Carnal Secrets

Carnal Secrets tells Shaya & Nick's story. They're both unique; Shaya is a half-shifter (human father) and Nick's wolf surfaced when he was very young. There are other factors, however, that keep Nick from immediately claiming Shaya when he realizes she's his true mate. After many tears, arguments, pleas and (finally) open discussions, the two eventually become a mated pair.

I'm happy for the pair because they've both suffered enough and deserve the happiness they ultimately found with each other, but I was hoping for something ... more. Either way, I like this series and will continue on with it. I'm interested in Roni (Nick's sister) and Marcus' story, which is next up in [b:Dark Instincts|21901021|Dark Instincts (The Phoenix Pack, #4)|Suzanne Wright|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1419308093s/21901021.jpg|41195057].

***3.5***

As with the last book, I liked it, despite parts of the plot not making sense or requiring a massive suspension of disbelief.

- How on earth would Nick not know that the wolf he was dueling WASN'T actually dead? That was ... honestly, dumb.

- Amber not fully healing him... I could see that coming a mile away. Also, I suspect she was dicking with Roni to keep Roni in need of her "care" too. And honestly, the fact that it took so long for Shay to talk to Taryn about it is dumb. But this is a problem I've had throughout the series - don't establish Taryn as an unusually powerful healer in the beginning of the first book, only to have her basically be dismissed as a healer from then on. It was dumb in the second book (when Jaime was shot), and it was dumb here. But at least she actually got to BE a healer in this book, at the end. So that was nice.

- Given that everyone in the world has cameras nowadays, it seems suspicious to me that the extremists managed to avoid being videotaped as they harassed shifters up until now. It also makes the shifters seem dumb - whip out your camera phone whenever an extremist approaches you, and you can pretty easily change the narrative about the "violent animals".

- In a similar vein, the abuses at the juvie facility went way too far for me to suspend disbelief. It seemed to be an open secret that children are tortured and raped in there, systemically. Seriously, the shifters need to get a PR team or something, because given how horrified the public was about the game preserve - particularly the dead children - making the truth known about the juvie system should do a lot to benefit the shifters. And it's sure better than just allowing it to continue, as they seem to be doing now.

Shay also annoyed me too. I was 100% on her side at the start. Nick, at minimum, owed her a conversation. What he did was way beyond shitty - not only rejecting her without a word, but then continuing to insinuate himself in her life, looming over her... and eventually driving her away from her pack, her friends, her family. It is ... well, honestly, it is all pretty unforgivable. So I was down with Shay making him pay for it, and taking some time to be won over.

But I felt like ...

the date was a bridge too far. I mean, at that point, he'd been there weeks, and she'd accepted his daily interactions in her life. Deciding to go on a date with some random dude was spectacularly shitty, and it was not just shitty towards Nick, it was really shitty towards the guy, who had no idea what he was getting into.

Nick did win me over, in his relationship with Shay. But he's got some weird personality quirks - this insistence that he has no friends, and that he doesn't connect with people, and ... his social grumpiness. It felt kind of forced or staged. I mean, not particularly believable.

So this one gets 3.5 stars from me. I still enjoyed it, but there were more hurdles to jump over.