Nat's back and this time she's getting ready for a test that if she passes will let her back in the pack but her father is missing. With the help of her brother they team up to find out what their mother knows, and learn that their dad has taken off to take care of his moon debt. However he's been missing and her mom is really upset, so they take off after him. Yet Nat doesn't feel right taking Alex since his baby is due to be born and attempts to make a dash with him to take care of it on her own.

I find Nat a refreshing character because she has her issues but when it comes down to it she is willing to step out of her shell and do what it takes. I really hope to see another book in the series because the Coveted series is one of my favorite werewolf books because Nat is just a amazing character.

I'm sorry I was not able to read and review this book before it was archived due to serious health issues

" What I said for Coveted was a good solid story. Although the title is a bit deceptive unless you’re talking about Natalya’s hoarding habit. I liked the story but some parts of it was frustrating. Like the how everyone in the book knew why Natalya was considered a lone wolf but we the readers don’t find out until over halfway through the story. There was just a lot going on in this book but I’ll start with some of the characters…"

Now this book took all of that and flipped it around. I struggled to read through the entire book.

I'm not sure why a review was never published for this, but this was one I tried and couldn't get into, which may be why it was never rated.

Quote:

The child leapt into my arms.

I expected to cringe. To cry out from the filth that crawled all over her. But she smelled of forever. Youth. The warmth of my babushka's blankets wrapped around me.

I cried out, but it wasn't in pain. It felt good to do the right thing.

Bea's Thoughts:

When the first book came out, I was intrigued. An OCD werewolf? That was different. I never did get around to reading the first book but that wasn't a problem when reading this one. Madison did an excellent job of working in information about events from book one without dragging down the story. That's a good thing as much of what happens in this story unfolds from those events.

Approximately the first half of the story is Nat and friends paying off her father's debt, but not in any way the mob boss expects. Despite the difficulties and some challenging choices, Nat is honorable. That sense of honor which led her to shoulder her father's debt also leads to her endangering her father and her place in the pack. Packs in this world live by a Code, a strict code with severe consequences for failure to abide by it. It's that Code that led to her father's debt and her assuming the debt.

Nat is a different sort of wolf, with her OCD, and attending therapy for it. The group therapy scenes were among my favorites in the book. Due to circumstances in the first book, Nat lost her place in her pack. Unlike most werewolf books I've read, the packs in this world don't grant automatic admission, you have to pass a trial. She lost her pack status previously and in this book, she strives to regain it. The actual trial itself happens at the very end of the book. There were some cliches and "twists" that really weren't twists but even so, Madison manages some tension about the outcome. The trial also serves to resolve the love triangle, no, quadrangle, that Nat's involved in.

Nat loves Thorn, the Alpha-elect, who loves her but is required to marry Erica. But Nat also has feelings for Nick, a wizard from her therapy group, who loves her. Happily, Madison doesn't drag out this storyline but resolves it by the end of this book. The book is a curious mix of straight up urban fantasy and romance. At times, the romance felt grafted on and while I believed Nat's feelings Thorn, his for her never felt real to me. I liked the romance between her and Nick and was rooting for them. Who does she end up with? You'll have to read and see for yourself.

I liked Nat; she's a little gruff but kind, loyal to her family and friends, tries to deal with her disability (trust me, in the werewolf world OCD is a disability), is snarky, and while she sometimes acts before thinking, she's not one of those too-stupi-to-love heroines so common in urban fantasy books. I loved Madison's world building and how different it is from other werewolf books I read; I loved the humor and the secondary characters (I really want to know what happens with Heidi and Abby).

In between the trial and paying off her father's debt, Nat deals with her family, her former lover's jealous fiance, her OCD, magic, and various other odds and ends. At times, the book felt less like a cohesive story and more like a collection of anecdotes and short stories.

There are some cliches and predictable events, the characters could have used some additional depth, but in all, it was a good book and I expect I'll be back for more.

The ARC I read did have a lot of typos, some wrong words and missing words, and several oddly constructed sentences. I hope that these were fixed in the final copy as they were frequent enough to keep me from buying it if not.

Some favorite quotes:

"You have the pace of a were-sloth participating in the Olympics. You'd slow me down to the point of aggravation."

"Do you do everything in heels? Never mind, don't answer that. My mind went to the wrong place real fast."

Thanks to being a clean freak, I was used to being stared at by the other werewolves back at home. In comparison, a few humans I'd never see again didn't seem like a problem. The cheap plastic gloves brought me a strange comfort just looking at them.

No one said anything after that. What the hell could I say to back up a story about an evil hitcher and his trained killer monkey?

I sighed deeply. Everything I'd learned so far should've been a warning, but I wanted to learn more.

He sounded all confident and smug. Too bad Auntie Yelena didn't know he had that rampant a***ole disease going around the on the East Coast.

"I'm not just your average truck-driving, bartending mermaid who likes roughnecks."

I received an eGalley from the publisher for review.

I didn't like the first book in the series, so I didn't read this one. Sorry for the delay.

I thought I’d give this author another try so I read this book and was disappointed once more.

I’m not sure it’s all this author’s fault. I’ve thought about it very seriously and I believe it’s possibly me that is to blame at least for not liking the whole story. I thought the writing was somewhat good and the pace was decent, but the story was too juvenile for me. Me thinks I’m too old for this story.

If you’re a teenager, I believe you might like this more than I did. Those that loved Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series might like this series too. I just didn’t so I’ll stop at two.

Melanie for b2b