Am I a hypocrite? Yes, I am. I hate cheating but I let this one slide since Olivia kisses Ethan while she is engaged to another man. I like that in this universe you know when you have found your mate and that part doesn't drag. Welp, in this case, it did drag because Ethan isn't a person with lots of patience and was pushing Olivia to accept their bond even though she was human and knew nothing about the wolf stuff. So he kept pushing and she kept running, which is justified if we want to be honest. The book was everything I expected it to be. That's good and bad because if we want to be honest, I didn't have very high expectations of it. Olivia needed a stronger backbone because she was pushed around and taken advantage of too often in my opinion, but again, that fell into what I had in mind for this book, so it's all good. The ending was a little rushed, which is weird because the story didn't end in this book and there is definitely going to be a continuation which I will read.

This is a fated mate book that takes us through all the eyes of someone who has no idea werewolves exist at the starts.

Olivia is engaged at the start of the book. She's with a reliable guy who she could see herself spending a very dull rest of her life with. At a wedding of all places, she ends up meeting Ethan. There is instant chemistry and they even share a secret kiss. This one chance meeting ends up blowing Olvia's world apart. She's forced to take a leap of faith from her "normal" life into the world of werewolves and politics.

Since Ethan is the alpha, he's also very used to getting what he wants. Olivia, being a normal human woman, throws a bit of a wrench in his plans by questioning just about everything. What should, by normal werewolf rules, be a relatively simple fated coupling, ends up hitting many bumps along the way, including some troublesome family members, betrayal, and doubtful soon-to-be-mother-in-laws. As your standard fated mate book, we end up getting through all that to a nice resolution at the end. Does everything get truly resolved? No. In fact, a big part of the start of the book never ends up re-surfacing in this book. Who knows if it shows up in book 2? Either way, it felt a little unfinished by the end here.

The Pinewood Pack series book one.

At the start of the book, Olivia is attending a wedding with her Fiancé Colin when she meets Ethan. She is immediately attracted to him but feels guilty for her feelings because of Colin. Ethan and Olivia bump into each-other in a hallway when he declares that he is “the only man who will ever satisfy her from this moment on”. Olivia flees from him to return to the wedding party but Ethan will not let her out of his clasps so easily. As Olivia and Colin leave for the evening Ethan finds her once more and warns her that she needs to tell her fiancé what happened between them before he will and that she doesn’t understand their connection yet, but she soon will.
When we get to Ethan’s POV, we learn he is a wolf and despite Olivia being a human and knowing nothing about wolves, she is his mate. If you love a possessive alpha hero you’ll love Ethan. He always put Olivia first and gave her his all.
There was quite a bit of spice once they’d gotten together and I wish there was some more build up between Olivia and Ethan’s relationship but I understand the instalove as they mates. Lots of drama towards the end to leave you needing to know what happens next! I enjoyed the idea of the Alpha having a human mate and liked watching Olivia grow and do whatever she could to prove herself to her mate and the pack.

One thing which I noticed was the amount of times the characters would say each others names in conversations. It was clear who each character was talking to but felt it was unnatural the amount of times the names were said in conversations.
Rating 4/5

The storyline is interesting, I did like the fated mates and thought it was overall an overall mostly a love story. It was just not the book for me.

The character interactions were all very awkward to me- I'm not sure if this was just the writing style or character quirks, but I felt like it was all forced and made me cringe at times. Information and phrases get repeated over and over. The plot holes are massive and maybe it will tie up in the subsequent books, but the whole storyline with so much emphasis on the ex-fiancé went nowhere. There was a lot of spicy scenes, but I just did not like how they were written. It was like a thesaurus was thrown at the scenes with some strange choices sticking. Stand off-ish mother-in-law, surprise but not really a surprise pregnancy, a lot of crazy possessiveness and jealousy that is just dismissed as werewolf tendencies.

Summary:
Beginnings is a short paranormal romance that explores a surprise fated connection between two species - a wolf shifter and a human. Ethan will do anything to woo the mate he's been waiting his whole life for, a dark haired beauty who happens to be engaged to another. Olivia is about to have her world tilted on it's axis as she's swept off her feet by this tall, dark and handsome stranger she can't help but be drawn too. The connection is instant and he's relentless in his pursuit, but is she willing to give up everything she knows, everything she is, to be his?

Tropes - Fated mates, family drama, rare connection, love triangle, leadership hierarchy, politics/power dynamics.

Triggers: Stalking, Violence, kidnapping, Pregnancy, drugging, possessive MMC, sexual content.

Review:
I personally struggled a bit with this one. Although the overall plot was interesting, it was somewhat predictable. Pace was really fast, making for a quick read but also making it a bit difficult to really connect with the story and the characters. Given the fast pace as well, the relationship between the MMC and the FMC felt a bit rushed and awkward. The rapid shift between emotional highs and lows made for a bumpy read and the dialogue felt a bit robotic throughout. The ending does make it clear though that this book is part of a series, and with a lot of the world building and introductions out of the way in this book, the second book has potential to be less clunky.

Final Thoughts:
Overall, Beginnings was okay. The plot makes sense and the unresolved conflict we're left with at the end makes for a promising next installment in the series.

I just could not get into the story. I thought I could follow the first person but in my opinion it just doesn’t work well in a romance.

Overall I enjoyed this book. However, I felt like the male was really aggressive at times. That’s just a personal preference. But I always love a good shift romance with mates! This was a solid read. I will definitely be following this series going forward!

I took a chance reading this book as it is not my usual genre and I was happy I did. Not only did the author kept it interesting, I liked how the author wrote the werewolves to live seemingly ordinary lives amidst us, yet didn’t dwell on this - the story is about a werewolf who falls for a human. Ethan had set his sights on human Olivia and he wanted her to be his Luna, which for some was a problem. Ethan seemed to hold her under a spell as she fought her attraction to him and her falling in love with him. This is a series and author I will be definitely following.

This is a paranormal romance between a werewolf and a human and is the first in a series. This is a pretty fast paced read - Ethan, the MMC (and werewolf) falls for Olivia in the first couple of pages and he doesn’t let up from there! He recognises her as his mate but she’s human, so he has to reveal to her his real identity, and that of his pack, in order to be with her. The action picks up even more in the second half of the book, as the new couple experience various obstacles on their way to being officially mated. Some of the more tense scenes in the second half really had me holding my breath!
I loved a good steamy paranormal romance so this was right up my street. I enjoyed the introduction of the pack and the concept of them all living together in a secret community - it gave the book a lovely, small town vibe. The spicy scenes were good - frequent enough but didn’t distract from the plot.
I enjoy a fast paced book but did feel that character development suffered as a result of the pace. Particularly in the case of Olivia - I really didn’t feel like I got to know her very well. It would have been nice to have a bit of a slower introduction to Olivia, Ethan, Chloe and Nick before the story really took off.
Overall, this was a really enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Beginnings by Bridget Nicole
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Release Date: 2 April 2024
POV: Dual
Tropes: Omegaverse, fated mates, touch her and die.


Book one in The Pinewood Pack Series follows Olivia, a human, and Ethan, the Alpha of the Pinewood Pack.

I really enjoyed this book. Honestly, I’m a sucker for a story following a human, who’s blissfully unaware of another world/species, and having to understand and cope with it all. And what’s even better with this book is the fact that it’s dual POV and we get to see it from both characters sides. Characters who, if I’m being honest with you, are both strong characters which are so easy to love.

This book packed a punch that was heavy on the spice and action… and I loved it!

Waiting with bated breath for the next instalment!

Love a good paranormal romance especially werewolves!!

It was quite slow to begin with but if you stick with it it’s worth it.

If you love a good paranormal romsnce soulmate story this is for you! The ending was so good, can’t wait for the next one!!

3.5 Stars
For me, this one started off well. I liked the concept of a shifter being mated to a human. And it did start exactly how I liked it. Olivia doesn’t believe he is a shifter werewolf and has a hard time believing her friends are the same. She thinks they are playing a big joke on her.
But then the story just dragged on and on and on. I could have skipped a bunch of chapters and not have felt like I was missing anything. This story was just okay to me.