The Fake Mate

I heard a lot of hype around this book, but unfortunately, it was the boy who cried wolf for me.

I will say that I normally don't read this type of romance (Alpha werewolves and the like), but I wanted to try something different. I want to give that disclaimer because it very may well be that I am just not knowledgeable to the genre and its tropes. I'm not sure if it was the nature of these types of books where the main characters are a "perfect match" or if it was the countless spicy scenes with little personal growth that turned me off this book. Regardless, it was a rough one for me. This book was pretty long, but I don't feel like I really saw WHY the characters liked it each other. It all seemed very superficially explained. They start out seeming to "hate" each other, but as soon as they smell each other... all is well? It may just be me, but I root for main couple to get together in books because their personalities match, not because pheromones say so. I will say that I liked being able to see each person's perspective. It made me realize that they did have some sort of personality, even if it didn't show itself very often. I also appreciated that they simply explained the whole werewolf Alpha/Omega lore. As a newbie, it all seemed to make sense. Overall, I found this book to be a trumped up spicy romance with little chemistry between the characters outside of the physical. They didn't have much banter or the "enemies" part to enemies to lovers. Maybe this book wouldn't have been so bad if the marketing for it hadn't been so off.