OstensiblyA

The extra half star is only for the animals in the book. Who were far more interesting than any of the human characters. I've wanted to read this series for a long time, so this is really disappointing. It's another one of those vapid books that's all sex and no relationship building whatsoever. Another book where I spend the majority of the time rolling my eyes because it's nothing but noticing body parts and how omgsohawt each other are and if I have to hear about her nipples being hard one more time I might smash my phone a little bit (it's what I play my audiobooks on). Shalvis skipped over the actual first date but spent forever and a damn day on the sex scene of that night. They never really talked about anything of substance. Not until the very end of the book and not even for that long. It was mostly sex and sexual innuendo.

*SPOILERISH* I was so bored and annoyed that absolutely nothing was going on but sex that I was actually rooting for the heroine to get shot in one scene. Thankfully she did, in the arm. But did that slow them down? OF COURSE NOT. They were screwing that very same night. And every night after. Then she jumps into the lake to skinny dip with him even though her arm still hurts and there are still stitches in it to be just so cute and spontaneous and quirky! Ugh.

The only conflict was the hero's wanderlust. He was always going to leave because he can't stay tied down anywhere. That was it. His inevitable realization at the end was  lackluster and entirely snooze-worthy. So were the declarations. Of course they had both been talking about feelings and pieces of their hearts throughout the book, which triggered a lot of my eye rolling because why? I kept asking that. I don't get why they had any feelings other than wanting and the possibility of missing sex.

On, top of that the narrator was not good, which didn't help matters. She was fairly monotone, especially in the hero's voice. Everyone pretty much sounded the same (except the animals) and only mildly felt any emotions at all.

While part of me wants to try the other two in the series because it's hard to let go of having wanted to read them, I won't because I doubt I can expect more from those books either. I'm just so sick of alleged romances that completely skip out on the whole romance part of the story.