This novella was supposed to be my introduction to Ali Hazelwood. Many reviews from friends and other readers had been positive and glowing so my expectations were high, but this book let me down. Our female and male leads don't interact much even after their political marriage. If they do, it is brief with our male lead trying to haul his butt out of the room quicker than a snake coiled ready to strike.

And when our female lead was attacked, it didn't seem our male lead was remotely concerned about it. It seemed he wanted to feed into the Were's hatred for the Vampyre's. Maybe all of this could have just been me but I could not feel the connection our leads were supposed to have. It was not there and I think the author tried to push it toward the late stages of the book.

Honestly, I would have loved to say this was my favorite novel of the year but I would be lying. The book lacked character development and the ingredients needed to make a strong character bond between the two main leads. It was there not enough to make it worth the continual read.