Tepid supernatural romance needed more thrills

Reluctantly returning to visit his home town of Rowan Harbour, Devon Murphy is plagued by accidents and weird sightings, and an odd certainty by the townsfolk that he is exactly where he should be. Unfortunately, Police Deputy Wade Hunter is the exception, giving off electrifyingly handsome but hostile vibes. This supernatural, instalove romance was pleasant enough but surprisingly, given the werewolves and vampires, it lacked bite. There was some good world building, I especially liked Oak, but I felt the author missed an opportunity to make things more thrilling. The mystery lacked oomph and the fated-mates romance and the wholesome vibe left me a little flat. I’ll persevere with the series because I love Chris Chambers’ audio narrations (the first three are currently free on the Audible Plus catalogue).

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Unsubstantial but with potential

There’s some interesting elements and wonderful world building, but overall the story just lacks…spark, thrills, drama…any action to get me invested. It just felt… mundane, and considering it’s supposed to be supernatural that was a bit disappointing.

Half way through it I’m wondering where the book is building to; where’s the conflict or mystery requiring a resolution? Almost at the end, it’s finally presented and I was left thinking, “That’s it? That’s the mystery I was supposed to be invested in? I thought that was a side plot, not THE plot”.

As a positive, many of the characters are likeable in their own way and you do get that country-town-embrace vibe. The world building is excellent though, setting sequels up for a lot of potentially amazing stories.

The narration is “fine” but has two main issues: it’s relatively monotone, lacking emotion or any contrast; the voices for different people are not different enough that it makes it difficult to know who is talking without actively concentrating.

Pair this with the relatively slow story and it’s an okay book to pass the time with, but I wouldn’t put it at the top of the list if you have other things to listen to.

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Too soft to be in the Erotica category

The romance was sweet and the world building was great. I'm loving the knitting shop touch. Wade's 180° personally shift irritated me though. I understand what the author was trying to do, but it was not explained very well in my opinion.
A fun story and interesting lore that I'm looking forward to continuing in the next books.

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1 person found this helpful

intriguing

blackbird in the reeds by Sam burns. I was hooked after the first chapter but it did get a little slow after that too you hit about half way when it started to get really good. I loved this story being about fae but not the whole pointie ears etc. it was a nice change

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