting a bit steamier than they expected.
The obstacles standing between Mackenzie and Noah's romance weren't really that solid. Yes, Noah was considering a new job in Albuquerque, but it wasn't a done deal. And Mackenzie didn't necessarily have anything against relationships and dating in general (although I expected her to freak out a bit more once she realized that the stories about alpha and omega relationships maybe had some truth to them). Honestly, everyone in this book complicated things way more than necessary. Did that make this any less fun to read? No, it did not.
I'm curious about whether I'd like Ferguson's purely contemporary romance stuff as much as I enjoyed this - the paranormal aspects made it fairly easy to accept the speed with which Mackenzie and Noah started lusting after each other, and the scenting stuff (basically, nuzzling each other's necks) gave them lots of believable opportunities for very close physical contact. I could have done without the knotting thing, though, despite Mackenzie's assurances that it was actually pretty enjoyable.
All in all, this was a lot of fun, and I'd happily read another blend of contemporary and paranormal romance from this author. I may even give one of her regular contemporary romances a try.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)