3.5 Stars 
 Kenyon's grasp for series inter-connectivity has had me looking forward to this one. (Also, my general affinity for werewolves didn't hurt.) 
 My favorite element to this story was the cultural and psycho-physiological distinctions between the Katagaria and the Arcadians (werewolves who are born as wolves, the "heart" of and animal, and can't turn into humans until puberty; and werewolves who are born human, have the "heart" of a human, and can't turn into wolves until puberty--respectively.) In this shifter world, Vane is an anomaly. His father is Katagarian and his mother is Arcadian. The hatred between his warring parents has made life a misery and a danger for Vane, who is on the run from his pack alpha father at the start of this book. 
 My least favorite element, unfortunately, was Bride. 
 Don't get me wrong--I was initially quite excited to see a plus-sized heroine who wasn't some sort of crazy-powerful Amazonian warrior. But in some sense, Bride turned out to be a little TOO weak and unremarkable. We open with her mourning the death of her 5-year relationship with a shallow, piggish man who was verbally and mentally abusing her over body type. She knew she was trying to settle for scum because she was desperate to feel love--even if it was so obviously counterfeit. (Her immediately sleeping with a handsome-yet-complete stranger makes passable sense, given her non-existent self-regard.) 
 But it's Bride's lack of personal growth that bothered me throughout most of the book. Given she's been belittled for her looks both overtly and passively by even her own family for her whole life, one would think she'd be well versed at looking beneath the surface for value in people. But for an uncomfortable amount of the book, she is surprisingly incurious about Vane's personality and inner workings. I get that she doesn't expect him to stick around, but I would have thought she would at least want to reassure herself that he wasn't psychotic... 
 By the end Bride does show more admirable substance in her capacity for devotion, but it was a long and tedious wade through shallow emotional waters to in order to get there. 
 While the book had some great easy-read elements, I ultimately felt like I couldn't round up to 4 in the rating scale.