Review: Feral Sins (The Phoenix Pack Series) by Suzanne Wright

Book Description:

If your inner wolf and your body react rather enthusiastically to a psychotic Alpha male who’s own wolf has a tendency to turn feral, it can’t be a good thing, can it? Entering into a bargain with him wouldn’t be good either. Unfortunately, Taryn Warner, a latent wolf shifter, doesn’t have many options open to her right now. Okay, she has no options. Basically it comes down to whether she’ll do what it takes to escape the arranged mating with the sick SOB that her father set up. As the answer in this case is yes, it looks as though she’ll have to agree to Trey Coleman’s deal…she’ll have to mate with him instead.

Having always disliked shifter politics, Trey Coleman hadn’t bothered trying to form alliances with other packs. Now that his uncle – a wolf with many alliances – means to take Trey’s territory and his pack, he has no option but to form some alliances of his own very quickly or he’ll be easily outnumbered in the upcoming battle. He figures that the easiest way to do that would be to mate with a female who’s Alpha is powerful and influential. There’s only one problem with that – he would then be stuck with her, and the last thing Trey wants is a mate. When he hears of Taryn’s situation, he offers her a deal – if she falsely claims he’s her true mate and allows him to claim her, he’ll save her from her arranged mating and then let her leave after the battle with his uncle is over.

Sounds like a pretty straightforward deal...but soon Taryn and Trey realize they got more than they bargained for. Their mating instincts to protect and possess are weighing on them, they crave each other’s touch and company, and their inner wolves don’t like it whenever they’re apart. Add in that they’ll have to deal with this for an entire three months until the day of the battle finally arrives, and they’ve got themselves a recipe for disaster – or maybe for something quite the opposite.

Warning: This novel contains an extremely sarcastic Alpha female, a broody possessive Alpha male, bitter in-laws, voyeuristic enforcers, a whole lot of dirty talk, and steamy bedroom battles for dominance. Reader Advisory: This book also contains a graphic ménage scene - not for the faint-hearted.

 ***MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS***

From the first time I heard about this book, it intrigued me. But…I’m not a fan of shifters or werewolves. So I put off reading it. Even after I heard about “THAT SCENE”, I still didn’t read it. It wasn’t until a friend said I had to read this because book 2 was coming out that I gave in and picked it up.

Now, anyone that knows me knows that I don’t seek out spoilers. But I knew about “THAT SCENE”…I knew why people didn’t like it. So even as I started the book, I worried about it (more on that later).

So, I started Feral Sins…and fell in love with it. And that’s saying something since it falls in one of the paranormal categories I’m not fond of. But it’s true, I loved it.

I loved that Taryn was an Alpha female. She was strong. She could take care of herself. She had a mouth on her that cracked me up! I loved her banter with everyone! But her barbs with Greta were the best. Taryn wasn’t afraid to stand up to Trey. She gave as good as she got. And he loved her for it.

Trey *sigh*…if you want to talk about Alpha heroes, then you want to talk about Trey. Don’t get me wrong, I love alphas but oftentimes they are big idiots that have me wanting to 

a)      Give them a Gibbs head slap

b)      Drop kick them

c)      Go all Queen of Hearts on them.

That’s my range of irritability with characters. Trey didn’t ring any of those bells (well…except once…more later). He was pretty much perfect. He was alpha but he wasn’t an idiot about it. He wasn’t alpha for the sake of being alpha. I was in his head enough to understand his mind/reasoning.

Tray and Taryn as a couple…probably one of my favorite couples…EVER! I loved them from their first meeting. I kept hoping that they would end up as True mates, and I was so happy when that turned out to be the case. They were so great together. They complimented each other perfectly. 

Taryn’s latency…I called it from the beginning. I had a theory. Taryn once mentioned that after her mom and Joey died she closed herself off. I think her walls were so strong that she kept herself from shifting. She had so much control over herself that she suppressed the ability to shift. So I wasn’t the least bit surprised when she finally shifted near the end of the book.  But that doesn’t mean I didn’t cheer. I did (and I got weird looks from the dog for it).

Ok. It’s now later. Time to address “THAT SCENE”. My copy was the old version. It had the scene in it. Honestly, I dreaded it. I became scared of it. It wasn’t so much the subject matter, it was the fact that it went against Trey’s character for him to allow it to happen let alone for him to instigate it. I was afraid that the scene would usurp my feelings for the book. That it would override all the great things and THAT SCENE would be all I would remember. So…did read it? Well…. Yes and no. I read it up to a point. Then I skimmed until I reached the end of that part (aka the end of the chapter). I read through Trey’s explanation for why he instigated it. For me, it didn’t fit. The scene wasn’t right for Trey’s personality. I didn’t buy the reasoning. And I really disliked that it was during the orgy that Taryn became pregnant. So, my curiosity got the better of me. How was the new version different? I HAD TO KNOW!

So I did the only thing I could do…I bought the new version. So, what did I think of the new version? Well, it was kind of like darned if you do and darned if you don’t. While the new one was much better in terms of fitting Trey’s personality, I felt the new scene kind of went against Taryn’s personality. But not to the extent of the original version did with Trey. However, I really did love that it was just the two of them. That her pregnancy came from a time when it was just them.

As for the spy…I’ll admit that I didn’t call it. I thought it would be Selma or Kirk. I wasn’t expecting Brock. Well…until he was left behind to “protect” the women. Then it was obvious that he was the traitor. There was no way Taryn would have trusted Selma. And since Brock had never done or said anything against Taryn, she had no reason to mistrust him.

I was honestly astonished at how much I loved this book. It definitely became an instant favorite. If all shifter/werewolf books were like this, I might become a fan! There were so many great parts of this book. There were times that I just died laughing. If it wasn't Taryn's comments to Greta, it was Dominick's corny pick-up lines. This book is a must read for any paranormal fan and for anyone that loves alpha heroes and strong alpha heroines.

And let’s not forget how hot this book is! The author didn’t hold back on the sex scenes. They were great. 

I have to say, Ms. Wright, you did a fantastic job with this book. I can’t wait to read the next in the series and beyond that, you have a new fan. I would read anything you wrote. 

To see a picture of my Trey, click here.

My reviews can also be found on Goodreads.